Leatherman

For other uses, see Leatherman (disambiguation).

Leatherman Tool Group, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Manufacturing
Founded	July 1983
Headquarters	Portland, Oregon, USA
Key people	Tim Leatherman (Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder) Steve Berliner (Secretary/Treasurer and Co-Founder) Jake Nichol (President & CEO)
Products	Multi-tools Folding knives LED lights Pruners
Employees	380
Website	leatherman.com

Leatherman Pocket Survival Tool

A Leatherman Wave with all tools unfolded

Leatherman Super Tool and belt holster

Leatherman Surge

Leatherman Micra, both open and closed

Leatherman is the trade name for a line of multi-tools, knives and LED flashlights manufactured and marketed by Leatherman Tool Group of Portland, Oregon, USA. Founded in 1983 by a frustrated Timothy S. Leatherman in order to share his creation of a decent leather working tool that could also be used for multiple other purposes, bringing a really high quality tools to those such as Timothy Leatherman who at the time did not have such high quality tools nor compact,practical leather working tools. Seeking to share it after his invention, he teamed up with Steve Berliner to sell the first multitool, a prototype, called "Mr. Crunch" while in development. They have lasted well over 25 years and are now working on sophisticated titanium models, a far cry from the primitive prototype in 1983. They are still largely successful, but are also having a sales dip due to people traveling and thus not taking their knives with them.

Company history

Timothy S. Leatherman, a 1970 mechanical engineering graduate of Oregon State University, and his business partner, Steve Berliner, formed Leatherman Tool Group in 1983.

Leatherman was inspired to design a "Boy Scout knife with pliers" while he and his wife traveled Europe and the Middle East in 1975, often attempting to use a simple pocketknife to repair their repeatedly malfunctioning car and leaky hotel plumbing. He spent several years perfecting the "Mr. Crunch" prototype and received his first U.S. patent (4,238,862) in 1980. After additional refinement, Leatherman’s first product was introduced in 1983 as the Pocket Survival Tool (PST) and initially sold through Early Winters and Cabela’s mail-order catalogs.

Leatherman sold nearly 30,000 tools in 1984, fueling additional product development and rapid company growth. In 1992 the company built a 30,000 square foot (2,800 m²) manufacturing facility in Portland, Oregon, expanding to 60,000 square feet (5,600 m²) in 1994 and to 90,000 square feet (8,400 m²) in 1996. Today, all Leatherman manufacturing operations are located in Portland. In 2007 the company opened its first retail store, located at its manufacturing facility. The same year, Tim Leatherman was inducted into the Blade magazine Cutlery Hall of Fame in recognition of his design impact on the cutlery history.

Folding knives were introduced into the Leatherman product line in 2005; hunting knives and gardening pruner tools debuted in 2006; and LED lights were added in 2008. The company also manufactures a line of multi-tools designed specifically for military and law enforcement personnel, as well as accessories for carrying and maintaining its tools.

As of February 2011, Leatherman produced 50 products sold in 82 countries, with U.S. market share estimated at 55 percent.

Product line

Leatherman’s primary product group is multi-tools. They also make knives and LED flashlights.

Most Leatherman multi-tools are built around a pair of pliers, with up to 21 additional tools stored in the handles, including knives (straight and serrated blades), screwdrivers (flat, Phillips), saws, wire cutters and strippers, electrical crimper, bottle opener and can opener. Most models have a built-in safety mechanism that locks the active tool in the open position when fully unfolded. Models range in weight from the 12.5 ounce (335 g) Surge to 0.81 ounce (23 g) Style.

Leatherman currently produces 10 folding knives, five each under the Crater and Expanse series lines. Models range from two tools (knife blade and carabiner/bottle opener) to four (blade, carabiner/bottle opener, flat and Phillips screwdrivers).

The company’s compact Monarch LED flashlights range from 2.1 inches (5.3 cm) to 6.1 inches (15.5 cm), with light output rated from 5 to 100 lumens.

Name	Type	Debut	Retired
PST	Full-sized	1983	2004
PST II	Full-sized	1996	2004
Wave	Full-sized	1998	9999 !-
Sideclip	Full-sized	1998	2004
Crunch	Full-sized	1999	9999 !-
Flair	Full-sized	1999	2004
Pulse	Full-sized	2000	2004
Blast	Full-sized	2004	9999 !-
Surge	Full-sized	2005	9999 !-
Core	Full-sized	2005	2009
Kick	Full-sized	2004	9999 !-
Fuse	Full-sized	2004	9999 !-
Charge Ti	Full-sized	2004	2008
Charge XTi	Full-sized	2004	2008
Charge AL	Full-sized	2007	9999 !-
Charge ALX	Full-sized	2007	9999 !-
Charge TTi	Full-sized	2007	9999 !-
Super Tool	Full-sized	1994	2001
Super Tool 200	Full-sized	2001	2005
Super Tool 300	Full-sized	2009	9999 !-
ST3 EOD	Full-sized	2010	9999 !-
Skeletool	Full-sized	2007	9999 !-
Skeletool CX	Full-sized	2007	9999 !-
Wingman	Full-sized	2011	9999 !-
Sidekick	Full-sized	2011	9999 !-
MUT	Military Duty	2010	9999 !-
MUT EOD	Military Duty	2010	9999 !-
Mini Tool	Pocket	1986	2004
Freestyle	Pocket	2009	9999 !-
Freestyle CX	Pocket	2009	9999 !-
Juice KF4	Pocket	2001	2005
Juice C2	Pocket	2001	9999 !-
Juice S2	Pocket	2001	9999 !-
Juice Cs4	Pocket	2001	9999 !-
Juice Xe6	Pocket	2001	9999 !-
Juice Pro	Pocket	2002	2003
Juice SC2	Pocket	2003	2005
Micra	Keychain	1996	9999 !-
Squirt P4	Keychain	2002	2010
Squirt S4	Keychain	2002	2010
Squirt E4	Keychain	2003	2010
Squirt ES4	Keychain	2010	9999 !-
Squirt PS4	Keychain	2010	9999 !-
Style	Keychain	2010	9999 !-
Style CS	Keychain	2010	9999 !-

See also

• Victorinox
• Wenger
• Gerber multitool

External links

• Official website
• Portland Business Journal: Leatherman learns patent lessons the hard way