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Comment by jerlam | Hacker News Reader

I'll hazard a guess - Japan is a walking society, and these backpacks are being worn every day, laden with books, back and forth from home to school, or on buses or the subway.

Americans generally get driven to school. The backpack is worn only between classes at school and then moved from car trunk to home, not worn during those times.

I personally wore out a $100 Eddie Bauer backpack every other year or so during middle/high school. I walked to school every day for over a mile, rain or shine. The zippers would completely fail, or the shoulder straps would detach. Eddie Bauer had a lifetime warranty so they replaced the backpacks without question.

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My kid has been using the same $100 bag for his entire school career. He’s in 5th grade and walks to school over a mile 90% of the year. In a northern climate. That bag looks like it will last another 5-10 years.

Frankly, his classmates have cheaper bags with similar outcomes so I doubt price is highly correlated with performance past a certain price point.

When I was in school in the 80s-90s I pretty much nevvvverrrr saw kids reusing bags for multiple years.

I think cheap bags were just crappier back then

But even the Jansports seemed to get replaced. I think kids were just rougher on their bags back then. I remember my bags absolutely bulging with 4-5 big hardbound textbooks. Don't see that much any more.

Cheap Jansport backpack zippers didn't last long.

Stitching-related zipper failure, or the zipper itself?

I feel like stitching in general is where Jansports fail first.... you have to abuse them pretty hard to wear out the material or bust a zipper directly, but the stitching on Jansports is not amazing.

Don't get me wrong... the price/performance/durability of Jansports is INSANE

but they maybe are venerated a little too hard

Jansports had a lifetime warranty, I think?

They did, but you had to do without for a few weeks while they replaced it.

German kids (typically) don't get driven to school, and get by with cheaper backpacks.

It's not uncommon nowadays to pay 300€ for a Schulranzan in Germany [1] for 4 years of primary school, as opposed to 450$ of the price paid in Japan for 6 years. I don't see a fundamental difference.

[1] https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/news/scout-bis-zu-300-euro-k...

I guess things have changed since I went to school 20-30 years ago.

I'm guessing when you have a $450 back pack you're also taught to take care of it. A zipperless buckle/draw string bag with performance fabrics would probably be just as durable as these bags. And I'm not convinced these bags are provide buyitforlife value since a lot of videos show old bags getting repaired/restored which considering the materials and construction involved, probably cost as much as a new bag. The manufacturers has a section on leather care and maintenance when alternative is to throw a fabric bag in the wash.

I used a single ~$200 REI backpack for all of high school and college. In high school I either took the bus or rode my bike to school, and college was exclusively walking. I replaced it after college because it was incredibly grubby and overkill now that I'm no longer hauling textbooks around, but I still have it and it's perfectly functional

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