LAS VEGAS -- If you want one tool that can tighten screws, cut rope, file nails and help hold up your pants at the same time, SOG may have just what you're looking for.
The knife company demonstrated its new Sync line at SHOT Show: a pair of rectangular multi-tools that expand with the press of a central button or collapse to buckle on a belt or clip on a pocket.
At 2.6 ounces and 2.4 inches across closed, the smaller Sync 1 is a better belt buckle size for most customers, Matt Crawford, a SOG spokesman, told Military.com. The larger Sync 2, at 5 ounces and 3.1 inches, is more "cowboy" territory.
Both options come with 11 tools, ranging from pliers to screwdrivers and scissors. While others companies have made belt buckles with a fold-out knife, SOG believes it has the only multi-tool buckle on the market.
And, appropriately enough, the idea for the device sprang out of a conversation at SHOT Show.
The concept of a multi-tool belt buckle was pitched to SOG at the show several years ago by Jameson Ellis, a craftsman and sculptor from Sag Harbor, New York, Crawford said. It got back to SOG owner Spencer Frazer and the company sprang into action, filing patents and streamlining the rough design.
The Sync devices were finally released by SOG in mid-2017; the Sync 1 retails for $67, while the Sync 2 costs $80.
So far, Crawford said, the smaller device has proved to be the more popular of the two.
"There's nobody else doing this kind of thing, for sure," he said.
-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
