You in all probability have one of Ben Rivera ’s designs in your pocket or on your keychain right now . If not , he ’s hoping to put one there . This is where Leatherman came from and where it ’s move with fresh , wearable tools like the Tread .
IndefinitelyWild : Who are you and what do you do at Leatherman ?
Ben Rivera : When I got out of gamey schooltime , I really want to be an architect or an creative person . Something awesome . I ended up picking engineering science because I imagine I could make a living doing it .
I ’ve been with Leatherman since 1991 . So 24 years . When I joined the company we only made two products — the original Pocket Survival Tool ( above ) and a less known product scream the Mini Pocket Tool . My line was a cook up engineer , so I come to work every solar day and tried to figure out how to improve the timbre of the product , improve the yield , design simple machine to increase content , and pattern piece of work instructions . I was the only manufacturing engine driver at the sentence , so for the first two years that ’s pretty much all I did .
Then in 1993 , I go on a business slip with Tim Leatherman to look at our jaw supplier and , on the fashion home , I was wait at a pattern of a eating house and he said , “ I do n’t know how you’re able to look at the blueprint of a restaurant and see what the building will look like . ” About a week later he came by my desk and said , “ If you may front at a blueprint of a restaurant and cognize what it ’s going to look like , perchance you may design a new product for us . ” And that production became the Supertool ( above ) .
Really , between 1993 and 1996 I did a little routine of both manufacturing engineering and design engineering . I did the Supertool , I did theMicra(a great undertaking I think ) and then after the Micra ( above ) I pretty much went full time design engineering and start hiring more citizenry to do the manufacturing stuff . My next product was probably theWave(below ) , then another one I ’m really proud of is theJuiceline . After that we started work less on prominent changes like new peter and locks and more on evolutionary changes based on customer feedback and the competitive environment .
In 2004 , I begin to take on a staff of hoi polloi to help me with the figure work , doing all the drawings and the articles and clobber , and I became the vice president in charge of product engineering initiate in , geez , maybe 2005 I think .
After that I travel from product design to business development . I ’ve had my hand in design since that original Supertool though .
Ben , at base on the Leatherman factory storey .
IW : How big is Leatherman ?
BR : I do n’t roll in the hay if we ’re big or small . Our taxation is a footling over $ 100 million a year , but we do everything here in Portland , Oregon from marketing to product blueprint to technology , packing , shipping , customer service and warranty service . All together we have about 500 full fourth dimension employees and a hundred or so impermanent associate , depend on the time of year . We pretty much bring in bars of steel to the east terminal of the building and ship out complete tools from the west death . We have about 100,000 straight feet of manufacturing and about 60,000 square animal foot of packing , shipping and logistics .
IW : How did the Tread come about ?
BR : We ’ve work through a few organic evolution of design philosophy here . The first 10 years I was here it was about responding to customer feedback and competitive products . We had to make the handles more flexible , we had to have pair of scissors , we had to make it larger and improve the wire stonecutter … it was a combining of what we saw in our warranty section , what we heard customers asking for and how we compare to competitive products . Admittedly , we were trying to stay ahead of the contender in a class that we created . Until 2004 , that ’s what we were focussing on — progressing an babe industriousness and becoming mature .
Then from 2004 until about 2011 or 2012 , most of our product growing was then center around creating segment - specific dick . Who else would want a Leatherman puppet than just everyday carry / DIY / outdoorsman . We begin to intend about what would a hunter want to convey ? What would a fisher want to carry ? What would a soldier want to carry ? What would a tramp or backpacker want to carry ? Or a nurseryman ? So we start go after unlike themes of merchandise point narrower section of customers .
That work out moderately well , but then in 2011 or ’ 12 , we embarked on a labor calledFreeRangePDXand challenged ourselves to become more innovative as a company . We spend two years studying innovation across US companies . We looked at diminished , medium and large companies and how they achieve their founding stories , and we designed our own innovation operation and get down on that .
I was in complaint of all that , so with the Tread I want to show everyone how that outgrowth was design to work .
In our research we found that there were caller we predict “ applied science poachers , ” “ securities industry leader , ” and “ problem solvers . ” Well , at Leatherman , we influence with problem solvers , so we go out to honor them in their natural environment and examine to find problems to solve with them that could be authentic to the Leatherman brand name .
Tread was born out of me being part of a product consumer mathematical group . I ’ve knead with Leatherman my whole life story and , after September 11th , I get really tired of being separate I could n’t bring my tool with me . Like everyone else , when I go to a basketball game biz or I go to my kids ’ school or I go to the courthouse , I do n’t know if I ’m hypothesize to be direct my Leatherman tool or not . Most of the time it ’s not a problem and I ’ve learned how to obscure my putz so I do n’t get in bother .
But then , on this syndicate holiday to Disneyland in 2013 , I grow to the gate and they ’re like “ we saw you put something in your pocket and we need to bonk what it is . ”
The first thing that bulge out into my head was , “ How the heck did security system see me put it in my pouch from the parking fortune ? ” So I occupy out mySkeletooland explained it ’s a yoke of plyer , it ’s a screw driver , it ’s a bottle opener . But they say , “ Well , it has a knife on it so we consider it a weapon . ”
I recount them , “ I need this to be prepared ! ” They told me it was take it back to my hotel or give it up . They follow me all the style back to my hotel , like a naut mi long walk . I was a little frustrated by this and my family was disquieted about me , texting to see if I was alright .
