The early prototypes for the first Leatherman Pocket Survival Tool incorporated vice grips rather than pliers. Leatherman today has only one model that functions as vice grips, the Crunch, which is named after Tim Leatherman’s first product, dubbed “Mr. Crunch” (which had done away with the vice grips function, as well as retractable needle-nose plier jaws, for simplification purposes by that time). The company struggled at first, but got its big break in 1983 with an order for 500 units from Cabela’s.
Check out evolution of that first prototype, with some great photos of the tool being assembled with some crude production processes. It’s a great example of an inventor doing what he needed to do to create something.
https://www.leatherman.com/leatherman-difference.html