Small Enough for Your Keys, Tough Enough for Your Day: Victorinox Mini Champ Review

Multitools always make their presence known in my pocket, reminding me that they are in there. While something like the mid-sized Leatherman Skeletool CX doesn’t take up too much real estate, I am constantly aware of it. That’s fine when I’m working around the yard, but when I’m walking around the city, I want something that completely disappears in my pocket.

Victorinox’s Mini Champ changed my mind about the usefulness of tiny “keychain” tools. Measuring just 2.3 inches long and weighing 1.6 ounces, it’s not going to feather wood for the campfire on your camping trip, nor is it likely to save the day when your car is broken down on the side of the road.

But with 18 claimed functions, at least as Victorinox tells it, I just kept running into situations in ordinary life in which it completely saved the day — from cutting tangled webbing out of a bike’s gearset to prying batteries out of the world’s most uncooperative weather radio. Testing out this gem, which I’ve owned for 4 years, convinced me to begin carrying it daily again.

In short: The Victorinox Mini Champ ($45) is no substitute for the regular-size Swiss Army Knife or multitool you’d take for serious work tasks and adventures into the backcountry, but when it comes to a tool you can slip into a pocket and forget completely that it’s there, the Mini Champ is my favorite of all the keychain multitools on the market.

Looking for a new multiool? Check out how the Mini Champ compares to the rest of our top picks in GearJunkie’s Best Multitools Buyer’s Guide.

Like most multitool companies, Victorinox gets to its tool count of 18 by some funny counting. For example, the included ruler counts the metric and imperial measurements as two separate tools. And the key ring counts, too, which is a bit of a cop-out. It’s par for the course in multitools, however, and I bring it up to rein in expectations about this tiny tool.

All the tools are stainless steel. There are the usual suspects you’d expect on a Swiss Army Knife, including a spear-point main blade about 1.5 inches long and a smaller Wharncliffe precision blade, which is a lot like a sheepsfoot profile. There’s the obligatory (and much appreciated) bottle opener that combines a wire stripper and a Phillips screwdriver.

There’s a pair of simple, spring-action scissors that come in handy often, for when I need to cut something, such as a stray thread on a piece of clothing, and don’t want to risk slicing the whole thing up.

Victorinox must’ve been having a day when it was raiding the company tool chest, looking for tools to cram into the Mini Champ, because it also packs a few very unique choices. Take the orange peeler. It’s a sharply angled hook that, aside from effectively disrobing an orange, constantly comes in handy for snipping zip ties and packaging ties.

Possible Future Price Jump?

Victorinox still makes its Swiss Army Knives in Switzerland, which is good news for the superb fit and finish on its tools. Every tool on the Mini Champ opens and closes cleanly, with no dragging against adjacent tools. The spring locks keep the tools open securely enough that you don’t have to worry about a blade accidentally snapping shut on your fingers during use, as long as you’re paying attention.

Being Swiss-made isn’t such good news when it comes to tariffs, since the U.S. imposed a 39% tariff on goods imported from Switzerland in August 2025. The Mini Champ’s retail price has remained at $60 since Victorinox shipped a bunch ahead of the tariffs, although you can find it on Amazon for $45. Victorinox told The New York Times in September 2025 that it was studying price increases for 2026, though, so if you’ve been eyeballing the Mini Champ, or any other Victorinox, don’t wait too long.

Push It Real Good

There’s one tool in particular that receives hate and praise in equal measure when anyone brings up the Mini Champ. Victorinox calls it the cuticle pusher. Enthusiasts jokingly refer to it as the “coke spoon.” Fans of the, ahem, cuticle pusher (of which I’m one) say that if only Victorinox gave it another name, it wouldn’t have as many detractors who call it a useless tool.

There’s merit in having the blunt cuticle pusher. No, I don’t use it to push back my cuticles, although I gave it a try for this article, and it did work. Most often, I use the cuticle pusher to pry batteries loose. Just yesterday, I used it to help pry open a panel on a cranky printer that was acting up. Using a knife for that would be a good way to cut yourself, damage the device, or both.

I get why Victorinox wouldn’t want to call it the pry bar. Doing so would encourage an awful lot of people to bear down on it, bend it, and then either try to file a warranty claim or trash the tool online. Probably both.

Write This Down

The Mini Champ packs a blue-ink, refillable ballpoint pen that retracts into one of the plastic scales. Few Swiss Army Knives have this tool, and no Leathermans have it. You can easily replace the spent ink cartridge and swap in a new one, which costs just $3. Why Victorinox only sells them with blue ink and not black ink, I have no idea. It seems like black should be a no-brainer.

The pen itself is akin to a cheap Bic. Occasionally, the ballpoint skips or the ink runs dry, and then you have to scribble to get the ink going again. And while there’s surprisingly more ink in the cartridge than one would think on such a tiny tool, I wouldn’t want to write a long letter with it. But it comes in handy frequently for signing documents or the occasional check. I never carry a pen with me, so packing it into a Swiss Army Knife is genius.

Victorinox gives you a plastic toothpick and a pair of tiny tweezers to slot into the opposite scale. You have to choose because you can only fit one. While the Victorinox toothpick works surprisingly well to remove food from teeth, I get an awful lot of splinters, so I go with the tweezers.

They are, frankly, incredibly basic. They look like something one would dig up in an archaeology site on a Civil War battlefield, but they work well enough to snag splinters and, sometimes, after I shave, beard shrapnel.

Those who choose to fork over an extra $10 for the Mini Champ Alox gain handsome aluminum scales in place of the classic red plastic, but lose the retractable pen, tweezers, and toothpick.

Perfectly Scaled

For me, the red plastic scales are on the same level of obligatory, nostalgic perfection as a red Corvette or red Ferrari. Ever since I was a kid fooling around with my friend’s Swiss Army Knife, it’s also been red or nothing for me. Those plastic scales scratch easily, though.

You know what polishes out shallow scratches? Toothpaste. Really, I’ve done it. But you’ll inevitably scratch it up again. Just get used to the idea that this tool will show its wear, subtle as it may be. It’s like an old denim jacket. It’ll show its use.

The Victorinox Rambler retails for $35 and reduces some of the Mini Champ’s more eclectic tools to the basics: a knife, bottle opener, screwdrivers, file, and scissors. It’s also about 50% thinner, having held up a Rambler against my Mini Champ just last night.

I prefer the Mini Champ because that’s a difference of a mere 0.2 inches, and it’s already unnoticeable in the pocket. Besides, some of the extra tools on the Mini Champ come in handy, such as the pen or the orange peeler for cutting zip ties.

On a long road trip, hustling my Jeep over a trail to a campsite, or working in the yard when there’s a fairly high likelihood of requiring a 3-inch blade or a full-sized pair of pliers, I leave the Mini Champ behind and take a Leatherman or larger Swiss Army Knife. Everywhere else, the Mini Champ has proven to be enough tool for me in the wilds of city life. All 2.3 inches of it.