The article tries to articulate the value add through attention to detail in manufacturing "so the bags survive 6 years of rough and tumble", but I'm not really getting it. What am I missing?
I had a $60-in-1995 northface backpack that lasted through hauling 5+ periods of textbooks every day, walking and biking to middle school and highschool. It worked fine, in fact my dad still uses it (30 years later) to hold and transport teaching materials for a college course he teaches. Lots of kids got by with a single basic $25 Jansport.
Today, kids in the U.S. don't even tote many (or any) books, most of the content and schoolwork takes place on a lightweight Chromebook that stays in the classroom.
The moment you add an aspect of culture and social pressure all economics goes out of the window. The bags cost $450 because it is the expectation that grandparents will buy an expensive school bag for their grandkids, that's it. Everything else ("it's handcrafted!", "it has 200 parts!", "it's durable") is reverse justification from there.
It's the same as trying to figure out why a tiny piece of abundant rock costs thousands of dollars when sold as an "engagement ring".
> Everything else ("it's handcrafted!", "it's durable!") is a reverse justification from there.
Thanks for this, exactly. It's the same thing with designer bags. After the rise of "superfake" luxury bags that cost literally a tenth of the real thing, I remember reading some blogs trying to argue why people should buy authentic, basing it on BS "handcrafted quality!" reasons (the reason they were called "superfakes" in the first place is because the quality was basically as good as the original). Sure, some of the reasons were actually true (it does cost a lot more to pay workers in France compared to China), but any rationale besides "I want other people to know I spent a lot of money on a bag" is just post hoc rationalization.
> Sure, some of the reasons were actually true (it does cost a lot more to pay workers in France compared to China)
Even that, is not a problem that the consumer has to solve if the superfakes can attain the same quality using cheaper labour. In that case supporting local jobs could be a justification, not quality (again, assuming that the quality is the same).
> The moment you add an aspect of culture and social pressure...
yep I personally think gender reveal, 21st birthday all out party and easter egg are senseless but here we are
Curious coincidence, I bought a randoseru (ランドセル) [1][2][3] early this morning and complained to my wife all the way to the store. She doesn’t want our children to look different at school. They are already different enough for being hāfu [4] and she doesn’t want to traumatize them even more. The bags are stiff and, in my eyes, quite ugly, and children are supposed to carry several books every day, good exercise but there are much better alternatives. Schools are just too bully to let anyone use a different style.
As the saying goes → 出る杭は打たれる “The stake that sticks out will be driven down.”
This may well be for the best. It's good to fight against bad traditions, but don't use your kids as the battlefield. Being forced by their parents to be "different" can really make a kids' life into hell.
I enjoyed the article but like much of online content about Japan it comes off like obsessive fan service.
Can you imagine carrying 1-2kg empty backpack with you every day? Just because something took long to make doesn't mean it's superior in production or quality or even perception. It's pretty, fashionable and the tradition is wholesome but that's where it ends.
I got a free backpack with my new Thinkpad laptop recently. It's light, well designed, mass produced, easy to personalize - would take this over the 450$ school bags any time of the year.
I got a free backpack with my new Thinkpad laptop recently.
It's light, well designed, mass produced, easy to personalize
- would take this over the 450$ school bags any time of the year.
Just to be clear: you're using your freebie bag to carry a laptop and not 6kg/13lb of schoolbooks, correct?
Something tells me the answer is "yes" which kind of makes me wonder why you're mentioning it
Do you also drive around in a compact car and think "man this is so much better than a school bus" and pat yourself on the back every time you see a school bus
I'm confused how is that relevant what's being carried in it? in fact the flexible synthethic backpack molds much better to variable-sized objects you'd put in it rather than giant square leather bucket.
Weight pulls on seams and fabric, and since they're likely to cut costs on something they give away for free, carrying a high weight would probably shortening its lifespan
It is if you're a schoolkid. The difference between a flexible 500gram backpack and 2kg hard edge backpack is massive and in fact not recommended by most health experts. Ergonomics matter.
