Leatherman FREE Series

The enormous undertaking of the FREE series required the design of three product families at once, a pliers based multi-tool, small pocket knife, and large folding knife. It was the largest undertaking in Leatherman's history.

I was the lead mechanical design engineer for these products and created the family architecture. The key goal was to consider how multi-tools are used and improve it in every way possible, let every tool be opened with a single gloved hand, and let the motion be smooth and snappy. I was responsible for:
- concept ideation
- rapid prototyping and testing
- mechanism design
- component design
- ergonomic design
- user studies
- detailed prototype creation

Images by Leatherman Tools