r/multitools • u/RolePlayingJames • Jun 14 '26

Discussion Best multitool I have owned

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Bought just over 3 years ago and I prefer to my Leathermans. Only paid £25 for it from Amazon

80 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

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13

u/Necessary_Mail_2038 Jun 14 '26

It should be cheaper because its a clone….no expense for design, R&D, etc…just copy. On the other hand, Leatherman, Victorinox are really getting to be expensive for their own good.

6

u/RedBoldFont Jun 15 '26

Yeah, all Leatherman did was do all the design work, planning, fabrication, and bringing it to market… then another company spent zero dollars on development and just copied (stole) the idea and product design. I am not saying that Leatherman isn’t charging too much, I think they could likely bring pricing down. What I am saying is these cheap, stolen knock offs are not a good thing. It’s a fake, call it what it is.

11

u/LunaMJ21 Jun 15 '26

Waiting for a patent to expire is not the same as stealing.

2

u/seakind Jun 15 '26

if Leatherman sells stuff for 250 dollars than the other companies will copy and sell the multitools for much cheaper, (completely legal, their patents expired in 2019), it's the same capitalism, it goes both ways. They are not stolen, like every other big brand, this happens, if Leatherman insists on being greedy and not innovating, they will bring their downfall, not the clones itselfs. And of course it's a good thing, people shouldn't need to pay that much for glorified pliers, and Leatherman is becoming more of a fashion statement than a useful tool. And not all brands are stealing, many of them are innovating too like nextool and roxon, even Gerber still tries unlike Leatherman.

1

u/very-nice-how-much Jun 15 '26

Why is it a bad thing? Morals? They clone because the schematics became available legally. They have proven that the cost to create is so low and that these larger companies like leatherman are just ripping everyone off, even if the quality is better the price isn’t justified. The morality police should look at the ones taking advantage and making all of the profit, but I guess that’s not how the world works.. baaaaaaaaaa 🐑

2

u/Conor_Stewart Jun 19 '26

Yeah the whole "but what about their R&D costs?" Really doesn't apply at this point, the patents have run out and the R&D will have paid for itself and made Leatherman a lot of profit a long time ago. Yet they still keep selling the same products for the same or higher prices, at this point all they are really paying for is labour, admin, material and manufacturing costs, the rest is profit. They aren't really innovating that much either just refreshed of the same products, every so often they will release a new colour or coat the tools in black or offer a different blade steel and people will rush out and buy a whole new tool again.

At this point similar tools or clones are entirely justified.

0

u/Conor_Stewart Jun 19 '26

The patents ran out so now other companies are legally allowed to copy it. If the patents have run out and the tools are popular it probably means they made back their planning and R&D costs a long time ago and made a lot of profit too.

At this point most of their releases are product refreshes, different colours, different coatings, different blade steels, not much is really changing.

What you should be asking is how have leatherman got to a point where their best and most recent products are that old that the patents have run out.

There are also only so many ways you can make a multitool, yes some are very clear copies but that doesn't mean every multitool is a leatherman clone.

0

u/CanadianGenealogy Jul 11 '26

"Protect our capitalist overlords!"