My 6 year old daughter has beaten the crap out of her rolling backpack that was originally $80+ ( paid $10 and used by me on a vacation once.) All the zippers crapped out.
She is in kindergarten and I want to make a good investment on something that is:
Durable ( needs reinforced bottom. She drags stuff. I’m thinking a sling might work as well.)
One side pocket for water bottle.
Washability.
I’ve been reviewing jansport and north face and even LL bean until I am blue in the face. Ebay is so helpful and addictive in this department.
My husband has a Jansport with a suede bottom on it that is still going strong since the early 80’s.
Ironically, my son’s Old Navy back pack that I spend $5 on 3 years ago is humming along nicely.
Help.
I use an army surplus “map bag” although it’s pretty small and there’s no water bottle holder (I actually use one of those nalgene bottles and a carabiner clip, sometimes). example.
Probably would work for kindergarten, but after that when they start needing to lug books home, not so much. I’m in college and thus need to only carry one or two books at a time. It fits a couple thin books, a notebook and my very small laptop, and that’s about it.
You know, I hit Walgreen’s looking for a cheap bag to take to conventions, and found one that has more pockets than God, side holders for everything under the sun, has undergone three years of abuse at countless conventions and speech tournaments, and is still as good as the day I bought it. Cost me all of $11. Just sayin’.
I got mine because it has a pocket for my laptop and power cord. It also has pockets for books, water bottle, iPod (with port for earphones) and God alone knows what else.
Gotta back up L L Bean here. My M-i-L got me this one for the holidays.
You could, literally, let an elephant run over it and it would be fine. It kicks ass, holds a ton of work stuff, and has sufficient extra pouchs to keep things seperate when they need to be seperate.
And, no shit, a congressman complimented me on it. What more do you need?
Another LLBean vote.
I have one, a basic bookbag style, that I bought in 1992. Used it as a daily pack for three years of college. Then used it as a travelling backpack…it’s been everywhere from Costa Rica to Scotland to the Red Sea and points in between. I use it for weekend trips and dog shows, and it refuses to die.
I have found a temporary bag that she cannot jam up with dolls, toys, doodads and whatnots.
I bought a black Limited Express backpack at the Salvation Army for $2 with the intent on it being a library book bag holder. (I don’t normally go after brand names, I really liked the lines on this. Very urban and the material is or like PVC.) It is too small for the metric buttload of books we routinely check out.
But, it will service her kindergarten needs until it is time for a new bag.
I am definately thinking of making an LL Bean investment for them.
I have a son in fifth grade now. He is VERY small for his age (50 pounds on a “heavy” day) and always has been. He is also VERY destructive of his backpacks.
I did buy a good backpack for him one year, and paid a goodly sum of money for it. By the end of the year, it was ragged and filthy, inside and out. Yes, the zippers still held up, and the canvas itself wasn’t torn, and the wheels and handles still worked. But MAN was it ugly-looking!!!
Because of his size, I do get the wheeled backpacks for him, since the weight of his pack is usually more than twice his own weight (even with duplicate sets of books so he doesn’t usually have to bring home school books!).
I also decided that every year I would just buy a new Jansport backpack when they go on sale in August. I usually spend less than $15 on each backpack, my son gets something that looks NEW every year (and which matches his current interests), and Jansport packs usually last more than a year. If there is still life in the backpack at the end of the year, it gets re-used for summer trips. I DO buy Jansport, though, since the no-name brands won’t make it through the year, and they aren’t on sale in February and March. If the backpack is in shreds at the end of the year, at least I don’t feel like I wasted money on it.
I, myself, do have some good, expensive backpacks that have lasted years, if not decades, and which show few signs of wear. However, I am not an elementary school student who drags the backpack on the ground, overstuffs it until the seams and zippers rip, etc.
Moutain Equipment Co-op in Canada has good quality packs (haven’t killed one yet). This one is small-kid sized at 11 litres, it would probably fit a couple of textbooks; this one is bigger and may suit when she’s a bit older. This one is the adult size but if she fills it up she could tip like a canoe!
I have an apple laptop bag, with the old rainbow logo. Some dude on the train offered me 50 bucks for it, but there is so much shit stuffed into it, I thought he was crazy. He wanted me to walk home with all the shit stuffed into my pockets or something. It’s a decent bag, and a new one would cost a bit.
They’re a little on the pricy side, but Duluth Pack makes some excellent canvas/leather bags and they offer a lifetime warranty. I have a briefcase I have with me everyday on the ambulance and it’s held up great!
Put me on the LL Bean bandwagon as well. One of their Campus Packs got me through undergrad and medical school, and it is still servicable (if beat to hell). I’ve bought two of their bags since then–a messenger-type bag and another backpack (just because I wanted two different bags).
If you get their credit card, they’ll also monogram it and ship it for free. (Just remember to keep it paid off.)
I’ve had an Eastpak since high school (late 90s). I used it all through college and now I use it as my gym bag.
I’ve had to have it replaced twice. They have an AWESOME product guarantee. You contact them and tell them what’s wrong (I think the zipper broke twice, due to over-stuffage) and they send you a product return bag. You ship your defective bag off and get a brand new one in a couple of weeks. If they don’t make the same product you’re returning, they send you the most similar current bag.
So, I spent about $40 on a backpack in 1995 or so, and still have a good, sturdy, new-ish bag with lots and room and lots of pockets to show for it.
I’ve got a black messenger bag that I bought from the uniform store at Randolph AFB (marked down from $45 to $25). In addition to the big inside pocket, it has mesh pockets on each side of the bag, a big pocket in the flap, another pocket in the front of the bag, with smaller pockets for pens, PDA, cell phone, etc. Also has a set of zippers on the back that can be unzipped to allow the bag to slip over the handle on a rolling suitcase. Even has a little mesh pocket on the flap so you can put a BDU style nametag in it so everyone knows who’s bag it is.
The bag has held up more or less for the 2 years that I’ve had it, though it is beginning to show wear and tear around where the shoulder strap attatches, and the two zippers on the back are now quite broken (which is odd, since I never use them). The mesh pockets on the sides are starting to come apart from having Starbucks Doubleshots crammed into them during Finals Week last spring.