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I, Backpack

kortina.nyc

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Re: I, Backpack

#21

Post by cpach »

dwg wrote: post #14
lancefisher wrote: post #8

Another alternative is to buy quality in the first place. I spent around $100 on a Patagonia backpack, and it’s been in everyday use for over 6 years and is still fine. If it does fail, Patagonia has an excellent repair program.

Yep! A few points about this... I have noticed that many "quality" brands tend to introduce lower quality lines as they grow in size. Perhaps as they hire more business folks and the founders becomes further and further removed from the operation of the company. At first glance the lower quality line can be hard to tell apart from the higher quality products. Also, price does not necessarily determine quality so it p…

This. I used to carry Fjällräven backpacks. That brand is/was basically Sweden’s Patagonia. If you bought a Kånken model backpack in the eighties, it would last forever. Then sometime in the 00s they moved production to Asia. Guess what happened to the quality …

Re: I, Backpack

#22

Post by almog »

It would have taken less time and money to just sew it by hand. You can use scrap material, or order fabric from ripstopbytheroll.com (a popular supplier for anything MYOG).

I buy most of my long distance hiking gear from US cottage shops which have great service but sometimes you have to mend your pack or tarp yourself on the field. It's quite easy once you get into the habit of doing it early rather than letting it disintegrate into nothingness.

Re: I, Backpack

#23

Post by techsupporter »

lancefisher wrote: post #8

Another alternative is to buy quality in the first place. I spent around $100 on a Patagonia backpack, and it’s been in everyday use for over 6 years and is still fine. If it does fail, Patagonia has an excellent repair program.

That's what I did. After faffing about with various cheap bags from a variety of places, I heard about Tom Bihn's backpacks. I went to their showroom in Seattle, tried on a few backpacks, and left with one[0] that fit nicely against my back and had all of the pockets I could want.

That was four (five?) years ago and that bag has been on multiple vacations and work trips and carried every day by bus and train and walking, in the rain and snow and dry, with nothing but a little dirt.

0 - This is the one I got: https://www.tombihn.com/products/synapse-25

Re: I, Backpack

#24

Post by jdefelice »

San Francisco has a a few backpack makers, some of which off a lifetime warranty, Mission Workshops for example.

As an hobbyists backpack maker, who has made backpacks with padding on vintage domestic sewing machines it could have been repaired with the know how.

Re: I, Backpack

#25

Post by wiredfool »

techsupporter wrote: post #23
lancefisher wrote: post #8

Another alternative is to buy quality in the first place. I spent around $100 on a Patagonia backpack, and it’s been in everyday use for over 6 years and is still fine. If it does fail, Patagonia has an excellent repair program.

That's what I did. After faffing about with various cheap bags from a variety of places, I heard about Tom Bihn's backpacks. I went to their showroom in Seattle, tried on a few backpacks, and left with one[0] that fit nicely against my back and had all of the pockets I could want. That was four (five?) years ago and that bag has been on multiple vacations and work trips and carried every day by bus and train and walk…

I've had a pair of Tom Bihn's bags for 10+ years now, and they're still going strong.

The shoulder pad on the little messenger bag is going, but that's a wear item, and the rest of the bag is totally solid. The backpack is still as good as when I got it.

Re: I, Backpack

#26

Post by abjKT26nO8 »

> It was funded, however, by companies like Philip Morris, Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo, and Coca-Cola, and it’s goal was to “confuse the public narrative regarding waste, and distract from the corporations and manufacturers creating the litter and waste” (wikipedia).

I looked for this part on the linked wikipage and didn't find it. I looked at the edit history and it turns out that this wikipage is subject to a PR fight and the account DoBeautifulThings keeps removing parts that may be too critical and adding things that put it in a positive light. The source for the quote was this recording: https://www.npr.org/2019/09/04/757539617/the-litter-myth

Here is an edit from them that removes this part (2019-10-03): https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keep_America_Beau...

A revert of the change (2019-10-03): https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keep_America_Beau...

The change is back in (2019-10-04): https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keep_America_Beau...

Another change that reverts some lobbying edits (2019-09-12): https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keep_America_Beau...

If you want to see the wikipage version which contained the quote, here it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keep_America_Beau...

Lobbying on Wikipedia is real.

Re: I, Backpack

#27

Post by dredmorbius »

abjKT26nO8 wrote: post #26

> It was funded, however, by companies like Philip Morris, Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo, and Coca-Cola, and it’s goal was to “confuse the public narrative regarding waste, and distract from the corporations and manufacturers creating the litter and waste” (wikipedia). I looked for this part on the linked wikipage and didn't find it. I looked at the edit history and it turns out that this wikipage is subject to a PR fight…

Excellent point re Wikipedia lobbying.

As to the anti-littering / "crying Indian" burden shift PR campaign, see Annie Leonard's article "Moving from Individual Change to Societal Change":

http://www.pfree.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Moving-fro...

Re: I, Backpack

#28

Post by pjc50 »

trevyn wrote: post #18

It's actually not economics. What if I set up on a sidewalk in SF (you pick which one) with a heavy-duty sewing machine and offer to fix people's backpacks for a dollar or two? That question should get you closer to what is actually going on.

A) you get moved off the sidewalk

B) you make much less than minimum wage?

Re: I, Backpack

#29

Post by kwhitefoot »

GuiA wrote: post #11

> The manufacturer of my backpack, for example, offers a sort of warranty, to communicate to me the alignment of their values with my own (for a durable product). If you’re thinking about sustainability policy, one idea might be to require warranties like this one for all material objects. This would force companies to internalize the cost of goods that wear out quickly and incentivize them to create more durable pro…

In Norway Stormberg has a deposit scheme (panteordning). If you have one of their jackets you can return it to them and get NOK 50 in return just like returning a bottle or can to the supermarket.

See https://www.stormberg.com/no/om-stormberg/baerekraft/panteor...

or via Google Translate for those who can't read Norwegian https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&u=https%3...

Re: I, Backpack

#30

Post by kwhitefoot »

pjc50 wrote: post #28
trevyn wrote: post #18

It's actually not economics. What if I set up on a sidewalk in SF (you pick which one) with a heavy-duty sewing machine and offer to fix people's backpacks for a dollar or two? That question should get you closer to what is actually going on.

A) you get moved off the sidewalk B) you make much less than minimum wage?

Perhaps this is a good argument for UBI. Someone with such a skill could then offer it without having to worry that they would starve.
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