Relive the Best Parts of Going Back to School Without the Actual Boring School Part
Buy a Backpack
I went to a ridiculous Catholic high school where we were forbidden to carry backpacks between classes out of fear of the illegal, harmful things they were surely concealing. For everyone else, backpacks were an essential back-to-school purchase. Vague nostalgia aside, the fact that they serve as the most comfortable way to lug around a laptop, an adult backpack is perfectly acceptable. On the local front, Brooklyn Industries has a selection of hometown-made packs, messenger bags and totes to justify the brand’s name. Etsy shop April May June takes slouchy BAGGU backpacks and hand-dye them in Brooklyn in star-splotched patterns. And DUMBO-based company Voltaic Systems sells a solar-paneled backpack with the ability to charge a phone, tablet or camera on the go. To be honest, though, I’ve always been partial to our neighbors up north at Vancouver-based Herschel Supply for their varied, colorful, hiking-inspired bags. The one pictured above may be my favorite—midsize, with a built-in laptop sleeve, in a color called “chevron butterscotch,” and in tribal pattern that’s so popular these days because, I dunno, Animal Collective?