He is special needs so it helps to have a backpack on wheels. There is lots of room and it holds up to all the abuse he puts on it. The only issue we have had is with the zippers. They keep getting caught on the cloth flap over the zippers. First day of school I couldnt even get the pack open. They could do without that flap on there because I think it would easily rip and tear up the bag when the zipper gets caught--which happens frequently
Our family has used Bean Backpacks for years, and are still using the first one my husband bought for college 20 years ago! Found a higher priced name brand rolling pack (non-LLBean) on clearance, bought it for my daughter in first grade. It didn't even last until Christmas. Got her this one instead, and she's going on her 3rd year with it, still looks brand new! We learned our lesson and will never buy a pack anywhere except LLBean!
This is the first LL Bean backpack I purchased and it is definately worth the money! I bought this for my 5th grader last year and it still looks brand new after a year of use. We did have problems with the first extension handle (it snapped off after 3 days of use). LL Bean customer service was fabulous and sent us a new one overnight so she would have a backpack for school. We didn't have any more issues after that. Quite honestly I'm wondering if she didn't really know how to retract it properly. It also did take some work to zip the back zipper since the fabric didn't fold back but she got the hang of it and never complained about it again. This year when we were getting ready for school I was shocked to find that it looked brand new. She has never been able to use a backpack for 2 years. The only problem this year is that she has a locker and it will not fit in it because of the wheels. She was very disappointed and considered just keeping it in the back of the classroom however we found the HeatWave Messanger bag which I'm sure she will love. I know that she will use the rolling backpack again for either school or airline travel!
We have been buying LLBean backpacks for years, but this one didn't really hold up that well. Within the first month it had worn through in places on the bottom from rubbing when our daughter pulled it up and down stairs. I will say that when I called LLBean about it, they offered to replace it, but I never found the time to box it up and mail it back. So this year we will get a different rolling pack.
