WORK
Sleek Tools for Everyday Use
Designing a new family of multi-tools that fits every lifestyle
The Challenge
Help SOG identify new opportunities in the multi-tool space for expanding their product offerings and consumer base.
The OUTCOME
The product design and business considerations for Baton, a family of four new multi-tools.
While the designs of most cutting tools have evolved significantly over the years, multi-tools have remained largely the same. Recognizing this gap, SOG, an established leader in the specialty knife industry, collaborated with IDEO to identify new opportunities for innovation in the multi-tool space. The teams specifically aimed to expand SOG’s offerings into a more general lifestyle category and position them as adaptable tools for people’s everyday needs.
IDEO's research and industrial design work resulted in a family of four new multi-tools known as Baton. A sleek, black, minimal design ties together the complete set of tools, whose features vary to include bottle-openers, flashlights, scissors, pens, and pliers.
Each multi-tool’s range of capabilities, combined with its slim, compact structure that looks like a pen, makes it a travel-friendly companion for the office or the great outdoors. And its intuitive design makes it easy to use for anyone, regardless of their experience with multi-tools.
SOG’s new family of multi-tools launched in January 2017.
Dozens of prototypes were built to test how a range of features and capabilities could be incorporated into each multi-tool design.
2017