diff --git a/flags.go b/flags.go
index 3ae1ab52f6..2cdb612cbf 100644
--- a/flags.go
+++ b/flags.go
@@ -55,4 +55,9 @@ var (
 		Usage: "PlacementStrategy to use [binpacking, random]",
 		Value: "binpacking:0.05",
 	}
+	flFilter = cli.StringSliceFlag{
+		Name:  "filter, f",
+		Usage: "Filter to use [health, label, port]",
+		Value: &cli.StringSlice{"health", "label", "port"},
+	}
 )
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 22162c99ff..cf524bdfba 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ func main() {
 			ShortName: "m",
 			Usage:     "manage a docker cluster",
 			Flags: []cli.Flag{
-				flStrategy,
+				flStrategy, flFilter,
 				flDiscovery, flHosts, flHeartBeat,
 				flTls, flTlsCaCert, flTlsCert, flTlsKey, flTlsVerify,
 				flEnableCors},
diff --git a/manage.go b/manage.go
index 24eead05a3..d44010ce09 100644
--- a/manage.go
+++ b/manage.go
@@ -102,14 +102,20 @@ func manage(c *cli.Context) {
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Fatal(err)
 	}
+
+	// see https://github.com/codegangsta/cli/issues/160
+	names := c.StringSlice("filter")
+	if c.IsSet("filter") || c.IsSet("f") {
+		names = names[3:]
+	}
+	fs, err := filter.New(names)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Fatal(err)
+	}
 	sched := scheduler.NewScheduler(
 		cluster,
 		s,
-		[]filter.Filter{
-			&filter.HealthFilter{},
-			&filter.LabelFilter{},
-			&filter.PortFilter{},
-		},
+		fs,
 	)
 
 	// see https://github.com/codegangsta/cli/issues/160
diff --git a/scheduler/filter/filter.go b/scheduler/filter/filter.go
index c995b7cdf7..21fdf721a4 100644
--- a/scheduler/filter/filter.go
+++ b/scheduler/filter/filter.go
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 package filter
 
 import (
+	"errors"
+
+	log "github.com/Sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/docker/swarm/cluster"
 	"github.com/samalba/dockerclient"
 )
@@ -10,6 +13,33 @@ type Filter interface {
 	Filter(*dockerclient.ContainerConfig, []*cluster.Node) ([]*cluster.Node, error)
 }
 
+var (
+	filters         map[string]Filter
+	ErrNotSupported = errors.New("filter not supported")
+)
+
+func init() {
+	filters = map[string]Filter{
+		"health": &HealthFilter{},
+		"label":  &LabelFilter{},
+		"port":   &PortFilter{},
+	}
+}
+
+func New(names []string) ([]Filter, error) {
+	var selectedFilters []Filter
+
+	for _, name := range names {
+		if filter, exists := filters[name]; exists {
+			log.Debugf("Initialising %q filter", name)
+			selectedFilters = append(selectedFilters, filter)
+		} else {
+			return nil, ErrNotSupported
+		}
+	}
+	return selectedFilters, nil
+}
+
 // Apply a set of filters in batch.
 func ApplyFilters(filters []Filter, config *dockerclient.ContainerConfig, nodes []*cluster.Node) ([]*cluster.Node, error) {
 	var err error