Frag Out! Magazine

One of the tools in Your offer is slightly different from the others – I mean a Multitool OHT, which is handled with one hand. How has it been developed? Is it a concept noticed in a competitive company? Honestly speaking, you are right. Usually it happens otherwise: a product that we launch on the market in a concerned year, is also in the competition offer in the following year. In this very case the Gerber company has received a contract from the JS Army for a one-hand op- erated tool so we have decided to develop such which would meet the tender requirements, too. That is how an OHT has been developed, slightly better than a competi- tor. Nevertheless, after we have managed to develop this multitool, the US Army cancelled the tender. There is sure that You receive a great deal of letters from users who de- scribe various problems which they have managed to solve due to Your tool. Yeah, we receive a lot of acknowledgments – it has happened that our tools saved animal lives, e.g. small fawns trapped in the fences or birds in the fishing nets. Sometimes with their assistance we can manage to save human lives. My favorite story is how it has been pos- sible to prevent an air catastrophe. A crew of a small aircraft in Alaska has just returned to their home airport. While approaching runway, a pilot has tried to release a landing gear. Unfortunately, a release system has failed. The crew has searched an aircraft looking for tools and using a screwdriver from a found Leatherman they has unscrewed a half of a cockpit therefore they have no- ticed a crashed wire. They have managed to reach it by their pliers and finally to release a landing gear. The have landed successfully. We know which tool is your favorite. And which one are you not found of? Probably, there is no such tool I am not satisfied with. All have been developed with a potential customer in mind. Sometimes, we met the expectations, some- times not, and on the other occasion our customers just are simply not found of a concerned tool. Probably a MiniTool, our second tool, had been something like that. The first product had been a legendary Leatherman Pocket Survival Tool, but somebody had told us that if we have only one product in our offer we will not succeed, so a few years later has appeared a MiniTool. I have been very proud of it since it has been very small, but al tools have been almost the same as in the regular tool. Unfortunately, it has never proved to be any spe- cial success, and the world has not loved it. What happens when you undergo safe- ty inspection at the airport? Do You of- ten forget that you have tools on you? My wife forgets about them more frequently than me. Our solution for the inspections at the airport is now a Leatherman Tread, 25 tools on your wrist instead of your waist. Although, it does not include a knife but instead of this is equipped with a small blade for cutting stripes or opening envelopes, and a window breaker. In the event of an accident You may become a hero of the day. A history of developing a Tread is very interesting: its designer has been with his family to the Disneyland, and, of course, he has taken his tool so a security services has rejected to allow him for an entrance. So, he has begun to conceive an idea how to have a tool on him, simul- taneously not having a multitool. This is just an effect. How many multitools have you lost in your life? One at the airport, and it has been probably the only such a situation. Many persons have told me how they lost their multitool, but nearly nobody has remembered that everyone has an eyelet for a security rope – not many persons use it though. Therefore so many multi- tools is at the bottom of the different seas and oceans! Here you have an extreme rarity – a Leatherman Flair. Please, tell us some- thing about it. Exactly, you have asked about a tool which has been unsuccessful. From a very beginning, many people asked us about … a corkscrew. If you have a look at the multitool structure, you will see, that a corkscrew is rather wide so you cannot push it inside like the other tools. When somebody has asked me about a corkscrew I have answered directly – which of the three inside tools you do not want to have? INTERVIEW

• Cover