What Kids' Backpacks Say About Them
These bags are one of the most constant material items in a kid’s life, and they serve as both status symbols and intimate companions.
When Eric Ushiroda moved to a tiny Japanese village in the mid-1990s to work as a teacher, there was one thing he learned almost immediately: His middle-school students in this chilly, forested town were obsessed with L.L. Bean backpacks. A recent graduate of the University of Hawaii who’d applied for the teaching job as part of an exchange program, Ushiroda didn’t own winter clothing. Mail-order catalogs were the easiest way for him to get what he needed, living in a rural town. So he ordered some thermal underwear and fleece jackets from L.L. Bean.
He also bought the “ and, naturally, Might as well, he thought. It
