A Brief History of the Backpack
Backpacks are a staple for many types of people: working professionals, travelers, hikers and, most of all, students. While the idea of strapping your canada goose outlet nyc gear to your back is older than we can say, canada goose coats on sale the modern student backpack is quite young about 44 years old has seen many new fads and changes in a short amount of time. From leather straps to JanSport packs, here a look at how students have carried their books through the years:
The first vessels for students books weren canada goose store cheap canada goose pack like at all, but rather a strap of leather or cloth (basically a belt) that was fastened around goose outlet canada a stack of books to make them easier to carry. Straps remained in use for many decades (viewers of Netflix The Get Down, which is set in the 1970s, may have noticed that Ezekiel carries his books to school with a book strap), but they eventually went out of fashion.
In 1938, when canada goose outlet shop Gerry Outdoors invented the first backpack with a zipper, backpacks were still primarily in use for hiking, camping and alpine recreation. Between the 1930s and some kids also made use of canvas or leather bags with a single strap, miniature briefcases that were usually called satchels, for trips to and from school. Some students could also be seen carrying their academic luggage on their backs in squared leather bags, fastened shut with buckles.
But by and large students were stuck toting their supplies by strap or by hand. In the book The Hippie Guide to Climbing the Corporate Ladder and Other Mountains: How JanSport Makes It Happen, the original JanSport salesman Skip Yowell wrote that canada goose outlet store in 1972, had no choice but to tote their textbooks and notebooks around campus with their hands. Some tied a belt around them or clutched them to their chests as they walked.
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JanSport, the world largest backpack maker, created their own lightweight nylon daypacks around this same time, designs that eventually evolved into the student backpacks canada goose outlet black friday we know today.
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Yowell writes in his book that college students at the University of Washington began to use JanSport daypacks (smaller, lighter versions of heavy duty backpacking packs) to uk canada goose outlet lug their school stuff around campus. The campus sporting goods store https://www.bamschaatsteam.nl had been selling the buy canada goose jacket cheap packs with student hikers in mind, but students co opted them for school luggage as well. Noting the cheap canada goose trend, the school sports shop manager made recommendations that prompted the company to canada goose outlet new york city create packs tailored to the needs of students. The trend stuck and spread far and wide, sparking a nationwide canada goose outlet sale movement towards backpacks designed for students and their many supplies. By the 1980s, student backpacks were fully integrated into the checklist of necessary school supplies.
While the original student backpack came about organically in response to practical student needs, novelty backpacks Canada Goose Outlet that are made mostly with canada goose outlet uk aesthetics in mind have become popular in more recent decades. Backpacks that feature shiny images of favorite children TV and movie characters demonstrate the ways in which back to school has been commercialized, and is marketed canada goose outlet online uk as a fun, sometimes whimsical time for young people. Backpacks aren just about the business of carrying things to school anymore. They a part of a student identity.
But things may be changing once again.
Now, in an age where schools are relying more and more on digital canada goose outlet reviews tools, designers are rethinking backpacks, creating smaller, sleeker bags with compartments for laptops and smartphones built in. Backpack companies are also beginning to sell accessories that supplant backpacks for students of the digital age, such as JanSport Burrito designed for students who just aren carrying many books but need mobile storage for their devices.
The evolution of backpacks from a simple strap to back to school basic possibly, to obsolete remnant of the pre digital age that backpacks can canada goose factory sale carry a lot more than books: they also a symbol of changing expectations for students and for the education system canada goose outlet in usa as a whole.
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