Designed in Canada: the Kelvin story

A teenager fixing a bike helmet at home with a Kelvin multitool
Kelvin Tools

Multitools have a long history outdoors: pliers, blades and saws for camp, trail and job site. Kelvin started from the opposite end. Kevin Royes designed the first Kelvin while assembling flat-pack furniture with the wrong tools, and the question he was answering was not "what do I need in the wilderness" but "what do I need in the kitchen drawer".

The indoor multitool

The answer turned out to be a specific list: a screwdriver with a locking arm, a set of bits that stays in the tool, a magnet for the screw that rolls away, something to tap a nail with, a tape measure, a level and a light. Fold those into one body you can hold in one hand and you have replaced the drawer. That list became the Kelvin 36, and the 23 and 17 followed as smaller versions of the same idea.

Since 2016

The first Kelvin shipped in 2016. Since then the range has grown sideways rather than up: the Retractor family for people who lose bits, the Kelvin 8 for the glovebox, the PakRatchet for bikes and bolts, the 07 spinner for pockets and desks, and most recently the 36 SL, a slimmer, lighter 36 designed around smaller hands.

Built at home

The company is Canadian and the flagship models are still built at home in Canada. Where a product is made is stated on its page, and only where we can state it properly. On the Kelvin 36 family, the Retractor and the Retractor Auto Advance you will see the origin shown; where it is not shown, we have not made the claim.

Light to medium duty, on purpose

Kelvin tools are designed for the jobs that happen between the front door and the back fence: assembly, hanging, tightening, the occasional tap. They are not framing hammers or impact drivers, and we do not pretend otherwise. That focus is what lets thirty-six tools fit in a palm.

As seen on

Along the way Kelvin has turned up on Good Morning America, Dragons' Den, in Oprah Magazine and Reader's Digest, and on TODAY, which is a long way from a bookcase on a living-room floor. The press page has the list.

What stays the same

A real person reads the emails and answers the phone. Warranty terms are printed on each product and in the policy, not buried. And the test for every new tool is still the original one: does it earn its place in the drawer?

Read more about where Kelvin is made

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