All of us who have done forestry firefighting went to the local Army-Navy store to buy olive drab canvas backpacks if we couldn’t scrounge freebies from the local forestry office. The ALICE packs of the Vietnam era have been updated and improved, but the stuff still wears like iron.
I bought a cheapo backpack at Walgreen’s just for speech tournaments. It has more pockets than any pack I’ve ever owned, and is going strong years later. Price? $7.95!! 
I can’t remember when I got this (or one very similar to it) backpack but its been atleast 4 years of high school and onto my 2nd year of college.
My backpack lasted through all of high school and college. That it was my father’s WW II US Marine Corps backpack may have had something to do with its longevity.
I have had a Jansport backpack since erm…1994. I used it through 5 years in high school (shh) and have used it since as a carry on, large purse, briefcase…no wear signs or rips, padded straps, yadda yadda. I think then we paid about $35 for it, and I have always been very happy with it.
Um… does Ivyboy have a locker? If so, does he use it? If not, can they give him one that’s closer to his classes?
And uh… I don’t have a TON of books, but my Columbia backpack has stood up to a lot for, I think, about a year and half.
Jansports are hit and miss. Some last for years, others fall apart after 18 months.
I’ve had great success with ALL of my gear from Mountain Equipment Co-op www.mec.ca
Go ahead and order online.
Why does it need to last years?
The child starts high school in a few weeks (noooo I’m not tad nervous and neither is he :D)
We shall be off to the shops in the next fortnight for all the school stuff. The backpack hadn’t even entered my brain. As far as I know the one he had last year is not a) offensive to teenage sensabilities or b) broken yet. Hey the uniform and stationery cost enough!
When it does break he has his choice of cheap-but-not-giggleworthy backpack. It’s a backpack. It’s job is to haul stuff.
Cheap bags haul as good as Good bags, they just don’t haul for as long. Who cares?? Just buy a new cheap one.
Well, there’s a company in town here that makes damn good backpacks with a lifetime warranty. In HS, I used my mom’s from when she was in HS, which then got used when one of our family friends went to college. The name of the company is “Borealis”, but I can’t find any info on the web. (And a google search for borealis backpacks fayetteville brings up a shemale porn site on the last hit. Whoa.)
Victorinox (the Swiss Army Knife guys) make a great backpack. Sturdy, nice gel padding to keep your back and arms comfortable… I think they run about $60-80 depending on the model.
You can buy an LL Bean bag for about $50-$60. And you buy it once.
If you just keep on buying cheap bags, you’ll spend a lot more than that in the long run.
I’ve had a jansport bag for about 5 years now and its still in perfect condition.
I think the problem with them is that you can buy different bags depending on the amount of weight you’re going to put into it and people may overfill the smaller bags.
If anyone cares (doubtful, but who knows) I got this one in copper, monogrammed.
Ivyboy is impressed with its padding and thickness. I’m keeping the How to Return slip in case he destroys this one too.
Next, Ivygirl, but she doesn’t need one yet.
Thanks again for all your help!
That’s the pack I got for my son this year. He picked a different color for each area of the pack, but no monogram. So far, no sign of any stress or strain, even though I have weighed his pack at over twenty pounds. He drags it, flings it, hangs it from his desk by the handle, and runs with it on. (Looks a bit like Quasimodo when running for the bus with a full load.) Of course, he won’t use the waist strap because that’s for wimps.
I let my kids get a new backpack every couple of years, and then we take the old ones, wash them, and give them to charity. They usually have years of wear left in them.
I second this suggestion. I too have an almost-16 year old boy who schleps quite a bit of stuff in his pack. We always go with REI.
Sometimes he’ll go two-three years with the same backpack. He uses it for travel as well.
I just got my third LL Bean bag. I carried my first one through some of high school, all of undergrad, and the first half of med school; I replaced it with a shoulder bag just because I got tired of it. The shoulder bag looks great after five years of daily use. My folks got me a new backpack with lots of reflectors for Christmas, since I’m doing a lot of cycling these days and I’d like to start commuting.
I would not buy one from anyone else, personally.
more back pack linkie
I love back packs. I carried a Field and Trails one for over 12 years, daily and on every vacation except this past two ones. When I die, on my funeral pyre, I want this bag with me.
It finally pit the dust when I used it as a diaper bag and the milk spills in it eventually had to be washed and it died a slow horried death after two or three washings. WAHHHHHHHH!
I have been at a loss since then because I just want that one back. Forever. But it is time to move on and I have bought a variety of packs over the years and have yet to have that instant good karma vibe. So, I’ve resorted to actually carrying purses.
I do have a nice black leather one from Maple Leather that is superb in every way but the fact it is too small now with the assorted kid shit that I haul. (and, like myself, I wish it had a firm bottom.) But I shelled out $150 for it (and thought - Ouch this is alot - and it paid for itself. It’s 10 years old now and it looks just like new. (I love Maple Leather products, The smaller zipper wallets are sooooooooo soft to the touch. Two thumbs up!)
I used to go through about 4 backpacks per year in the later years of elementary and the first year of high school. I even went though some in less than a month. They weren’t the cheapest (above $25 usd) but I was extremely rough on them. After becoming truly frustrated, I bought a Da Kine, and it lasted me though grades 11-13 (We had OAC/Grade 13 here in Ontario until a couple years ago) and it’s still with me in my second year of college. I haven’t changed my strenous backpack habits, yet the only sign of wear (besides dirt) is from when I got tossed off the hood of my friends moving truck, and the backpack took the brunt of the fall, and stopped my motion (I probably would have gotten a nice head injury if I weren’t wearing it…) And even that is only two small holes, which haven’t gotten any bigger with time.
And it’s not just school use, it’s an all-purpose backpack.
According to their website , it appears my model has been discontinued (no big surprise considering I’ve had it for 4 or 5 years) But I’ve never seen any Da Kine bags with any sort of structural failiure.
I care! HUGS!!!
I’m pretty sure we will end up spending the same amout really. My way the child picks a new one every year.
A new bag every year works too.