
Leatherman Tread, a New Wearable Multi-tool - unwind
http://www.leatherman.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-leatherman-Site/en_US/Blog-ShowPost/?p=705
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kruipen

                 , - ~  ~ - ,             , - ~  ~ - ,            
             , '              ' ,     , '              ' ,        
           ,                        ,                      ,   
          ,        men who         , ,       men who        ,  
         ,         want to        ,   ,      need a          , 
         ,         wear a         ,   ,      phillips        , 
         ,        bracelet        ,   ,     screwdriver      , 
          ,                        , ,                      ,  
           ,                     .  ,  ,                   ,   
             ,                 ,      .                  , 
               ' - , _  _ ,  '          ' - , _  _ ,  '

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crimsonalucard
It's a watch band.

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scarletham
“I began wearing prototypes myself to test comfort and usability, and to ask
for feedback,” said Rivera. “Folks immediately associated the bracelet design
with a watch and asked, where’s the watch? We decided to make a timepiece an
optional part of the Tread.”

> optional part

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Magi604
It doesn't look like it has a decent blade, which is arguably the most useful
thing one could carry around (aside from a pen, which the Tread also does not
have).

This isn't my problem, but I've heard from people with hairy arms that metal
banded watches are a nightmare because the links are constantly tearing out
hairs. This could present the same problem.

Being a Leatherman product, it's probably going to be overpriced just for the
basic links. Adding the watchface to make it somewhat usable all the time will
probably push that price right into the stratosphere.

I'd like to take a closer look at it, but from what I see in their video, I
would say pass.

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stonemetal
In the comments it mentions aiming at a price of $150-200. Which isn't
expensive for a good watch, but a pretty big price tag for a leatherman.

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smackfu
Leatherman sells a lot of tools at that price range, for instance:
[http://www.leatherman.com/7.html#start=3](http://www.leatherman.com/7.html#start=3)

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source99
The world of watches is heading in interesting direction. Slap this band onto
an iWatch and you would be unstoppable!

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darkmethod
There is an opportunity here. The first thing I thought of is the iWatch.

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happyscrappy
Apparently Apple really should have called it the iWatch.

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nogridbag
Whenever I bring up the Apple Watch the conversation usually gets derailed
with the other person insisting it's called the iWatch. I usually just give in
so we can actually talk about the watch :)

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crimsonalucard
This is revolutionary. Pocket tools never stay in my pocket for long so there
are tons of times when I needed a tool but it was somewhere else.

A wrist tool is the perfect solution. Watches stay on my wrist a lot longer
then pocket tools stay in my pocket.

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brudgers
Leathermen [Leathermans?] are correctly worn in a holster on the belt like a
Batterang.

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bntyhntr
But wearing it in a holdster is pretty unhip. Is it really worth having the
right tool for the occasion if you look like a tool yourself?

Obviously you should aspire to be form first, then function.

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r00fus
> But wearing it in a holdster is pretty unhip.

Which is quite ironic - Holsters should be definition of "hip".

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brudgers
And irony a hallmark of hipsterism.

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trishume
I would be extremely pleased if the tolerances on this thing were loose enough
that you could CNC/3D Print new links for it and install them yourself. Neat
idea.

