I bought a north face backpack for college in 1998. It cost $60. It was an extravagant expense for me at the time and I felt horrible about it for weeks.

That backpack is currently at college with my son, who used it all through high school as well. It is by far the oldest and most durable daily-use object I’ve ever owned.

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xnyan 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

A cheap backpack ended up being the most expensive backpack I have ever owned.

In 2004 I was very young and all my income came from summer jobs, so I got a backpack from Walmart. It was one of their nicer models, had a lot of features and looked pretty good. IIRC it cost $20. I had worked all summer to save for an MP3 player, and 2 months after getting that backpack I getting off a bus, when I realized there was already a hole in the bottom of the bag. My MP3 player (a creative zen micro) had slipped out of the bag, and someone had already picked up my MP3 player and walked away with it. Adjusted for inflation I spent over $500 on that MP3 player. Even as an avid backpacker, I have not spent that much on fairly nice packs.

In 2007 I splurged and paid $100 for a backpack from Deuter, and I also felt a lot of guilt as that was a huge amount of money for me at the time for something like a backpack. It's been nearly 20 years, it's not just that the backpack is still working, it still functions virtually like new. None of the seams are stretching, even though it's been through incredible overstuffing and abuse. All of the zippers are smooth as silk, and even the cushioning on the straps and airflow offsets on the back are still supple and supportive.

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cmoski 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

I spent ~$400 on a Deuter baby/toddler backpack two years ago and it still works. Beautiful thing.

	▲	xnyan 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		We are the third owner of our Deuter baby/toddler backpack. We use it a fair a bit and it still looks like new. We don't need it anymore, so it's going on to a 4th owner who's going to get an amazing, comfortable, near-new carrier for the same token $20 bucks we paid.

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stavros 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Same, I was gifted a Sandqvist backpack ten years ago. I travel with it as my sole piece of luggage (you can imagine the overstuffing). It has outlived three laptop backpacks that don't go through half as much as it has.

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Cider9986 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I bought a north face backpack 4 years ago. Looks brand new.

	▲	kstrauser 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		It mentioned in the article that their higher end models are still well made. I bet you can still get nice NF or JanSport bags if you’re careful. If I had to guess, I’d say the models at REI are decent (or else they’d get yanked) while the ones at Target are the chintzy ones.

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throw949404 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How much does it weight? 6 pounds?

Good lightweight backpacks are not that durable. I have 12 years old 1.5 pound osprey, still in use, but age really shows.

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enraged_camel 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

First day of my college freshman year, I purchased a Targus backpack for the heavy ass gaming laptop I had back then. I still use it decades later. It has carried stuff inside it for tens of thousands of miles, seen lots of abuse, weathered all sorts of conditions, and is still in really good shape. Not a single tear. Every compartment, every feature works the way it did on day of purchase. I'm honestly amazed every time I use it.

	▲	thr0w__4w4y 19 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Pretty much the same story here. I'm on my 2nd Targus TXL617 (holds 17" laptop) in 18(?) years and I use it for everything every day. I've even used it for a short 3-day international business trip. I've used it at a dusty shooting range in the desert. It's been dropped, dragged, kicked, bitten (friend's dog) etc. and it still holds up. I think Targus stopped making this model (maybe a trend towards smaller laptops), hopefully this one will keep working for a while before I need to find a good replacement.
	▲	swah 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		What if its just bad use? I have some nice Targus model that I actually bought a second one because the zippers were opening. To my surprise, in a few weeks I got my first instance of zippers opening. Of course, I was overstuffing a bit at the top. I remembered that I had removed some guards that transform this model from more like a regular backpack to a clamshell. Maybe that is a very important feature I have to use, or the zippers will fail, when you carry a basketball there...

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FireBeyond 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah, I went to work for a law firm when I was 22, and I bought myself a 3/4 length cashmere-wool overcoat, and it was $750, and my parents thought it was ridiculous to spend that.

I'm 48 and not only do I still have it, it still looks like new, with no real care taken of it - wear it, put it away. The only issue I had was the liner in one arm pit started to unstitch a couple of inches, and a tailor took care of it in 20 minutes for $10 a decade ago.

	▲	ghighi7878 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		You are definitely using it well. Not all people are such good carers of their stuff. My friend and I both both 200 Euro coat. Mine got worn out in 4 years, his is still going strong 10 years now. Same with other stuff. I just use my stuff very roughly. No point buying expensive stuff then