Just received the Light Blue Floral backpack. I was pleased with the quality of the materials but really disappointed to find the nylon straps and zippers are all olive green--a color that does not complement the cute pastel print. We went back to the web site and found that if you look REALLY closely, all of these backpacks have olive straps and zippers. Even the all-pink pack.
I'd return it, but I had it monogrammed for free as a LLBean cardholder. (By the way, if you order the light blue floral, I'd recommend getting it monogrammed elsewhere. White thread does not show up well on the print, and it's the only choice.)
I love L.L. Bean products. My children have been using the lunch bags and backpacks for years. The quality holds up to anything. Both the backpacks and lunch bags last more than just a year. However, I think the biggest miss on their original, deluxe, and junior backpacks is the SIDE MESH DRINK POCKET! It would be so easy to add this! Nearly every other pack out there has one. Having their drink bottle on the outside of the pack prevents unnecessary leaks and spills onto important school work. You cannot beat these classic packs, but I wish they would add this one little detail.
My daughter loved the light blue floral picture of the backpack, but when it arrived it's really a washed out gray color. It's not nearly as vibrant and pretty as in the picture. I think it's really ugly, but my daughter still liked it (although not as much) and we're keeping it. We haven't used it yet (bought for school this fall) so we haven't encountered any of the other issues that other reviewers have posted about yet.
I bought this back pack for my son when he started kindergarten. He used it daily for 7 years---and he was not exactly careful with it! It looked as good on his last day of 6th grade as it did the first day of kindergarten. I hesitated about the cost at first but after hearing other mom's grumble about having to constantly re-buy backpacks for their kids I was happy that I did it. Now he's on to middle-school and needs a bigger backpack so we are coming back to LL Bean to get one that will hopefully last him through high-school too. Thanks for a great product. I would highly recommend it!
