Timothy S. Leatherman

Timothy S. Leatherman is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Leatherman Tool Group, Inc., based in Portland, Oregon.

Leatherman invented the eponymous multitool after finding a traditional pocket knife to be insufficient while attempting to fix a car and leaky plumbing during travel in Europe in 1975.

Leatherman, in Europe, with the car that inspired the multitool.

For the next several years, Leatherman developed a prototype multitool in his brother-in-law's garage in Portland, Oregon. In 1980, Leatherman received a patent for his invention, then described as a "pocket multiple tool."

Leatherman's patent drawing for the pocket multiple tool

In 1983, Leatherman cofounded Leatherman Tool Group with a college friend, Steve Berliner, who later became the company's treasurer and secretary. After initially struggling with sales, Leatherman sold 500 tools to Cabela's, an American outdoor recreational equipment retail chain. The company later found initial success in catalog sales. Over the next ten years, Leatherman increased sales to over one million units a year.

As of 2022, Leatherman products (including multitools, apparel, knives, and accessories) were sold in 8,000 stores across the United States, in over ninety countries, and through online outlets. Leatherman continues to serve as chairman of the Leatherman Tool Group, which boasted over $100 million in annual revenue as of 2022.

In 1948, Leatherman was born in Portland, Oregon. He was the first child of Kenneth and Arlene Leatherman and has a brother named Stuart.

Leather married his wife, Chau, in Saigon, Vietnam in 1972, after first meeting her when she was an exchange student at Oregon State University.

Tim and Chau Leatherman

Leatherman received his degree in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University in 1970.