[NA] Student backpack -- durable good or expendable commodity?

Van Johnston

Van Johnston

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Van Johnston
What's the reasonable expected lifetime of a student backpack?

My 8th grader tells me he needs a new backpack. It will be his third in the last 12 academic months. The failure mode of the first two is the same--the zippers. Both backpacks have been Swiss Gear.

Should I just look at backpacks as an expendable commodity, and plan to replace with the cheapest Walmart model every six months, or is there a more durable backpack out there that is worth spending money on?

Alternatively, is there a way to mesh the little nylon teeth of the zipper back together?
 
Maybe buy one w/o zippers?
Or at least get metal zippers?
Wait, kids don't carry books anymore. All they have is a small electronic device now.
When we carried books back in the day, they were each 3-4" thick, 10lbs each, and we carried maybe 7-10 at a time. On our way, uphill in the snowy darkness, 5 miles, to school.
 
Agree with Dave.... and I remember the joys of being issued the books and the craft paper book covers with advertisements for Dairy Queen.

But the brownpaper shopping bags made a better cover.
 
I'm not sure where you got that idea, I have two high schoolers, their backpacks are stuffed full of books.

We usually get 3 years out of a backpack. Personally, I like Lands End's offerings, they're durable and a good value. An eighth grader is probably going to want something like a North Face.
 
LL Bean backpacks are amazing. I use one as my flight bag. I used the same one as a grad student for three years. Also used it as a field bag when I was working as an archaeologist for five years. Think it cost me $40-50 bucks when I bought it over a decade ago. Best part is they have a great return policy -
"Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise."
And they mean it when they say "any time"... they'll replace something years down the road (according to my friend who had a zipper go out on hers).
 
tell him you'll only buy one per year (or two years)...he's responsible for additional replacements. I bet they last longer. ;)
 
I have a jansport. It is now over twenty years old. Used it in high school, then through college and was my offshore bag when I was a diver. Since then it is my hunting bag in the fall, fishing bag in the summer and my daily man purse when riding the motor scooter. Never had an issue with it. Would highly recommend.
 
Most of those back packs have a lifetime warranty - if you can find the receipt!
 
Is it just me or do zippers in general just not hold up well anymore? I keep having jackets, luggage, sleeping bags, etc fail in short spans all because of the zippers.
 
Swissgear isn't very good.

JanSport was all the rage when I was in high school. In 9th grade, they were $50, my mom thought that was too expensive so she bought me a $25 one instead.

It was falling apart before the end of the year.

For my sophomore year, I got the JanSport. I used it through the rest of high school and all of college and it was still in good shape. After I graduated, I thought I didn't need it anymore, so threw it away. FML.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Agree with Dave.... and I remember the joys of being issued the books and the craft paper book covers with advertisements for Dairy Queen.

But the brownpaper shopping bags made a better cover.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, the Dairy Queen covers..... I seem to remember some with Piggly Wiggly.

And we wrote on each one: In case of fire....THROW IN.!!!
 
GeorgeC said:
I remember burning through bookbags as a kid until I got an L.L. Bean bag.
Click to expand...

I was amazed I actually destroyed a messenger type bag of theirs this year. I overloaded that thing so bad constantly, and finally a zipper gave out, with it stuffed full of CFI study materials one afternoon.

Yeah, I know about the warranty, but this one was customized for a vendor giveaway and had embroiders company logos and stuff on it. Basically irreplaceable.

They might have honored the warranty and sent a non-customized one but I didn't bother. It died a quick and painless death in the trash can.

But I'll get another one here eventually. Or find something even more indestructible. I think there's some "tactical" bags that can beat it, but they aren't cheap.
 
I have a JanSport that got me through 4 years of high school, 2 years of junior college, and I still use for a flight bag when I have a lot of crap to take with me. Holding up well.
 
Private pilot: Bag with 40 lbs of stuff.
Commercial pilot: Headset bag and an iPad.
ATP: Notepad and carrying an old headset.

CFI candidate: 40 lb box of crap.
CFI: Small notepad, iPad, headset.

Hehehe. There seems to be an inverse correlation with pounds of crap carried over time. ;)
 
2 in college, 1 high school now.
I've tried many.

Buy north face recon. Done.
 
Yup, you need to buy the heavy-duty bags. Many used to find the camping/hiking backpacks that were made of heavier canvas and had padded shoulder straps. In high school I had a water-resistant High Sierra bag that served me well for 2-3 years. I used a messenger bag all through college (Samsonite) and it still looks new today even though I no longer use it.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I used a messenger bag all through college (Samsonite) and it still looks new today even though I no longer use it.
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Well if you're going Samsonite you could just get the real deal and show the kid some class... this one is 25 years old... and no signs of problems...

0b78fb9fc78b5a481aa32d80cf3cb6b9.jpg
 
GeorgeC said:
I remember burning through bookbags as a kid until I got an L.L. Bean bag.
Click to expand...
:yeahthat: Used to buy the cheapie's from Wally World and they would have blowouts by the time the end of the school year came around. LL Bean was the best, I remember taking my sisters after she used it through elementary and it lasted for a while.

