Builders, building
their own tools.
How Leatherman Tool Group brought 147 employees, 119 published apps, and a brand-new builder culture to life in under six months with Replit.
More ideas than hands.
Leatherman has always been a company built on ingenuity. But by 2024, demand for custom tools had outpaced what any centralized team could ship.
Employees with great ideas waited weeks, sometimes months. Demand for custom tools had outgrown what any centralized team could keep up with.
Most departments settled for Excel. Others tried tools like Power Apps, only to find them too complicated to stick.
Real software in the hands of the people who actually needed it — without weeks of intake forms and translation between ops and engineering.
Vibe coding meets a builder's DNA.
"What intrigued us most is that it enabled our workforce to create solutions to help themselves — which really leans into our DNA as a company." — Stephen Linville, Senior Manager of IT
“Replit gives us a way to bring that same mindset to Leatherman: the people that make the multi-tools, building our own tools.”
Six months. One-hundred and nineteen apps.
From the central AI hub to a retro arcade ticketing app — a look at what teams across Leatherman built when given the tools to build for themselves.
The central hub for every AI-powered tool, agent, and resource built across the company.
In-house video library teaching teams how to vibecode their own tools in Replit and Copilot.
A retro arcade ticketing app — proof internal tools can be delightful.
2026 planning workshop — reflect on wins, craft the vision, prioritize the roadmap.
Workshop tools that replaced walls of physical sticky notes with collaborative voting.
A simple front door for the Leatherman Tool Group PMO to capture new project requests.
Walls came down.
The biggest result isn't an app — it's what happened to how Leatherman works together. Silos collapsed. People coached each other. A new builder culture emerged.
A cross-functional group from maintenance, marketing, finance, and operations meets regularly to share what they're building and push each other forward.
"We put the power to build something into the people who know how to use it best. It saved us cost and it fits our business better." — Stephen Linville
Translation apps help global teams read quality and production tools in their native language, and help e-commerce content reach world markets naturally.
In their own words.
“Replit has broken down walls for us. Silos between departments have come down. We've coached each other, found solutions together, encouraged one another.”
“What intrigued us most is that it enabled our workforce to create solutions to help themselves — which really leans into our DNA as a company.”
“It's no longer 'hey, I need someone to help me.' It's 'hey, I can help myself.'”
A whole company,
building.
Since November 2024, Leatherman has published 119+ apps, with 147 employees now active on the platform, up from 30 at launch.
Ideas that once took months now go live in weeks. From the VP of HR publishing her own apps to a March Madness simulation that won the office bracket — building is now part of the job.
Since 1983, Leatherman has made multipurpose tools in Portland, Oregon for people who solve real problems in the real world. With 550 employees and distribution in over 80 countries, they remain committed to American quality and the belief that the right tool can save the day for anyone, anywhere.
leatherman.comStart building today.
Join the companies and creators shipping the next generation of software.