I recently bought a new backpack — it was a supposedly nice name brand backpack and pricey — 300 dollars or so. I didn’t like it — it’s dofficult to pack for the loads I carry and just very far from my optimal design.

I randomly came across a backpack in a used gear store in the mountains in Colorado, being sold on consignment — it was ancient, clearly a bag that had seen a lot of use with several patches. It’s a huge u-zip backpack with quality padding, good hip/chest straps, three (useful!) fully exterior zip pockets — two clearly well suited for water/coffee, and nothing dangly. Intrigued by this packs design, so different from all the clone backpacking bags on the market now - I bought it used for 20 dollars. This is the best backpack I’ve ever owned! I use it as a rock climbing day pack and for longer trips with air travel - I can fit everything I need in it for multi month climbing trips to Europe.

But it’s clearly very old. I packed too much weight into it and accidentally tried to pick it up once while accidentally standing on the hip strap — putting an enormous strain on the shoulder strap — which broke. This made for an unpleasant train journey in Wales until I arrived at my destination but fortunately I wasn’t too far off. And also fortunately would be staying there for several months so didn’t really need the bag for awhile.

During that time I went on a long fruitless search across the internet and brick and mortar stores to find a replacement. I searched everywhere and could not find a backpack that offered even a quarter of the joy I get from this old packs design ...

Fortunately — it turns out that mending expertise still exists in some part of the world and smallish town Wales is one such place. A friend suggested I check out a tailor to see if they could fix my broken backpack strap. Long story short — 13 pounds later — they did it!! I also asked them to reinforce the other strap.

Result: I couldn’t be happier. The love and admiration I now have for this tailor is substantial. Fixing things is still possible — and fixing that are worth fixing is enormously valuable. Honestly I feel guilty to only have paid 13 pounds for the work of that expert seamstress - in the future I would pay 300 dollars to keep this bag going if I could rather than buying a new bag that is not fit for purpose from day one ...