New Version of Swiss Army Knife Will Lack One Big Thing

A Swiss Army Knife without the knife? That's what's coming down the pike, per Victorinox, the company that makes the iconic multitool gadget. Victorinox CEO Carl Elsener told a local newspaper on Monday that a new version of the Swiss Army Knife is being designed sans blade, instead souped up with additional tools and extras for cyclists, among others, per Bloomberg. The Guardian notes that the company's response comes amid what a judge recently called a "plague of knife crime" around the world, with nations getting stricter on what kind of knives are permissible to carry in public.

"We're concerned about the increasing regulation of knives due to the violence in the world," Elsener said of his company, which churns out about 10 million samples of the Swiss Army Knife annually. There are currently 400 or so versions, including one tool that has more than six dozen functions. Victorinox had to make similar safety adjustments after Sept. 11, when it saw its sales fall by 30%. "9/11 painfully showed us that we must not become dependent on a single business area," Elsener said in a recent interview. (More Swiss Army knives stories.)