Backpacks

Backpacks began emerging as an accessory for high school students in the 1980s. Today, backpacks are a $2 billion business with double-digit growth. Jansport and its hip sister company, North Face, makeup half of all the small backpacks sold. Simple $15 packs, with two zippered pockets are so 1990s. Today students pack them with laptops, cellphones, and iPods. Tumi had a backpack that cost $695 last year, that had a solar panel to charge iPods and cellphones. "A bag is a badge. It's a statement of how cool you are," says Alan Krantzler, marketing chief of Tumi. Technology is what's pushing the design envelope to reinvent backpacks. Most packs have cellphone and iPod holders. Many have portals that ear buds can fit through. Some have buttons on the straps to control iPods and cellphones without taking the pack off. They even have tiny speakers sewn into the straps. So what kind of backpacks will you see this school year where you live? Gone are the days when I was in high school (1968-1972) when guys carried books in one arm. Girls carried their books with two arms across their chests. And if you were dating, the guy would carry his girlfriend's books in the other arm. Simpler days, but...
These are the days my friend,
Jim "Train"