Tim Leatherman, Inventor of Leatherman Multi-Tool Says No Company Wanted His Invention

Tim Leatherman, Inventor of Leatherman Multi-Tool Says No Company Wanted His Invention

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Moral of the story: never give up

The Leatherman Multi-tool is one of the most versatile tools that you can have on your person. Small and relatively compact, it packs a knife, screwdrivers, a pair of pliers and literally everything that you would need to repair and fix nearly every item in your house, including those tiny, tiny screws in your prescription glasses. It’s a gadget that most people couldn’t live without today, but Timothy Leatherman, its inventor told us that no company wanted his invention when he first came up with it years ago.

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“It took me three years to come up with the prototype, after that I applied for a patent. I thought I was made – I’d just take my prototype and my patent to a company and then I could sit down, relax and just wait for the big money to roll in,” he said.

“In reality no company wanted it. I went to knife companies with it and they told me, ‘it’s not a knife, it’s a tool’. I went to tool companies and they said ‘it’s not a tool, it’s a gadget and gadgets don’t sell.’ So I decided to make and sell them myself, but before that happened it took me another five years modifying the design of the tool before we offered it to customers via mail order,” he says.

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Tim had the idea of creating the tool after he and his wife got back from travelling abroad, staying in hostels and driving an untrustworthy $300 Fiat, which frequently broke down. While repairing the car, he constantly wished that he had a pair of pliers with him along with the knife. “I was carrying an old Boy Scout-type knife and used it for everything from slicing bread to making adjustments to the car. But I kept wishing I had a pair of pliers!” he said.

Today Leatherman is a multi-million company that employs hundreds of workers in Portland, Oregon. But even though the company has grown immensely over the years, Tim says that the company has always put quality first, which he credits as one of the main reasons why his tools are preferred by many industry professionals over similar multi-tools in the market, even though the tool is more expensive.

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“The quality you get with a Leatherman tool is unmatched,” he says. “Leatherman tools are warrantied for 25 years. We use the finest materials in our tools including high-quality stainless steel. We also use Titanium on some of our models, which is a strong and light material. The value is much higher than the price you pay, even though the price is high,” he adds.

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Just to show us how strong their tools are, Tim took out his personal Leatherman, and showed us how sharp the pliers were by cutting paper. He then took it and cut a thick two-inch nail with it cleanly in two.

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Guess what? The pliers were still sharp enough to cut paper afterwards.

Leatherman tools are so strong, they can even take a bullet for you and save your life.

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This documented story of a Slovakian Army soldier shows just how strong the tool is. After being pinned down in a firefight in Afghanistan which took the lives of two of his teammates, Miro was hit with shrapnel and a bullet which was stopped by a Leatherman on his belt. “I talked to the doctor. He said if the Leatherman hadn’t stopped the bullet it would have hit a main artery, and I would have bled out within minutes,” he said.

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In true Leatherman fashion, they sent Miro a replacement Wave tool to replace the one that took a bullet for him.

Willie Hahn of Willie Hahn Enterprises, the official distributor of Leatherman in the Philippines, has recognized the potential in this product and sees the growing market in such tools.

“For Filipino who are always on the go, ease of access to everything is quite important. So, having a handy dandy tool which fits in the pocket will definitely answer the growing need for products like these on the market.” Says Hahn.

People who want to personally experience Leatherman multi-tools need only to head on over to the Nido Fortified Science Discovery Center at the SM Mall of Asia to check out the Leatherman tools on display.

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