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$450 for a School Bag?

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Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#91

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

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…

This is a bad analogy. Watch the video in the linked article.

Then go and look at the prices of some luxury brands. These bags are cheap by comparison.

I’m not going to try and justify the manufacturing process, but this could be the price of manufacturing something locally and not in a sweat shop.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#92

Post by plorkyeran »

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…

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

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#93

Post by maxglute »

JohnBooty wrote: post #54
paxys wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#94

Post by maxglute »

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…

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.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#95

Post by eru »

JohnBooty wrote: post #79
eru wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the more expensive, higher quality items you also have to factor in the probability that your kid might lose them.

in general: hell yeah although something tells me this is NOT a problem for randoseru in Japan

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.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#96

Post by eru »

gnicholas wrote: post #83
eru wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

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.

Of course, you could also just coordinate with the kid sitting next to you, to share one textbook. Lightens the load by 50%.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#97

Post by eru »

stkdump wrote: post #86
eru wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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. [1] https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/news/scout-bis-zu-300-euro-k...

I guess things have changed since I went to school 20-30 years ago.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#98

Post by Dylan16807 »

wraptile wrote: post #82
Dylan16807 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 .

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.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#99

Post by anigbrowl »

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…

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.

Re: $450 for a School Bag?

#100

Post by jasomill »

JohnBooty wrote: post #77
peruvian wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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. $5…

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.
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