So I think back to that trip-up and think that the job I need to solve is that Leatherman tools are not as admit as they once were . And by “ accepted ” I ’m not just referring to regulatory compliance or get through security , I mean bear in a societal sense , even if it ’s just at your house some the great unwashed might still comprehend it a a weapon or , if you ’re wear it on your belt , people might think you ’re a farmer .
Tread was designed to be accepted . Not only in a regulatory sense , but also in a social sense . How could I design a Leatherman tool that would facilitate you be prepared that would be worthy of the brand and would be accepted ?
For whatever reason , a bicycle chain was the first thing to come to mind . It ’s both flexible and rigid ; you may use it as a handle or to pry with , and at the same time can wrap around my wrist or workplace as a belt . So I started modifying motorcycle chains from being just flat links to something with prick bits . I modified bike chain and my kids , who were 12 and 13 at the time , they kind of liked my wheel chains , but thought they were a little too punk . Then the ones I made with fleck would poke or snag your arm . So I pretty chop-chop contrive out the idea of modifying a bike chemical chain and decided to plan it the way I would design it if I was figuring out how to manufacture it .
We have this really great 3D printing machine at the position that will impress now to unsullied steel , so I kind of almost made one that was tongue - in - cheek , as a signature piece that I could just wear around trade shows and hooey reckon it ’d just be cool . I made that first sample distribution , wore it around the office and hoi polloi kind of liked it . So we decided to make a small rivulet of them and sell them and just see if there ’s a market for people that are weird like me .
We introduced it at SHOT Show earlier this twelvemonth and the feedback has been overpowering . It ’s been awesome .
IW : Are we going to see more product like Tread ?
BR : Yes . For Leatherman to turn and become relevant to a broader group of ages and women and people who live in the city , we have to be more innovational in how we go about intent .
Leatherman is largely connect with the product itself : a pair of pliers that folds up so you’re able to put it in your air pocket . The mission of our company is to improve people ’s lives by producing product that can ready them for the unexpected . Pliers do not have to be the answer to every Cartesian product that we do .
During my presidency — I ’m only 48 , so I ’ve got a ways to go — I really desire to move away from being screw entirely as a pair of plyer to a job solving company that can ready you for the unexpected .
It ’s easy to make a tool to prepare you for the expect — if you know you ’re make a barbecue you know you necessitate a spatula and a crotch and a thermometer — but to create something that you may have with you when you need it , that ’s overbuilt in a way and design in such a way that it facilitates creative thinking in its manipulation , that ’s difficult . We want to make a tool that is designed in a way that represents your values and your hobbies , but can be with you all these times that you need to push a little further . You should feel more strong hold it .
IW : What do you do when you ’re not designing tools ?
BR : This summertime on vacation I ram theRubicon Trail . One of my key things from that trip is that a ) there were n’t that many people on the trail , it was really just me and my friend and b ) when you do sweep course with hoi polloi , the interaction is really particular . We were all from different demographics and ages for sure , but we were all there for the same intellect — the large outdoors and fixing our truck and resolve problems . And everyone there had a camaraderie where they want to avail you . I was bollocks up away by how nice mass were .
I ’m a Land Cruiser guy . I have an FJ40 , an FJ60 and an FJ100 . Mostly I just like to ride out to make summer camp where there ’s no camgprounds . That ’s how my Landcruisers are all built .
IW : When did the multi tool take over the macrocosm ?
BR : Our peak class for multitools was 2000 , just before September 11th , at the acme of Y2K / zombie apocalypse hooey . We had a somewhat significant setback with September 11th and all of a sudden our keychain clientele — which is probably 20 or 30 pct of our sales — dropped by 80 percent . Not being able to take a Leatherman on a plane was a big reverse .
We ’ve been bit by bit mature back up and we ’re closely at our peak again , but not through aggregated quantity of the same products , it ’s through a more diverse range of niche products targeted at certain segment .
From ’ 94 to 2000 we had a dozen competitors crop up , but now it ’s really just Leatherman , SOG and Victorinox . The rest mostly are n’t in business at all anymore , let alone in the multitool business .
Ben showing US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker around the manufactory . Note the peter on his belt and knife clipped in his pocket .
IW : Can you lobby for great banker’s acceptance of instrument carry ?
BR : We in reality seat quite a bit in that a few years ago — you might remember a mates days ago the TSA decide to allow knives of below 6 atomic number 96 back on airplane . It never in reality take place . We helped to get that approved , us and some other company . But it was met with so much opposition by the flight attendant and pilot unions that they reversed their determination .
I ’m somewhat resigned aright now that we ca n’t transfer the world , so we have to change ourselves . We have to conform to the reality of a humanity where there ’s increasingly laws against stockpile abut tools .
Countries keep passing all these laws against fold knives due to stabbings , but you take care at the crime and most of them are with kitchen tongue ! It ’s very unfortunate .
IW : What ’s next for Leatherman ?
BR : There ’s more people in the world who would find value in have a pair of plyers in there pouch — that ’s for sure — and we ’re going to do some employment seek to regain those people . But , the heavy growing potential is for products beyond plyer .
We ’ll be keep everything right here in the USA and remain consecrate , hardcore fans of adventure and preparedness tools . We wake up every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. trying to figure out how to make dear shaft .
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