In 1975, a young engineer named Tim Leatherman was traveling through Europe in a cheap car that kept breaking down, wishing his pocketknife also had pliers. It took him eight years to convince anyone to make his idea, but in 1983 the first Leatherman multi-tool, pliers, blades, and drivers folding into a pocket-sized package, went on sale. He essentially invented the modern multi-tool, and the company is still in Portland, Oregon.
The short version: Leatherman, founded 1983 and still privately owned in Portland, makes the definitive American multi-tool, backed by a 25-year warranty. Buy it for a pocket or pack multi-tool that will genuinely last decades, for repairs, gear fixes, and backcountry problem-solving. It is a focused specialist that dominates its category on quality and guarantee.
Where Leatherman came from
Tim Leatherman’s road-trip frustration became the PST (Pocket Survival Tool) after nearly a decade of rejections, then a category. The company stayed privately held in Portland and built manufacturing in the US, an increasingly rare thing, while the Wave became one of the best-selling multi-tools ever made.
What they actually make well
Multi-tools across every size and use, from keychain to full-size (the Wave is the icon), plus knives. It shares the pocket-tool and blade world with Swiss maker Victorinox, the two defining the category from different traditions: American pliers-first versus Swiss blade-first.
Built to last?
The 25-year warranty tells the story: Leatherman builds tools meant to be handed down, and honors repairs for a quarter century. US manufacturing and replaceable components reinforce it. This is close to the platonic ideal of buy-it-for-life gear.
The causes they actually fund
Leatherman’s cause work is quieter and community-oriented; its strongest environmental argument is structural, a tool built and warrantied to last 25 years is a tool that does not get replaced, which is sustainability by durability. An honest, understated story.
Where this gear comes from, and where it earns its place
Made in Portland, at home in any pocket or pack on any trip: the multi-tool is the fixer you carry everywhere, on every line in the Trail Atlas, for the gear repair that saves a trip.
The honest take
Full-size multi-tools are heavy, and ultralight hikers debate whether to carry one at all; match the tool size to the trip. But for durability, US manufacturing, and a 25-year warranty that the company actually honors, Leatherman is a genuine buy-it-for-life brand. Buy the Wave; will it to your kids.
A multi-tool dreamed up in a broken-down car, still made in Portland. More makers in Brands We Love. Last verified July 2026.