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Making durable cigarette lighters made great business sense back when everyone smoked; but now that more and more are giving up the habit, where will Zippo's future fortunes come from? The venerable brand has shrewdly looked to non-carcinogenic situations where fire production is required, namely, camping; they then quietly began expanding their product offerings, starting with emergency fire starters and utility lighters and now expanding into camping stoves, illumination, and tools.
As for the latter, Zippo has announced their soon-to-be-released 4-in-1 Woodsman, a combination bow saw, mallet, hatchet, and stake-puller.
In our experience multi-tools can range from extremely useful to doesn't-do-any-one-thing-particularly-well, so we'll have to wait for the tool's release (TBD at press time) to see some product reviews. In the meantime they could probably use an advertising push to let the world know they're shifting their focus.
"Of course I could sell that. I could sell anything."
Comments
The founder of the Zippo Manufacturing Company George G. Blaisdell was the producer of the first ever Zippo lighter and that was way back in the year 1933.