Responding to an emergent situation is the purpose of a Multitool.  The details of various makes and models can be (and are) debated endlessly, and I suspect many of us find them all wanting in some way.  Some of us collect Multitools, and I’m always delighted to see the development of the designs and the possibilities they reflect.  But what we all probably agree on is that carrying a Multitool (or multiple Multitools) makes us able to respond to emergent situations.  If we have a few basic implements with us, we can solve a problem or just make something a little easier to handle.  From saving steps to saving lives, we can respond to situations.

I grew up in farm country, where almost everyone works with their hands.  Many carried a pair of pliers in a scabbard on their belts, usually right in front of a folding knife in a sheath.  Some would have a screwdriver or adjustable wrench in the scabbard with the pliers, surely because their circumstances required it.  The foundation for the plier-based multitool emerged from guys like this, who went far from home to see to things and needed to be able to act when they got there.  I myself carried pliers and knife on my belt for many years, first on farms and then on my first job in a factory.  When I started college, I carried a Swiss Army Knife in one pocket and a small ViseGrip in the other.  It was logical to me to do so.  My surroundings and purposes changed, but the Multitool Mindset remained. 

When the early mass-market, plier-based tools came out, I felt as if the collective consciousness actually existed: someone finally united the SAK and the pair of pliers.  My first was a Leatherman SuperTool, and l’m still in awe, really, about the thought behind it.  I was a graduate student at the time, and many people asked why I needed it.  They didn’t get it.  They didn’t have the Multitool Mindset.  I needed to be prepared to respond.  It wasn’t a specific problem that I could reasonably assume would happen.  It was feeling ready, period.  Being in classrooms, rather than fields or factories, did not remove the Multitool Mindset. 

That’s because having a Multitool not only allows for the practical matters but also leads to a sort of vision.   Having the means to do something leads to seeing things that may otherwise be unavailable.  It’s an extension of preparedness and a part of the Multitool Mindset.  An expanded ability to respond undergirds an expanded ability to conceive of responses…if you have the Multitool Mindset. 

The Multitool Mindset melds practicality and innovation.  The design of the tools attests to that.  We users of Multitools also embody it; in fact, Multitools exist because of folks like us-like the mechanic who raised me, the Boy Scout troop I was part of, the farmers I worked for, the factory workers I labored beside, the soldiers I served with, the the good people of Multitool.org. 

We may prefer one brand over another, one design over another, or one EDC approach over another, but our ultimate purpose is the same.  We see the sense in being ready to respond to a situation, to formulate an innovative solution that may not otherwise have occurred to us, to do something about something we can do something about. 

That’s the Multitool Mindset.