Secondary School backpacks - where do you find them?

[bigTillyMint]

Have spent the day shopping with DD and we only found one or two that even came close to her requirements.
She only wants a cool backpack big enough to carry everything around in!

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Hello, this thread is a little old now and some of the links are out of date. Take a look at this handy page for a round up of the best backpacks, chosen by Mumsnetters.

She doesn't want a backpack she needs a posh carrier bag. There is some high street shop that has carrier bags that all the teenagers near here seem to use as school bags. Can't rememebr which shop it is though

do you have a Boyes? always got mine from there - named brands.

dont spend much - when they get to school they discover that everyone is using Gola bags or whatever the trend is now and she will ditch it PDQ for whatever everyone else is using.

year 7 here it was Jane norman bags. year 8 its been Gola. i draw the line at the £80 pauls boutique one she wanted however!
gola one lasted a good year and cost £20.

Thats the one, Jane Norman!

DD had a jane norman proper bag (£15ish) and the carrier bag as a pe kit bag - the carriers dont last long. she will need a proper bag too! the proper jane norman bag is still going strong 2 years later.

get your dd to ask what her friends are getting or you will waste your money!

The only ones that my dds would contemplate came from places like Animal and Billabong but now they refuse backpacks and have messenger-type bags instead, from places like Schuh which have Converse or Dunlop or something else old on them!

They wouldn't go near Jane Norman...

Agree with Vicar though - check out with the girls who are at least a year older and see what they are using, if at all possible.

Don't spend much on a bag - she will only use it until she discovers that back packs are seriously uncool. Try TKMaxx if you have one.

Boyes, what's Boyes?
I don't buy stuff from Jane Norman and DD is seriously too titchy to even fir into their size 6 stuff, so looks like that's out for the time being. Anyway, I don't ever recall seeing any sec school kids using Jane Norman bags, but then I haven't paid much attention to their bags, and now it's the hols, grrr!

Backpacks are seriously uncool? I was thinking Animal or Billabong or O'Neills, etc, etc.

I will have to seek out a mum I vaguely know who has a Y7 going into Y8 girl that goes to the same school....

Depending on your DD's style there are a few options you could go for...

there are surf styley ones such as:
this
this
this
and
this

These have always been very popular sort of things in this household!!

Yes, lula, they are the kind of thing we are looking for! I think we'll be making a visit or two to TK Maxx to see if we can get them as cheap as poss though, if she's likely to change her mind before long!

Also, might be a good idea to try amazon as they often have some good stuff such as :

this

this

this

this

and

this

If I'm honest, after year 8 or 9 backpacks aren't really used but in year 7 at least most do! Also, be prepared to be nagged for a new bag regularly! Our method is that if it isn't broken then we won't pay for a new one!

Yes, I'm with you on that Lula! Thanks!

whats with the face?

Boyes is a shop. has branded bags at low prices.

really no need for the face though - i was trying to help. clearly not.

Backpacks deffo uncool. Nobody uses them after about year 7 - and I am hideously cruel mummy but even I gave up by Yr 8!

vicar sorry, that should have been a - it's just that I have never heard of Boyes - is it a Scottish or Irish shop?

Not about bags but on the same sort of subject, WTF do you buy those things they keep their locker keys on and wear round their necks or clip to their belts? Lanyards are they called?

All the boys at the local secondary have them, yet I have never seen them in any shop.

Just to be a bit of a party pooper- have you read all the reports about damage to backs by carrying a satchel on one shoulder, or a carrier-bag type with onehand?
She'd be much better off with an across the body bag so the weight is distributed evenly- maybe something by Diesel?

Nooooooooooooooo to backpacks for children in secondary school - just not the done thing!

All the girls that walk down are road have posh carrier bags, the boys have across the body bags like the gola/lambretta ones. DS1 has gola.

Backpacks will be ditched after a few weeks.. trust me on this, I have 4 teens!
Kids don't care about their backs )also to be honest by the time they are carrying home school bag, PE kit, art folder etc it's a bit academic!)

I'd have a peek at what older girls have out and about and go with it. Both of my girls have messenger type bags , big enough to hold A4 folders and of course PE kits in a Jane Norman carrier!!!!
Sadly backpacks ARE seriously uncool..

Vicar - have just read your post - DS1 has just left Yr8!!

and Vicar - we have a Boyses or is it Boyse or Boyses'......... and the village pub I used to work in we had "the Mr Boyes" who came in (and still does) for his lunch every week! It is a fab shop - does everything.

I think Boyes is a Hull and East Yorkshire shop. I've never seen them any place else. My Dd just finished Yr8 has a bright pink draw string PE bag, a material version of the carriers everyone is talking about. Her school bag is a fake Pauls boutique bag - no way was I paying £80 for a school bag

Go and take that £20 out of your purse, open your front door and throw it outside.
That's exactly the feeling you get when your teenage DD refuses to use the bag that was perfectly acceptable the week before.
The same goes for shoes/coats/jackets/trainers and don't even get me started on the mobile phones.
[sigh] Why can't they be 3 forever? It was so much easier then.