You specifically addressed the idea of an HN poster having one, though, and compared it to your current bag.
It's a bit much for elementary school but I had a pretty big backpack by about grade 5, and my current 2kg backpack is quite comfortable.
> The difference between a flexible 500gram backpack and 2kg hard edge backpack is massive and in fact not recommended by most health experts. Ergonomics matter.
Sure, in that the vast majority of the difference is the hard edges.
Though you don't actually want much flexibility when you're putting textbooks into a backpack. You want relatively stiff padding to protect you.
I can imagine because I did it. Many kids might learn out of Chromebooks in the US, but textbooks and copybooks continue to have value for many people, and don't depend on security patches or constant charging. For years I carried 6-7kg of books up and down steep hills for a mile each day, rain or shine. While I'm also a big fan of modern backpacks, purpose built ones designed to last have their own value.
I'll hazard a guess - Japan is a walking society, and these backpacks are being worn every day, laden with books, back and forth from home to school, or on buses or the subway.
Americans generally get driven to school. The backpack is worn only between classes at school and then moved from car trunk to home, not worn during those times.
I personally wore out a $100 Eddie Bauer backpack every other year or so during middle/high school. I walked to school every day for over a mile, rain or shine. The zippers would completely fail, or the shoulder straps would detach. Eddie Bauer had a lifetime warranty so they replaced the backpacks without question.
My kid has been using the same $100 bag for his entire school career. He’s in 5th grade and walks to school over a mile 90% of the year. In a northern climate. That bag looks like it will last another 5-10 years.
Frankly, his classmates have cheaper bags with similar outcomes so I doubt price is highly correlated with performance past a certain price point.
When I was in school in the 80s-90s I pretty much nevvvverrrr saw kids reusing bags for multiple years.
I think cheap bags were just crappier back then
But even the Jansports seemed to get replaced. I think kids were just rougher on their bags back then. I remember my bags absolutely bulging with 4-5 big hardbound textbooks. Don't see that much any more.
Stitching-related zipper failure, or the zipper itself?
I feel like stitching in general is where Jansports fail first.... you have to abuse them pretty hard to wear out the material or bust a zipper directly, but the stitching on Jansports is not amazing.
Don't get me wrong... the price/performance/durability of Jansports is INSANE
It's not uncommon nowadays to pay 300€ for a Schulranzan in Germany [1] for 4 years of primary school, as opposed to 450$ of the price paid in Japan for 6 years. I don't see a fundamental difference.
I'm guessing when you have a $450 back pack you're also taught to take care of it. A zipperless buckle/draw string bag with performance fabrics would probably be just as durable as these bags. And I'm not convinced these bags are provide buyitforlife value since a lot of videos show old bags getting repaired/restored which considering the materials and construction involved, probably cost as much as a new bag. The manufacturers has a section on leather care and maintenance when alternative is to throw a fabric bag in the wash.
I used a single ~$200 REI backpack for all of high school and college. In high school I either took the bus or rode my bike to school, and college was exclusively walking. I replaced it after college because it was incredibly grubby and overkill now that I'm no longer hauling textbooks around, but I still have it and it's perfectly functional
The article seems to be aware of the fact that plastic backpacks can be durable too: "Some schools in Shimane prefecture have moved to city-provided lightweight nylon backpacks called ran-bags (yeah, don’t ask me how they name things in Japan). Unlike the randoseru, these cost a much more affordable 8,000 yen (57 USD), are lighter, and just as durable."
Also, you add your kid to Club 450 USD-schoolbag. That can be good or bad, as the other kids in that club may or may not be assholes and your kid may or may not want to be in that club. Does your kid even want to be the kid with the 450 USD school bag?
I came from a family that could easily have afforded the 450 USD school bag. But that would have been ridiculous to me. If you are rich and want to teach your kid to treat money so they can survive without inheritance, you definitely should do the opposite of buying them the 450 USD school bag. A lot about a good person is about valuing the right things the right amount. School bags are cool, but bad ones are not that much worse than 450 USD ones.
