While on a budget trip to Europe in 1975, Tim Leatherman and his wife Chau constantly encountered leaking hotel plumbing and roadside repairs for their cranky Fiat. Tim recognized the need for a pliers-based multi-tool. “I carried a scout knife and used it for everything from slicing bread to fixing the car. But I kept wishing I had a pair of pliers!”.
When Tim got back to the states, he took his "multi-tool" idea, some sketches he made on the trip and got to work.
When Tim began prototyping this new tool, he estimated it would take him a month. Instead, it took the next three years to build the prototype he envisioned and applied for a patent. With the patent application and the prototype in hand, he set out to sell his idea. Unfortunately, the companies he contacted didn't bite. For another three and a half years, Tim faced one rejection letter after another. Until he partnered with his college friend, Steve Berliner, and in the spring of 1983, they received their first order of 500 tools from Cabela's and launched the first Leatherman tool, the PST.
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