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seanp2k2
Unless you're injection-molding, casting, or forging links, I doubt they'd
last more than a day or be actually able to e.g. Turn screws. PLA or even ABS
isn't great for tool tips.

~~~
chromaton
DMLS pieces can be pretty durable.

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Animats
As a set of hex wrenches, it's not useful. You'd probably scrape your wrist
trying to get it into position for use while wearing it. If you take it off,
you don't have enough leverage to do much. One flat bar with hex holes, like a
bike emergency repair wrench, is more useful.

Also, the web site coding was botched. Notice how the hex holes aren't regular
hexagons. Now do a "view image" on the image. Whatever generated the HTML mess
for that site (it's clearly from a generator) botched the IMG size
information. Demandware, "Online shopping with the leader in On-Demand
eCommerce solutions", would be better off just using Wordpress.

By the way, is this thing metric or English?

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alricb
Only a #2 Robertson (square)? Have these people ever been to Canada? #1 is
much, much more common (since they'll be on the head of most wood screws)

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chiph
It'd be cool to have a way to bind the links up so they stayed stationary, and
then you'd rotate your workpiece around it. Instead of spinning the
screwdriver, which would be awkward with the floppy bracelet, you'd prop it up
and turn your item around the bracelet.

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MrMember
It looks interesting but the price on them is insane. The watchless version
has an MSRP of $150.

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AdmiralAsshat
Very elegant piece, no doubt. But for what it's estimated to cost, I think
I'll be keeping the $10 keychain Swiss Army Knife and the $2 credit-card sized
multi-tool that everyone and their mother got as a stocking stuffer for the
moment.

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anonbanker
This entire thread feels like an advertisement, and all the post have a very
reddit-feel. Am I the only one noticing this?

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crimsonalucard
I would rather wear this then an iwatch.

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solve
Same.

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jonathantm
Won't it get caught in my paracord bracelet though?

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jeffreyrogers
When I see these sorts of things I'm reminded of the type of people who like
having guns [1] (or watches rated to 100m when they've never gone on a dive in
their life). It's like they're hoping for a chance to use their gadgets. I've
honestly never been in, nor expect to be in, a situation in which I'll need
some tiny watch link screwdriver that's not going to give me any leverage
while I simultaneously also don't have access to a real tool. I mean, what do
you expect to happen at Disneyland? The ferris wheel gets stuck and you
somehow fix it with your multitool?

I don't think my experience is atypical either. I have had to use tools in an
emergency before (loose sense of the word emergency here... just a bike
problem on a long ride), but in that cases I had my bike tools in a pouch on
my bike, so I really don't understand the appeal of this sort of thing, other
than just the novelty factor.

[1]: Guns are fun to shoot or hunt with, I'm not talking about that, I'm
talking about the kind of person who has guns for "protection", of which I'm
acquainted with a few.

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hga
Guns are used an estimated 2 million times a year by civilians to "protect" in
the US. Here's only the latest incident I've come across, where a couple were
saved from injury or intended death (as admitted by the perp) because they had
a gun: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-
cl=84359240&v=0UXe9seMabc...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-
cl=84359240&v=0UXe9seMabc&x-yt-ts=1421782837&feature=player_embedded)

It's a bit disturbing, crazed guy breaks through door and gets shot 3 times,
not fatally. A situation predicable enough that they had a video camera
running, although it got knocked over about when he fully entered the
apartment and got shot the first time.

There are a very few people who apparently are "hoping to have a chance" to
use their guns to shoot somebody else. We generally hear about them because of
the word we have for them afterwords, normally: criminals. I'll let you judge
for yourself how eager this guy was, he lets go of some of his verbal and
emotional self-control once the assailant is on the floor in pain and not so
much of a danger anymore.

ADDED: Ah, yeah, just renewed my CCW license, and asked the person about how
many state licenses are outstanding in my county, Jasper of Missouri in the SW
corner, includes ~90% of the city of Joplin. About 5,000, about double from 3
years ago, which means a solid 5% of the age eligible population. We've
clearly indicated we have a desire to be able to use our guns to "protect"
ourselves and our loved ones (8 hour class, $100 for initial license, $50 for
every renewal); I kinda doubt that many of us are are "hoping to have a
chance" to "protect" ourselves with our guns....

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maxerickson
If I owned a pistol I would apply for a CCW simply to make it easier to
legally transport. I probably wouldn't carry.

It would also be nice if you substantiated that 2 million figure, or at least
clarified exactly what it means.

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hga
You might change your mind as you get older. One thing I noted in the required
8 hour class was the demographic leaned fairly older, e.g. 45 and up. If you
assume 3/5ths of those licenses are held by them (including me), that's 7.5%
of the county's population.

As for the figure, Google is your friend:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=2+million+gun+self+defense+u...](https://www.google.com/search?q=2+million+gun+self+defense+uses)

These figures come from surveys, and the delightful thing about them is that
the gun-grabbers collected the first data set. It didn't ask about the number
of times per year, so that one resulted in a figure of at least 1 million
times per year.

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maxerickson
No, "Google is your friend" is terrible. You pick a source that you think is
of high quality and are willing to stand by, not 'every source that sort of
mentions it'.

The top link from your search extrapolated from a self report survey of less
than 5,000 people. This article questions how reliable the end figure is:

[https://stat.duke.edu/~dalene/chance/chanceweb/103.myth0.pdf](https://stat.duke.edu/~dalene/chance/chanceweb/103.myth0.pdf)

