Guide to Leatherman Packaging

Over the years, Leatherman has shipped their multi-tools in a wide variety of interesting and artistic packaging. The diverse designs reflect the era that they appeared in, and their character suggests the markets that the company was trying to reach.

Below, we've listed most of the Leatherman boxes, clamshells, and gift packs that we've seen. We're updating this page as we receive new merchandise, so don't worry if you see a packaging design available in the shopping cart that hasn't made it here yet.

Modern Box

This is the default packaging for new Leatherman tools, unless we specify otherwise.

2001-2002 Juice/Squirt box

One of its most useful features of this colorful design is a comparison chart on the back, showing which implements are included on which models of the tools.

Since Juice and Squirt are the only two Leatherman tools with such an alphabet soup of model names, we think that this packaging was designed for them specifically.

1999-2002 box

This box strikes a balance between appealing to the "hardware store" demographic and acknowledging the new digital age.

1998 box

This box design is very similar to the 1999-2002 box, but is much flimsier than its successor, and does not have the same glossy finish.

Since Leatherman only produced this box for one year and its replacement has a virtually identical design, they must have decided that skimping was a bad idea!

1995-1998 box

This packaging does away with the slogan entirely, relying on the photograph and information about the tool.

1992-1996 box

The slogan on this packaging is shortened to a much catchier "Pliers In Your Pocket."

1992 box

1990 PST gift box

We've only seen one of these boxes, which we think may have been marketed as some sort of gift box because of its display interior. The style is very similar to that of the 1992-1996 box.

1986 Mini-Tool box

This old box is rare, and highly collectible.

1985 PST Box

This is the oldest Leatherman box design that we've found. It is also rare, and highly collectible.

Modern clamshell

The design of this packaging reflects Leatherman's attempt to position itself as a 21st century company.

This is the default clamshell packaging, unless we specify otherwise.

2007 clamshell

A slightly different design, that we've seen on a few models.

2005-2006 clamshell

A similar but less intricate design than the modern clamshell.

2004-2005 display

This bulky packaging is the first clamshell to embrace Leatherman's yellow and black logo.

2001-2002 clamshell

This is, to our eyes, the slightly more forward looking of the two 2001-2002 designs.

It looks like both of these package styles were in use at the same time, however, we haven't yet determined why.

2001-2002-B clamshell

This clamshell design seems to be a less common variant on the 2001-2002 clamshell.

The slogans and copy are similar, but the designs are slightly different.

2001-2002 Juice/Squirt clamshell

Similar to the Juice/Squirt box, this packaging has a comparison chart on the back, showing which implements are included on which models of the tools.

2001 clamshell

In our eyes, this is a largely featureless package design, and it is not surprising that it seems to have been abandoned quickly.

1998-2000 clamshell

The design of this clamshell matches the 1998 and 1999-2002 box designs.

1997 clamshell

This is the earliest Leatherman clamshell packaging that we've found so far.

2005-2006 Squirt Electrical clamshell

This packaging is similar to the 2005-2006 clamshell, but it has a blue background with snazzy electrical diagrams.

Earlier versions are labeled as Squirt EL, and later versions are labeled as Squirt E4; otherwise, they are exactly the same.

2003 Squirt EL clamshell

The earliest packaging for the Squirt EL that we've encountered, it has green electrical diagrams, and makes sure you know that it was designed exclusively for Radio Shack.

2006 clamshell display

We've run into this evocative packaging on several Juice models.

Flair display clamshell, undated

This appears to be an earlier variant on the 2006 clamshell display, evoking pastoral images accompanied by high-tech multi-tools.

Gift Tin

This is the gift tin that is currently available from Leatherman.

2004 Gift Tin

We haven't seen very many of this tin, although it was probably relatively common.

So far, we've only encountered tins like these on a batch of Pulse tools that have the Windows Server 2003 logo printed on the side.

We think there are probably other tins with specific model names out there, and we'd like to hear about them if there are.

We've only seen one Leatherman box that's anything like this, although it makes sense that there might be versions for other models.