You can (and some could argue should) use your hands to get tyres on and off. However, we always carry a couple of these levers as some rim/tyre combinations can be very tight or it may be muddy and/or cold so slipping one of these in to get you started, and maybe a 2nd to slip the tyre bead off, saving your fingers. Usually sold in packs of 3, but we sell them separately as you usually only ever really need 2.