I remember this being "a thing" when I was in school. Almost every single kid in my high school had a backpack from a single outdoor-lifestyle brand, usually with a strip of reflective tape and their initials embroidered on them. Very high quality bags (I went to school in an area where a lot of parents could afford to believe in "buy cheap, buy twice"), but incredibly expensive, even going by today's prices.
One thing I figured out from years of being picked on at school, is that if you go out and get the status thing that makes you "fit in" ... you still don't fit in. It's crap, but it doesn't send a signal to your bullies that you're suddenly acceptable. It just tells them they got to you, that you'll do as they say, and that they have leverage. And once that signal is sent to them, then they really pile on.
I would probably have loved having a status backpack in high school, had my folks rushed out to get me one. But they didn't, and I used my back-to-school budget to source my own bookbags that I was happy with. When I did that, the others' opinions were irrelevant.
My teen stepdaughter also bought a big handbag in S2 to use as a book-bag and conform with what the others were doing. By S3, she decided her shoulder was killing her, and that hauling around notebooks and paperwork in a backpack was far more sensible. I'm glad her short-lived conformity bag was a budget brand rather than expensive. 