Victorinox’s CEO says the company is responding to increasingly stringent knife restrictions, expecially in the United Kingdom, ‘due to the violence.’
The longtime maker of the Swiss Army Knife will soon produce a variant that is missing a major feature: the actual blade.
Victorinox CEO Carl Elsener Jr. told a Swiss news outlet that his company is working on a knifeless product due to an increase in restrictions on knives.
He said he is concerned about regulations in several countries. In the United Kingdom, legislation has been proposed to further criminalize possession of a knife or other bladed instruments.
“We’re concerned about the increasing regulation of knives due to the violence in the world,” he told the Swiss publication Blick in an exclusive interview, according to a translation. “We’re actually working on pocket tools without blades,” he added.
Mr. Elsener suggested that the company has a “cool tool” that will be produced “for cyclists,” although he did not provide any more details.
“We already have a tool specifically for golfers in our range. Cyclists probably need special tools, but not necessarily a blade. The blade creates a weapon image in some markets,” he said.
Classic Versions Still Will Be Sold, Too
The new versions of the tools will complement the classic, blade-bearing Swiss Army Knife, the CEO said.
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“In England or certain Asian countries, you are sometimes only allowed to carry a knife if you need to have it to do your job or operate outdoors,” he further explained.
“In the city, however, when you go to school, to the cinema, or to go shopping, carrying pocket knives is severely restricted.”
He added that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks “painfully showed us that we must not become dependent on a single business area.”
Hijackers used box-cutters to take over several planes before flying them into the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, and crashing one in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Elsener said that sales of the firm’s Swiss Army Knife dropped by more than 30 percent after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Several Victorinox spokespeople did not respond to multiple Epoch Times phone and email requests for comment by press time. The CEO also did not provide a timetable for when the bladeless products will be produced.
It’s not clear if the new, proposed knife-less Swiss Army Knives suggested by Mr. Elsener will be offered in the United States or only in countries with significant restrictions such as the United Kingdom.
Victorinox currently includes the “Jetsetter” tool on its website, which is designed to comply with airport security rules. The product lacks a knife but includes scissors, a bottle opener, a screwdriver, a wire stripper, and other tools.
It is marketed as a “Swiss made pocket knife” but is “bladeless.” The item is currently sold out.
“When a pocket knife comes without a blade, it can go everywhere you do,” the page says.
“Make your next journey a well-equipped one with the Jetsetter, a sleek, slim profiled Victorinox piece that’s packed with functionality, including scissors and a screwdriver. With the Jetsetter, you don’t just take the journey, you take your tools, too.”
The Victorinox firm, founded more than 130 years ago by Karl Elsener, has been handed down to family members throughout the generations. Initially, the knives were created for soldiers in the Swiss army but were later manufactured for the public starting in 1891.
The term “Swiss Army Knife” was coined by American soldiers who fought in World War II because they had difficulty pronouncing “Offiziersmesser,” the German name for the tool, according to the firm’s website.
In France, the product is called the “Couteau Suisse,” while it’s called the “Schweizer Messer” in Germany and Austria.
Victorinox says it makes 10 million Swiss Army Knives annually and ships them to about 120 different countries.
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