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$450 for a School Bag?

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Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#21

Post by shermantanktop »

grishka wrote: post #7

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.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#22

Post by kstrauser »

dmamills wrote: post #10
metadat wrote: post #2

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…

> What am I missing? Likely a disrespect for a living wage for a common craftsman, and a misunderstanding of what quality goods actually are. Certainly a lot of kids here survived on cheap $25 jansports, but did the people making them?

It's not my moral duty to keep the makers of expensive bags employed.

I mean, I do that anyway as a hobby, but I don't owe it to anyone.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#23

Post by ekianjo »

grishka wrote: post #7

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?

Because profits based on social pressure. One of the things I least like about Japanese culture.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#25

Post by guessmyname »

metadat wrote: post #2

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…

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.”

[1] https://tsuchiya-randoseru.jp

[2] https://www.seiban.co.jp

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randoseru

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hāfu

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#27

Post by jerlam »

metadat wrote: post #2

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…

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.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#29

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

paxys wrote: post #4
metadat wrote: post #2

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…

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…

> 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.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#30

Post by [deleted] »

paxys wrote: post #4
metadat wrote: post #2

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…

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…

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