LL Bean Backpacks Are Stronger Than Kids—to Their Dismay

Fifteen years ago, a piece of fan mail arrived at L.L. Bean headquarters in Freeport, Maine. It came from an 8-year-old girl in Massachusetts named Ellie Thonnings, who’d torn out a sheet of notebook paper to scribe her letter in pencil. As a century-old company with a dedicated following, L.L. Bean was no stranger to customer letters. But this one had a very specific request to make. “I had my bookbag since I was 5 and now I’m 8-and-[a]-half,” Ellie wrote. “My mom and dad will only let me get a new one if my bookbag wears out. How do I wear it out? Can you please tell me?” The book bag in question was the Book Pack, a nylon workhorse that, as Ellie’s letter suggested, is fearsomely sturdy. Some have even been passed down from parents to children. With back-to-school season barely over, book bags and backpacks are a blur of sameness on the street. But the Book Pack cuts a recognizable profile. Its low-rise, tombstone shape and reflective silver strip are such a familiar sight, especially in New England, that the company ventures to call the Book Pack “the emblem of an East Coast student.” In August, The New York Times anointed the Book Pack as “the best basic backpack for young students”—for the seventh year in a row. But so far as Ellie’s letter went, it was possibly the only case in which Bean corporate was content to disappoint a customer. The Book Pack’s raison d'être is not wearing out. Ellie was out of luck. At age 40, the Book Pack is actually a relative newcomer. While L.L. Bean debuted its drawstring-top Pack Sack as early as 1934, credit for the first zippered backpack usually goes to rock climber Gerry Cunningham, who made his first in 1938. The backpack's transition from outdoor equipment to student necessity began around 1967, when Jansport’s trapezoid-shaped pack hit stores. Bean didn’t enter the back-to-school fray until 1982, and it took a student to suggest it. “One of the things that makes customer stories [about] the Book Pack fun is that the origin of the product itself came from a customer letter,” CMO Nick Wilkoff told Adweek. A young man attending Harvard Law School wrote to the company asking them for a backpack suited to carry his heavy textbooks. “It’s something we acted on,” Wilkoff said. “It caught on quickly and really took over the playgrounds and college campuses across the East Coast.” A generation later, a young Ellie got her first and only Book Pack, too, a story the company’s since gotten some marketing mileage out of. But why is this pack still mostly an East Coast thing? It probably has something to do with 1980s Official Preppy Handbook that—with its wry but instructive tone—anointed most everything in the Bean catalog as essential. And it’s not like the company has shied away from that image, either. After all, they’ll add your oh-so-preppy monogram for just $8. Pack it in Brands routinely spend fortunes to come up with a theme for a new ad, but for this year’s back-to-school campaign, L.L. Bean brass knew that a good idea was lurking in its archive of customer letters. That’s how the 2007 note from Ellie (inset) came to light. The resulting 30-second spot (“Dear L.L. Bean”) featured a young actor playing Ellie as she tried her best to destroy her Book Pack. Best of all, after a bit of online sleuthing, Wilkoff’s staff located Ellie herself. “Ellie is now in her early 20s,” Wilkoff said. “We invited her to the shoot and captured some really fun behind-the-scenes footage as well.” As it turns out, Ellie's Book Pack is no longer with us—but her sister still has hers. Now hold everything L.L. Bean offered a backpack in the 1930s (1), but not until 1981—after a student at Harvard Law School (2) requested it—did the company produce the Book Pack, which made a quiet debut in the catalog (3). Bean's timing was excellent, since the prior year's publication of The Official Preppy Handbook (4) greatly increased awareness of the brand. Even though a college boy inspired the Book Pack's creation, its popularity has since spread to grade schoolers (5), many of whom are drawn to the range of colors and patterns now offered (6).

Perspective

The LL Bean Book Pack Is Stronger Than Kids—to Their Dismay

In a sea of nylon backpacks, here's the one that East Coast students made famous

Robert Klara

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Robert Klara