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$450 for a School Bag?

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Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#61

Post by TimTheTinker »

JohnBooty wrote: post #47
kasey_junk wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Cheap Jansport backpack zippers didn't last long.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#62

Post by henearkr »

pfannkuchen wrote: post #9

> 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”.

The author is right that there must have been something going on, because else the transliteration would have resulted in just "ranseru".

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#63

Post by Dylan16807 »

wraptile wrote: post #16
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 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 re…

> Can you imagine carrying 1-2kg empty backpack with you every day?

That's so light, of course I can. I'm legitimately baffled by the implication that this is heavy for a backpack.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#64

Post by zuminator »

pfannkuchen wrote: post #9

> 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.)

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#65

Post by puppymaster »

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…

> 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

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#66

Post by eru »

jerlam wrote: post #27
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 m…

German kids (typically) don't get driven to school, and get by with cheaper backpacks.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#67

Post by peruvian »

JohnBooty wrote: post #34

I'd love to know the relative environmental impact of buying: 1. A single high-quality $400 leather randoseru to last six years 2. A single high-quality $200-$400 ripstop nylon bag with high quality zippers, etc (essentially, GoRuck quality level) to last for life 3. Six years' worth of $50 Jansports that last maybe ~3 years each 4. Six years' worth of cheapass $15 Amazon Essentials level nylon bags that last ~1 year…

This is BIFL culture math that doesn’t make sense IRL. Plenty of people use the same JanSport $50 backpack for a decade just fine for school.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#68

Post by selcuka »

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 article tries to articulate the value add through attention to detail in manufacturing "so the bags survive 6 years of rough and tumble"

I don't think it does. The emphasis is on being a hand crafted item:

> A randoseru can have up to 200 die cut parts and polyurethane back plates, and are mostly assembled by hand, making it an expensive item to produce.

It even says that cheaper bags are even better:

> Unlike the randoseru, these cost a much more affordable 8,000 yen (57 USD), are lighter, and just as durable.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#69

Post by eru »

gnicholas wrote: post #49

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 car…

We also had a bunch of text books in German school, but much cheaper backpacks were able to carry them.

(And, you could also just 'forget' your textbook, and nothing really happened.)

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#70

Post by egypturnash »

Wikipedia's article on randoseru[1] states:

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.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randoseru

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