Pack it Up, Pack it In 🎒
Why backpacks couldn’t stay out of the workplace forever.
Hey all! Here’s another edition of Lesser Tedium, a version of Tedium that reminds you that you’re not weird if you wanna wear a backpack to the office. Want more content like this? Subscribe over this way.
If there’s any kind of container that’s taken an unusual route to mainstream acceptance, it’s the backpack.
Once seen as completely verboten in professional settings, it has now replaced the traditional folio-style briefcase for many. And I think the reason that happened is because backpacks were simply too useful.
Building interest in more specialized settings—first among postmen, then the military, the true shape of the backpack found form starting in the 1920s, when outdoor enthusiasts started experimenting with different approaches—starting with packs that sported a wooden frame, then with a more lightweight burro approach.
But two companies from Colorado shaped the modern backpack more than any other. The first, Gerry, added many of the closing doodads that we’ve come to expect from modern backpacks, like zippers and drawstring tabs. (The company also got us to embrace the power of nylon, now standard for many packs.)
The other came to life in the 1960s thanks to an inventor named Murray Pletz, who developed a pack concept built around a metal frame. One problem: He couldn’t sew, and nor could his business partners. So he asked his girlfriend for help. That girlfriend, Jan Lewis, agreed to do so if Pletz did two things—name the company after her, and marry her. That company became JanSport, perhaps the best-known backpack maker around. (The marriage didn’t last nearly as long.)
JanSport found mainstream success in part because it began to look outside the trail for customers. In the 1970s, it had started building a panel-style design that many other companies borrowed from. Soon, such packs became popular in schools—and later, in the office.
The truth of the matter is, backpacks simply work better because they’re functional. Doing things for reasons of decorum often doesn’t make sense, especially when the advantages of a particular tool trump reasons of decorum in nearly every way. Even more specialized carrying cases, like messenger bags, have made it to the office, too.
Most people seem to agree with that assessment, which is why backpacks are so common in the workplace these days.
» Wanna learn more? Check out our 2019 piece on the history of backpacks, Piggyback Journalism.