As someone coming from one of the richer families in my schools I always was the guy using what was there. My brothers old bag, some rucksack that wasn't in use anymore, a shopping bag. I certainly never looked rich. If I wanted anything more I had to buy it using my own money, and that was slimmer than the money of some of my poorer peers. If I made my case well and long enough in front of my parents they would support what I was trying to get with a fraction of their money. And there was always birthdays/christmas. I was one of the few kids in school not playing the game of defining yourself via branded cloths and I had a convinced stand on that. Nobody that I truly cared about gave a damn about this anyways, quite the opposite: Many had respect for me not playing these games and having the convidence to do it. To
My parents not just buying me every shit was one of the best educational things they ever did (and they did a lot of good).
450 USD is a lot of money for any bag, the only kind where this kind of money makes sense is specialized hiking gear (if you hike enough to justify the expense). But sometimes not spending 450 USD on a bag is the lesson you need to teach your kid.
My kids carry a ton of books, I'm a large guy and find their bags weigh a ton, it's awful for my kids. I have a 5'3 100' daughter and her bag weighs a significant portion of her own weight.
And their Chromebooks are not the tiny svelte high end ones. They're the chunky cheap and heavy ones too. And they're Middleschool, so can't leave them in one classroom, they get toted around, and back to home for homework every day.
> Today, kids in the U.S. don't even tote many (or any) books, most of the content and schoolwork takes place on a lightweight Chromebook that stays in the classroom.
This may be a regional thing, because my kids have to lug heavier loads back and forth to school every day than I ever had to when I was a kid, and that's on top of their Chromebooks and sometimes an instrument for band. They also don't get lockers big enough to store anything substantial so they've got to carry everything all the time. We pretty much go through a new backpack each year for each kid because they get so worn down from having their capacity continuously stretched to the limit.
Man I'm kind of a bag snob but even pricier brands that differentiate on quality and worker wages are not $400.
I got a Tom Bihn Synapse backpack for around $200 in 2017 that I've traveled to many countries with and has been through I think way more than a kid going to elementary school. It's still going strong today.
It was made in a US factory with workers being paid good wages. $400 is a luxury/captive audience/conspicuous consumption price point.
Sounds similar to my Frost River Geologist Pack, which is around the same price point and handcrafted in Minnesota. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of it while often lugging 35+ lbs of stuff, and it seems pretty much indestructible.
$450 for an equivalent bag could be explained by things like cost of living differences, but the randoseru described in the article are smaller and made from less expensive materials. The design is arguably a little more complicated, but the price still seems high for what you're getting.
Craftsman also use to make each nail by hand. Looks like kids getting saddled with heavy 200 year old bag designs whose function hasn't updated with the times.
However, that works both ways. It's wrong to say someone is "disrespectful" and "misunderstanding quality goods" because they don't want to get their kid a $450 bag instead of a cheaper, still-durable one.
But lets just say that I exist within the FANG dystopia where at any moment I can be wrangled into a meeting with a half dozen people, that if you actually consider the salaries, headcount, and time, racks up to hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars burned. For the takeaway that the modal should be fullscreen, or that we are dramatically adjusting our "design system", or whatever may have been so mission critical. Real tangible goods.
But perhaps what I do is worth more, I mean, we are talkin' computers here! we are the true craftsmen!
> Today, kids in the U.S. don't even tote many (or any) books, most of the content and schoolwork takes place on a lightweight Chromebook that stays in the classroom.
> I had a $60-in-1995 northface backpack that lasted through hauling 5+ periods of textbooks every day
Mine did that, and has since been lying out in the rain in the back yard holding firewood. It's a decade+ later and the thing is still perfectly fine other than being a bit dirty. Bet a good wash would get it back to being perfectly usable as a backpack.
I’m with you on that. I’ve had a north face bag for almost 20 years (and it looks like it!) but it’s still strong as can be.
