The Gerber Tread is...

The Gerber Tread is designed with car drivers in mind – the name represents the fact it’s got car tyre-like tread on the handles. Unfortunately, this proves to be one of the major drawbacks. You expect it to be rubberised and soft to touch, but instead it’s hard plastic which gets slippery when wet. It’s also quite uncomfortable on your palm, especially when you’re pressing hard on the handles of the built-in pliers.

As you’d expect from a quality brand such as Gerber, the multitool is very well made. Parts are finished to precision levels, it’s got a smooth opening and closing action, and no amount of workshop abuse caused it problems.

There are loads of tools, too. As well as full-sized needle-nose pliers, you get an LED torch, crosshead screwdriver, wire cutters, scissors, flathead driver and a blade. But we found most were awkward to remove, and were concerned an edge of the wire cutters was left protruding. The torch is a handy addition though, and we like the belt pouch.