[havblue]

I remember back in high school, everyone would have an Eddie Bauer backpack except the random person with a Jansport. People would always insist on how you had to take advantage of the quality guarantee:

"You have a bent zipper and a small tear after lugging your books for years? Great! Take it to the store and argue with them that it's defective until they give you a new backpack!"

[madcaptenor]

LL Bean used to have a similar return policy but people started abusing it; now you only have a year.

[ghaff]

A number of outdoor sports retailers that used to have no-questions-asked return policies and internal repair departments have dropped them. I have known people who basically had a practice of indefinitely returning worn out clothing for replacement. I did return a jacket to Patagonia a number of years back and they gave me a decent credit but, in my defense it had basically completely delaminated.

[bitwize]

I still main a Jansport backpack for taking my laptop in. It has minor wear and tear but works great after >10 years.

[MonkeyClub]

Similar anecdote here.

I still use daily the Timberland backpack I got in 2009. Again, some wear and tear (actually just wear, thankfully no tears) but works great at the 17 year mark, even though it has gone through anything from daily use to travel to trekking.

Other backpacks have come and gone when I thought it'd need replacing, but kept trudging on. Now I don't want to have to let go of it, even though it looks "a bit" old.

I know it's not good for business to have long-lasting products. But some items like this backpack, a 2008 Fujitsu workstation, or a 2013 MacBook Air (not to mention the Faber Castell TK 4600) that simply keep on working become something akin to lifelong companion tools.

It goes to show the benefits of deep forethought and good design. And, I guess, the stubbornness of some users :)

[lotsofpulp]

You did’t even have to argue with Jansport. The threading was coming undone on my 15 year old Jansport backpack, so I mailed it in, they fixed it, and sent it back to me. Still using it almost 30 years after originally buying it,