The unfortunate thing is I was in the market for a new bag and went to the north face store of course and the only bag they had in the whole store was some shoestring style bag. Quite disappointing to see north face forget their roots.
Hello! Author here. Pleasantly surprised to see this on the front page! I thought I'd address a couple of questions here:
- Why is it so expensive?
You can definitely buy cheaper randoserus made in China and these are giving lower-end Japanese manufacturers a run for their money. For example, https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B09H5RLGQF is around 45 dollars.
Even off-the-shelf Japanese randoserus are cheaper than the customized ones.
Some basic reasons for the high cost are: materials (leather, fake leather) are expensive, there are many parts, manual assembly, and the variations and customizations don't lend themselves to scale.
Randoseru often last longer with good care, and are in fact passed down. Many organizations also collect and donate used randoseru to the less privileged. There are also businesses that will recycle the high quality materials into other accessories: See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHcgol5i7gs
In addition to this, some people also get their randoseru "minified", where it's cut up and a fist sized version made. My wife still has hers.
My son just received his first randoseru and the company that made it offers to "minify" using almost all of the original key parts from his, in the future.
While I think Japanese society has lots of good traits and outcomes such as a low crime rate, and a ethic to involve everyone in process improvements, this is another clear example of what the English call "keeping up appearances". It seems Japanese call it "tatemae" -
https://japan-dev.com/blog/honne-and-tatemae
If it's so expensive and durable, where does that bag go after school? Why does each generation have to buy new bags, why are they not passed down from parents to children?
Do you expect a sensible “because of reason X” answer to those questions?
I have zero expectation of rationality from this type of thing. People will give reasons to buy a new one, just like you gave reasons to use an old one. But ultimately it is the cost/benefit of aligning behaviors with other people which will drive their decisions.
A new randoseru made of genuine or synthetic leather can carry a price tag of around 30,000–40,000 yen at a chain store/supermarket. Typically randoseru from department stores or traditional workshops will be priced in the region of 55,000–70,000 yen, with some models (particularly those branded with logos) reaching over 100,000 yen. Clarino, a synthetic material frequently used as a substitute, reduces the cost somewhat. Often randoseru are available on auction sites in new or used condition at much lower prices, particularly after the start of the Japanese school year in April. As of January 2012, the five top randoseru in order of popularity at Amazon.co.jp are in the range of ¥8,280–¥16,980 yen.
Translating those numbers to US dollars and rounding a bit, we get:
New one at the supermarket: US$ 210-280
Department store or traditional workshop: US$ 390-400
Prestigious logo: $700
Most popular on Amazon.co.jp back in 2012: US$ 60-120.
What the distribution of sales are between those $60 bags and those $700 bags is, and how much shit a kid carrying a $60 bag will get from the kids carrying the pricier ones, I dunno. It certainly seems that Mr. and Mrs. One-From-Nippon are definitely looking at some upscale-ass randoseru though.
I ran with the same Jansport bag from 1989-2000. I wonder if they still offer that awesome warranty? As a kid my family really didn't know about it and it was pre-internet. My grandma was amazing repairing it. These bags do look pretty cool IMO but I feel there's more to the price that is essentially the generational guilt-trip of a custom that makes it that price.
I was going to say something similar, I think I had the same cheap Jansport pack from the mid-80s until well into college. Replaced it with another <$25 pack from Costco that I've kept until now. The main difference has been the inclusion of a padded laptop pocket.
The free backpacks I get every so often from work are "ok". My employer gave me a <$100-ish pack I've also enjoyed for the last decade or so without trouble.
Unless that pack comes with a bit of gold in it, or part of a college degree, I have no idea what makes it worth it.
I was talking about randoseru with my daughter just the other day. She and her sister both attended Japanese public elementary schools and used the same randoseru for all six years. Though she was tall for her age, she complained about the weight of it then and doesn’t have fond memories of it now. Her son will be starting at a public elementary school in Yokohama in a couple of years, and she doesn’t seem eager to get a randoseru for him. While some of the kids I see walking to and from that school have randoseru, most are carrying lighter and more versatile cloth backpacks.
