Leatherman Competitors Are Closing In!

I have become increasingly disappointed in Leatherman over the last couple of years. The latest Leatherman Garage release only adds to that disappointment. There are more and more companies nipping on the heels of Leatherman. I personally believe if they do not change the direction the company is heading in, they will soon find themselves on the outside looking in.

[MrMcbeardson]

Leatherman has been skating along on their name for a while it feels

[maxlvledc]

That Darkside pivot should be on all charge models imo.

[Genesis]

Agreed. I’d love for Leatherman to explore something pocket sized (juice successor) that could potentially have variants with wire stripper heads and/or #11 Xacto blade holders.

Even full sized models with different tools in them would be nice

[melvincan]

Agree. Someone from reddit trimmed, literally, his wave, and called it micro wave. To be honest, had leatherman did that, I wouldn't think twice buying it.

[treebossmike]

I agree. The thing with Leatherman is that they refuse to listen to us. That’s their Achilles heel. They do what THEY want to do and could care less what their customers want.

[appleztooranges]

I’d take the leatherman juice xe6 for $39.99 during Black Friday anyday over this. By the way, love your videos! As a YouTube maker, I think you have the best multitool videos by far!

[Vpentrov]

1:28 Why would a customer pick this over a Swiss Army Knife? SAKs are more popular in Europe than in the US. They have more tools, are more compact, and are cheaper.

[PrepareSurvive]

Several of the contestants on the survival TV series "Alone" used a modified Leatherman Surge or Supertool 300 and I absolutely think Leatherman would sell a lot of those if they started making them at the factory in that modified survival / bushcraft form.

[Ril_van_Buren]

Great video as always! I think Leatherman primarily uses the Garage tools to explore new manufacturing options. For example, it looks like they used the DarkSide to learn more about DLC. The leaks the new Arc mention it incorporating DLC. I think the Batch 3/Parts was primarily used to research exchangeable blades -- I bet we will see that in future tools (if they thought it was viable). Of course, even if Leatherman is getting research value from the Garage I think it is mostly a tone-deaf branding misstep from a customer perspective. As they shift the conversation more towards Leatherman tools as super high-end collector's pieces they undermine the other features/perceptions of their brand that I think are more valuable such as the "useful", "for real work", etc.. That said, if Leatherm was to change the Garage to offering the product for a year (so anyone that wants it could get it) OR if they instituted a system where they sold the limited garage tools to their most loyal users who would actually use them and report back on their experience to further improve them, then I think the Garage could be a wildly successful R&D and branding effort for Leatherman. I can dream.

[clintwestwood]

Agree.

Leatherman is on the rope, and they are not Muhammed Ali. They can risk a knock out.
I’m curious on how this will evolve.
I’m still awed that Leatherman is letting SOG dominate the small/medium sized plier tool when they are using such low quality tool, Leatherman could take it so easily, but they look like a lazy company at this point, to me.

Cheers.

[Mike_Y.]

Your videos are excellent quality, concise and informative. Thank you, please keep it going

[FrankTranDesign]

These are fantastic points. Making the target audience industry related would genuinely solve more problems than be simple cash grabs. They’ll get more innovation by efficiently solving problems. For civilians they could just allow us to customize from some base ‘frames’.

[Feanor]

I was thiiis close to buying the Bibury Pro Surge clone. In fact I placed the order on Amazon and cancelled it. The reviews are overwhelmingly positive, and it’s 40 bucks. I saw demo videos with the clone scissors easily outperforming those on the Surge, and it’s biggest advantage, for me at least, is its standard 1/4 bit driver. I think Leatherman would really do itself a great service by ditching the cheesy flat bits. Get rid of the small and large flat drivers to free up space and put in a 1/4 inch magnetic bit driver that accepts full sized double ended bits like the Wihas. Don’t see them doing it anytime soon though lol. In the end I will still get the Surge I think. I am looking for a multi tool that will spend most of its time in my gun tackle box for camping and trips to the range. For this purpose, the Surge may be overkill, but I like to have good stuff, and if I am gonna have one multi tool, I want the best there is.

[MrSixxshooter]

Couldn’t agree with you more . Besides the Mr crunch, the other special releases are a joke . Absolutely nothing that I would want on these except the chisel . Glad your doing well Ben . Love your channel pal .

[D-Man-lvvu]

We need one designed for the Ironworker, the carpenter, the painter, etc...

[matthewmoore]

Tradesman inspired multi - tools would be a great idea

[TheASM]

Good of you to be able to put your hands on some of these batches...they seem to go pretty quick!

[slabnsteel]

I'm fairly new to the multi took game, I started out with a gerber center drive. I loved it so much that when I broke the pliers "my fault" and didn't want to wait on warranty, i bought a second pair. Now I have 2. The only downside is the wire cutters they suck. Then I was gifted a lethermen surge it took me a while to admit it, but it was superior to the center drive. It became my edc for aproxamently 2 years. For Christmas my wife bought me a victorinox Swiss tool mx clip and let me tell you it's small but very capable and by far superior to both competitors its smooth as butter and all the tools on the outside make it awesome sometimes I find myself just playing with it lol

[edgaraquino]

Hello, Ben - excellent video, thanks! You are spot on concerning the LTG...a sad state of affairs...it is too bad that are letting the company die away by inches like this...perhaps if nothing is done, TL might want to step back in & put a fire in the belly of the organization & get it off the dime...& he would have the help of the consumer base, he would only have to ask...although the LTG in the past few years have taken little notice of the apparent intense loyalty the base has for the brand...most unfortunate...

[fossilimprint]

You make a great point. I cannot believe that LM has discontinued the Juice and the Style and have not made replacements to fill that gap.