Those were the days...
 
SoonerAviator said:
Lol, mine was a little less . . . 80's.
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Looks like they're still selling it. Haven't changed a thing, as far as I can tell.

http://shop.samsonite.com/business/samsonite-focus-iii-6"-attache

Big enough to hold a huge amount of stuff, and damned near indestructible. Lockable too, for varying levels of "lock", since you could pry it open or defeat the locking mechanism in a few ways.

Have used mine on and off over the years as a laptop "bag" that'll also carry a mountain of paperwork, or books. It'd hold an old school full sized laptop back in the day, and offered a lot more protection than a cloth bag of any sort.

A family lawyer gave it to me as a gift a long long time ago.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe he didn't see the iPad or the PDF coming, and thought I'd be carrying around a mountain of paperwork my whole life.

Plus you can handcuff it to a wrist and look like all those fake "messengers" in movies, as if a real security company would make it that obvious that someone was protecting something valuable.

Or stick a light inside and pretend it's the briefcase in Pulp Fiction with its mystery contents. ;)

I think I even stuffed an honest to God typewriter inside it once to go write a paper somewhere with all of my research from that antiquated thing called a "library" shoved in the top/accordion folder section, even. Yay Dewey Decimal system and card catalogues. LOL.
 
Just go down to a surplus store and get a MOLLE Day Pack. If CAMO is an issue for the school because of its military link :rolleyes: there are some solid color versions. We beat the hell out of these things. It will more than likely last until they are done with their Masters Degree. :D

Assault-Pack-4.jpg
 
denverpilot said:
Well if you're going Samsonite you could just get the real deal and show the kid some class... this one is 25 years old... and no signs of problems...

0b78fb9fc78b5a481aa32d80cf3cb6b9.jpg
Click to expand...

Poor little dude would never hear the end of it showing up to school with that lol

Does it come with a pocket protector?


Back in school I had jansport (sp?) backpacks or a army surplus backpacks.

For little kids, don't spend any real money of any of this stuff, it's like buying expensive sweaters for dogs, it'll just get destroyed and the kid/dog doesn't know any better anyways.
 
Just don't buy the crap mesh ones if you arn't required. I was required from middle school on to have a clear or mesh backpack for security and safety.

Basically easier to see and search if we were bringing in drugs or weapons. This was so our school police officers didn't have to pat us down.
 
+ another 1 for JanSport. I'm still using mine after twenty years of ongoing service.
 
James331 said:
Poor little dude would never hear the end of it showing up to school with that lol.
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Must have missed he was a little kid. Men do own such things, however, and tend not to give a damn what people think of their carrying device choices. The metrosexual type worry about that stuff and get waxes and pedicures.
 
denverpilot said:
Must have missed he was a little kid. Men do own such things, however, and tend not to give a damn what people think of their carrying device choices. The metrosexual type worry about that stuff and get waxes and pedicures.
Click to expand...

The kid is apparently in 8th grade, you don't want to send a 8th grader to school with a briefcase, it's frickin 8th grade, and it's funny I could see a metrosexual parent being the one trying to have his 8th grader sport some fancy briefcase or something.

Just a simple standard issue jansport back back, like kids have had for years, or a old army surplus backpack.


As for the mesh bag for "security" or patting down kids, i.e. us man! I wouldn't let my kid go to a school with that BS going on.
 
So because of how terrible backpacks in general are... and how overloaded the list of "necessary" school supplies is, I developed my personal method back in high school and carried it through college.

Every year I bought 2 3-5 subject notebooks that had the pocketed dividers on the inside. I clipped two pens, one on each end into the spiral binder of the notebooks. Then I would split the two notebooks in a way that made sense- either before/after lunch or "A" vs "B" days depending on class schedule. Each class got a notebook section....including a folder in the divider.

Then I'd just grab the notebook for the half of the day.... or full day depending on schedule and the 2-3 textbooks I'd actually need for the classes I had. All these items can just fit under my arm. A pen and a notebook with a folder is all I needed for most classes... maybe the occasional graphing calculator but I can carry that too. I didn't use my locker as soon as I had a car... my car was my locker and since I took that to lunch I was already going there.

I hate having to carry too much stuff around.
 
I dunno what kids are using in schools these days to know if it makes sense to pay extra and get one that lasts a few years or go cheap and get a new one every year.

Back in my day, backpacks hadn't been invented.

By jr high, some kids used gym bags. The heavy canvas kind with the hard flat bottom, one zipper across the top and two loop handles. No fancy logos back then.