This grandparent will be happy to pay for whatever my daughter wants for her son, though it’s likely that she will insist on paying for it herself.
To insert a sentence that has nothing to do with the topic, I am in China. My daughter is in the second grade of elementary school. Her schoolbag must weigh 6 kilograms and contains various books, exercise books, and test papers. This was not the case when I was in elementary school. My little schoolbag was empty, with only 2 books and 2 thin notebooks. Nowadays, children have too much homework and they have to write until 10pm every day.
This isn't really the math. A $50 backpack from a decent brand will easily last 5-10 years under normal use. You aren't getting anything extra in terms of durability from the $400+ worth of exotic materials and handcrafting. It's a signal of social status, like any other piece of luxury fashion, but not much more than that.
What's "normal use"? Here was my "normal use" as a student in the 1980s and 1990s.
- 4 or 5 large books at once, bag often fairly bulging
- Zipped and unzipped probably > 20x daily
- Dropped onto school, home, and schoolbus floors dozens of
times daily with various levels of care
- Some walking, some weather exposure (less for me than
many others)
- One strap always carrying 100% of the load because the style
was to wear it over one shoulder; it was never acceptable
to wear it with a strap over each shoulder as actually
designed
Anecdotally I didn't see a lot of $50 Jansports lasting multiple years under those conditions and even if they did they would be pretty grungy.
Now... today as a middle-aged adult? Yes, a $50 Jansport easily lasts me 10+ years, probably more like 30, basically a lifetime purchase.
Also... today as a student? I guess it's less physical books and more Chromebooks so sure yeah maybe $50 Jansports can be lifetime purchases for kids, why the hell not
Maybe I'm talking out of my ass but this seems to be designed for regimented JP primary school life. Rigid central compartment for books. No need to accomodate for lunch boxes or water since you get that at school. Or you clothes/shoes for sports and after school activities.
I think many kids carry a packed lunch (bento) but carry it separately in a box wrapped in a cloth or separate bag.
I've not visited nor lived in Japan, I'm sure somebody can correct/expand.
I know what you mean about BIFL culture. IMHO r/buyitforlife is full of people who clearly seem to be jumping through hoops in order to justify some pretty expensive and overkill purchases they've already got their heart set on.
But that is not the angle I'm thinking from.
I did not see Jansports lasting people ten years when I was in school.
If anything... there's probably some generation gap stuff going on here. $50 Jansports did not typically last people that long when I went to school. But they also made us carry way more heavy-ass books than today I think.
My solution to heavy-ass books was to re-bind individual chapters in 50¢ report covers after paying a copy shop about $2/book to cut out and three-hole punch the pages, and only carry the chapters I was actively using, which easily fit in a vertical messenger bag designed for small laptops.
That's, uh, not exactly universally applicable is it?
Or have they finally quashed the used book market entirely? Most fellow college/uni students valued getting a few bucks back for their books at the end of a semester.
Also this obviously can't work for primary school students who can't destroy their books at will.
Also, more to the point: I suspect that the environmental impact of this "BIFL" leather bag absolutely dwarfs the impact of multiple nylon bags so I did not have some BIFL-y agenda... =)
Probably not. Though I did leave plenty of stuff behind in Singapore (like on the train etc), which is about as safe as Japan. Much of which, I got back, and some was lost forever.
I _love_ Japanese dedication to craft; really any hyper-focused efforts, but i digress.
The problem that I have with this of course is families who cannot afford these really well made pieces of gear (touched on at the end of the article) and where children who can't afford it are ostracized because of it.
Growing up I was on meal plans due to our financial status and paying in physical tickets, made me and the others like me a small target of ridicule. Personally I don't think it was a lot, but naturally we banded together and became friends simply because we paid for lunches a particular way.
The social pressure is crazy and unnecessary and feel terrible for the kids who can't have it as well as the families who literally sacrifice for it.
