An Ingenious Sag Harbor Craftsman
As peculiar as a multi-tool belt may seem — one that can, for example, help you unscrew a light fixture while fashionably holding up your pants — it is not. The anomaly is Jameson Ellis, the man behind the design of Sync multi-tool belt buckles, now owned and sold by Sog Specialty Knives and Tools.
Mr. Ellis, a Sag Harbor resident, often thinks he was born in the wrong era. “No one makes stuff anymore,” Mr. Ellis said, as he sat in his backyard studio surrounded by machines and supplies. “I am a compulsive maker of things. For me, making things is an assertion of one’s competence.”
Mr. Ellis believes in the ability to craft, the laying down of one’s art with rigor, workmanship, and patience. He said it comes from his father, who used to design weaponry for the Army and is brilliant.
Jameson Ellis crafted his first multi-tool belt buckle 10 years ago after realizing that despite owning an array of Swiss Army knives and Leatherman multi-tools, he never seemed to have what he most needed.
As an undergraduate at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), Mr. Ellis had designed belt buckles simply to “look cool,” he said. After college, he designed furniture, worked on movie sets, and made props.
In 2005, with a love for working with metal and a newly acquired milling machine, he began experimenting with belt buckles that would morph into a tool kit. He worked on the design compulsively for three months until he was satisfied he had something that not only looked cool but functioned well and would sell.
“I was naive, though, about the marketing part,” Mr. Ellis said. “Once I had a working multi-tool belt buckle, I thought it wouldn’t be difficult to produce and sell it, and for me to profit from it. But everything takes a million years.” It took 10. In 2015, at a trade show in Las Vegas, Mr. Ellis walked into the Sog Specialty Knives and Tools booth wearing his belt, and made his pitch.
“I walked out with a handshake deal,” he said. Eight months later, and after many rounds with lawyers, he received his first royalty check.
Versatility is key in the multi-tool world, he said. Today’s versions of his belt buckle are called Sync I and Sync II and have 12 functions: a straight blade, a bolt or nut gripper, a bottle opener, crimpers, a three-sided file, two flat screwdrivers, one Phillips head screwdriver, pliers, a ruler, scissors, and a wire cutter.
The Sync II is approximately three inches wide for reasonably thick belts, while the smaller Sync I is suitable for thin ones. They are designed to be easily worn as a belt buckle or clipped onto a strap or boot and come on a detachable base. “That way,” reads its description on the Sog website, “anywhere you go, your multi-tool is there with you.”
The first time Mr. Ellis’s multi-tool buckle actually saved the day was about eight years ago when he was on a bus from Manhattan to Sag Harbor. The bus was late leaving the city and people on board were grumbling, he said, when he noticed that the bus driver could not close the door.
Mr. Ellis got up and, seeing that a piece of metal was causing the obstruction, swiftly removed his buckle and with its pliers in hand, bent back the protruding piece of metal. Mr. Ellis received a round of applause from his fellow passengers and vouchers for free rides in the future.
While originally Mr. Ellis laboriously cut out his buckles from tool steel in his studio, the Syncs today are manufactured in China from stainless steel, using a process called investment casting, similar to lost-wax casting.
An initial run of 75,000 Syncs were produced, and in two weeks 4,000 sold. On the Sog Knives website, the Sync I retails for $67 and Sync II for $80. When fully extended they look like a cross between the film character Edward Scissorhands’s fingers and a Japanese Transformer toy.
Last summer, Mr. Ellis added to his handmade inventory with what he calls a Picnic Table Briefcase, offering enthusiasts the ability to pack supplies inside a case that converts into a 24-inch wooden table. To date, he has sold about 35.
What’s next for the Sag Harbor craftsman inventor is top secret. “It taps into my dark side,” he said.
That a dark side exists seems to be another anomaly. In his back garden, which can be described as enchanted, chickens cluck and come when called and an angora bunny sits in a hatch looking like a forgotten sweater. Mr. Ellis’s wife, Jill Musnicki, a painter, photographer, seamstress, and kindred spirit, has a studio at one end of the garden, where their young daughter often sits honing her whittling skills.