I got a backpack when I went to college. I think it lasted 2 years. Then I got a new one, an Eastpak that cost a little more ("Made in USA", I still have it 30+ years later, and no tears or fraying.) Nothing fancy, it looks almost like this one from their "Heritage" collection:

http://www.eastpak.com/oc-en/backpa...7/wyoming-into-sambal-1-pEK81179L+00+999.html

These days we have on Osprey we take with us when we travel. We can stuff jackets, sweaters cameras, tickets, water bottles, snacks, whatever into it. It has a lifetime replacement warranty. That thing has been around the world. I think this is it:

http://www.ospreypacks.com/us/en/product/comet-COMETNEW_696.html
 
James331 said:
The kid is apparently in 8th grade, you don't want to send a 8th grader to school with a briefcase, it's frickin 8th grade, and it's funny I could see a metrosexual parent being the one trying to have his 8th grader sport some fancy briefcase or something.
Click to expand...

Yep they gotta get the man purses and fanny packs started young. LOL.

cowman said:
So because of how terrible backpacks in general are... and how overloaded the list of "necessary" school supplies is, I developed my personal method back in high school and carried it through college.

Every year I bought 2 3-5 subject notebooks that had the pocketed dividers on the inside. I clipped two pens, one on each end into the spiral binder of the notebooks. Then I would split the two notebooks in a way that made sense- either before/after lunch or "A" vs "B" days depending on class schedule. Each class got a notebook section....including a folder in the divider.

Then I'd just grab the notebook for the half of the day.... or full day depending on schedule and the 2-3 textbooks I'd actually need for the classes I had. All these items can just fit under my arm. A pen and a notebook with a folder is all I needed for most classes... maybe the occasional graphing calculator but I can carry that too. I didn't use my locker as soon as I had a car... my car was my locker and since I took that to lunch I was already going there.

I hate having to carry too much stuff around.
Click to expand...

That's quite similar to how I rolled. Problem was when every class gave homework -- then you still had to schlep a pile home to study. But most days there were only two textbooks that had to go home if you planned right. I remember being middling poor enough that if we broke our bags we got to just carry the crap until folks could afford to replace them.

Nowadays my "CFI oral box" weighs 40 lbs... hahaha. This of course is not how I would roll to a real lesson, you'd show up with a notepad, a iPad, a dry erase marker if you knew you had access to a board for ground school, and a few pages of notes specifically there to remind you what is going on in that student's lesson, and a decent pen.

But holy hell, the oral is "teach everything and bring your own crap to do it, oh and if it's the FAA stuff we'll like it more, even though there's better diagrams in nearly everything else out there..."

Might as well be carrying around an entire flight school.
 
I'm in the minority here, bought a Ful backpack at Costco several years ago for a business trip. Seems like it was lower priced than others on the shelf. I ended keeping my work laptop and accessories in it and took it on nearly every trip both personal and business. With remote connections and great coworkers on site my office was wherever I could at least get an internet connection. Hot spotted my phone once over 3g to check email.

Anyway, the backpack is still in great shape. One coworker told me his kid said that was the 'in' brand at the time. I suppose that changes quickly though.
 
OP here. Thanks for all the feedback. Been a long time LL Bean customer, so bit the bullet and ordered one from them.

MauleSkinner said:
tell him you'll only buy one per year (or two years)...he's responsible for additional replacements. I bet they last longer. ;)
Click to expand...

Fair point. We've agreed the new one will last rest of this year and all of next year. He hasn't been abusing them, but he does overstuff. Part of some overall personal management skills we're working on. He'll make a great CFI candidate some day.

SCCutler said:
Three years.

https://www.swissgear.com/warranty-repairs
Click to expand...

Thanks. One was bought online, so we're looking for that receipt.

Zeldman said:
Oh yeah, the Dairy Queen covers..... I seem to remember some with Piggly Wiggly.

And we wrote on each one: In case of fire....THROW IN.!!!
Click to expand...

Ours were Butter Krust bread, the local (and locally owned) bank (been a Wells Fargo branch for many years now), and the electric co-op.
 
denverpilot said:
Well if you're going Samsonite you could just get the real deal and show the kid some class... this one is 25 years old... and no signs of problems...

0b78fb9fc78b5a481aa32d80cf3cb6b9.jpg
Click to expand...

That's what I went thru college with and the first five years or so of my career. Not sure what happened to it. If I still had it, it would be over 35 yrs old now.
 
Cajun_Flyer said:
LL Bean backpacks are amazing. I use one as my flight bag. I used the same one as a grad student for three years. Also used it as a field bag when I was working as an archaeologist for five years. Think it cost me $40-50 bucks when I bought it over a decade ago. Best part is they have a great return policy -
"Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at any time if it proves otherwise."
And they mean it when they say "any time"... they'll replace something years down the road (according to my friend who had a zipper go out on hers).
Click to expand...

This week LL Bean revised their famous lifetime, no questions asked, return policy to one year, with receipt.

Return Policy

If you are not 100% satisfied with one of our products, you may return it within one year of purchase for a refund. After one year, we will consider any items for return that are defective due to materials or craftsmanship.

We require proof of purchase to honor a refund or exchange. If you provide us your information when you check out, we will typically have a record of your purchase. Otherwise, we require a physical receipt.
Click to expand...

https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/510624?page=returns-and-exchanges
 
I’ve had my Nike one since I was a junior or senior. I’m a junior in college now.
 
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