It is not about money, it is about fitting in. Kids don't care how expensive the thing is, it just has to be a certain way.
Of course, those who sell the things kids use have every incentive to make it cool to spend a lot of money. It is, btw, among the worst kind of advertising. They target kids, who can be easily manipulated, so that they, in turn, convince their parents. It is sometimes close to a hostage situation, where if parents don't get the expensive thing, their kid gets bullied.
Some people want to bring back (affordable!) school uniforms for that reason.
I have a Saddleback thin front pocket backpack that’s currently 7 years old. I plan on passing it down to my grandson when he graduates college in around 20 years and he can pass it down to his grandkid when he is done with it.
We needed very durable backpacks when I was in high school because our books were so heavy, and my school had no lockers (so you were carrying 4-5 textbooks at all times). But as students have shifted to online learning platforms, wouldn't they have less of a need for extremely sturdy/roomy backpacks? I recently spoke to a college grad who said that all of his learning in HS was online, meaning he never needed to carry any textbooks. Do they not use online learning materials as much in Japan? Or is this a cultural phenomenon that will change slowly, even though the need has changed?
We were very grateful that in senior year there was an extra set of bio textbooks available in the classroom. Those suckers (Campbell) were monsters! For our other classes it was pretty much mandatory to bring your book, or risk the wrath of your teacher.
In college a friend had a leather school bag, which, I recall, he described as used by primary school students in Holland. Same sort of concept. It’s meant to last for your primary schooling. Made from leather, in the shape of a briefcase with shoulder straps.
I think the idea is if you take care of it as a child, then at some point you transition from stiff shoulder bag to broken-in briefcase—or something like that. Symbolic of a transition to adulthood.
BTW-That video was really lovely. I liked the simple montage of the workers at the end.
Seems like a great way to ensure money is spent within the local economy.
The backpacks look amazing.
In Canada catholic high schools students still wear uniforms. The uniforms are made to last. And the Canadian company that makes them has been in business for 50 years.
> After a few rounds of bastardization, ransel became “randoseru” in Japanese.
I thought there was actually a formal transliteration system the Japanese use for foreign words? Like with cutlet becoming katsu retsu. Not quite “bastardization”.
There is a formulaic way to transliterate words based either on their roman lettering or their pronunciation in their native tongue. But loanwords aren't always mere transliterations, they often have some kind of adaptation or simplification. So like for example the word building would be nigh impossible to transliterate relying on its roman lettering alone. It would have to be pronounced something like buierujingu. Using its pronunciation in English would be a better starting point; transcribing that into Japanese sounds would be like birujingu. And what Japanese actually does is take birujingu and cut it in half, and thus the actual word for building is biru. (Well, not exactly. Biru is just talking about modern buildings, like concrete and/or steel construction. The word for "building" in general is tatemono.)
I don’t know if there’s a formal method, but there is a method – given an English word, I can almost always figure out how to say it as an English-to-Japanese loanword. Somehow. I think it’s just something that comes naturally once you understand the phonetics?
Interesting points about the nuances of a $450 bag that’s rather impractical when it’s more a story than a justification. I’m just here to comment that this was a lovely read, thanks for posting!
$450 for a custom, hand-made leather backpack is a pretty decent price. Leather bags last forever if taken care of and look better as they age. That could easily be a lifetime bag.
"That's ludicrous!", he says, as he avoids looking at the Filson bag next to his chair.
(Although, in fairness, I don't expect to ever have to buy another bag, and I'll take better care of this than I would've any bag my elders gave me as a child.)
I had a $60-in-1995 northface backpack that lasted through hauling 5+ periods of textbooks every day, walking and biking to middle school and highschool. It worked fine, in fact my dad still uses it (30 years later) to hold and transport teaching materials for a college course he teaches. Lots of kids got by with a single basic $25 Jansport.
Today, kids in the U.S. don't even tote many (or any) books, most of the content and schoolwork takes place on a lightweight Chromebook that stays in the classroom.