When my son was born in 2001 I wasn't a big fan of the baby bags on the market. As a former LL Bean Deluxe backpack user, I opted for the Original Book Pack to use as his baby bag. This bag has been through the ultimate test of backpacks! It's been thrown in trucks, tractors, barns, buses, babysitters houses. It's traveled half of these United States and looks as good as the first day it came home. My son was in preschool programs for 3 years, as well as Kindergarten and First grade. He's now homeschooled and wants a different color and the deluxe bag to take his books on trips. (My parents just moved to Florida, so I'm sure we'll be using it as a carry on too!) All of the other book bags look great on the first day of school. By the time the kids go back from Christmas break all of the others are disgusting and falling apart. The washability of these is also a huge plus! They always look brand new out of the wash. I tell EVERYONE about these bags. I know tons of moms with 2-4kids who easily spend $100-150 on book packs EVERY year! I'm starting to think I'll just buy these for our closest friend's kids for birthdays and eventually they will all have one backpack that will make it through till college! The value is unbeatable. Although I've never had to, I know that if anything ever happened I could send it back. My Aunt has done that once and was very pleased. Save your pennies! By it once and buy it right!
This is our favorite backpack! We tried another brand but we went back to this one. Well made and opens wide to get things in and out easily. Just the right size for our 2nd grader! We will buy another!!
I just purchased this for my 2nd grade daughter. She loves it, but would have preferred it in a "hot" pink color. My 4th grade son has one that he has been using since 2nd grade as well. They had both been using the Junior size from preschool through 2nd grade (also LL Bean). The only reason we bought the new ones was because they are bigger. All of their friends get new backpacks every year, but because of the LL Bean quality, we don't need to!
I bought this backpack for my son when he started 1st grade and he is still using it now that he is entering 9th grade. It has no signs of wear, even with the heavy load of books he carries every day. He will probably use it all the way through high school. This is an outstanding quality product.
