The maker of Swiss Army Knives is in the “early stages of developing pocket tools without blades” due to weapons regulations around the world. File Photo by Gabriel Monnet/EPA-EFE
May 8 (UPI) — The maker of the Swiss Army Knife is taking the knife out of the century-old pocket tool’s latest model due to weapons regulations around the world.
“We are in the early stages of developing pocket tools without blades,” a spokesperson for Swiss firm Victorinox told CNN in a statement Tuesday.
“In some markets, the blade creates an image of a weapon,” Victorinox chief executive officer Carl Elsener told Swiss newspaper Blick. “We’re concerned about the increasing regulation of knives due to the violence in the world.”
Elsener said sales of the company’s Swiss Army Knife plummeted by more than 30% after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
“9/11 painfully showed us that we must not become dependent on a single business area,” he said, adding that other countries restrict the general public from carrying pocket knives.
“In England and 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,” Elsener said. “In the city, however, when you go to school, to the cinema or to go shopping, carrying pocket knives is severely restricted.”
The Swiss Army Knife was created in the late 1800s for soldiers in the Swiss Army. The knives were manufactured for the general public in 1891 and will continue to be produced with blades more than 130 years later as Victorinox offers its new model without a knife, adding tools for bicyclists instead.
“We already have a tool specifically for golfers in our range,” Elsener said. “Cyclists probably need special tools, but not necessarily a blade.”