Backpacks got worse on purpose

Perceived Decline in Backpack Quality

• Many commenters report that legacy brands (JanSport, North Face, Eddie Bauer, etc.) feel materially worse than decades ago: thinner fabrics, cheaper hardware, weaker stitching, reduced warranties.
• Some note the same pattern across other goods: boots, coats, tools, appliances, food, sweets, even software and service industries.
• Others argue backpacks have also legitimately evolved toward lighter-weight designs, so “less material” is not always synonymous with “worse,” making comparisons tricky.

Causes: Private Equity, Consolidation, and Growth Pressures

• Widely shared view: private equity and conglomerates buy respected brands, squeeze costs, exploit brand equity, and later spin them off once reputation is depleted.
• Corporate growth mandates and shareholder demands for rising margins are seen as strong drivers of “enshittification.”
• A minority argues this is simply the result of tight margins and global competition; high-quality backpacks are not very profitable.

Consumer Behavior and Information Asymmetry

• Repeated theme: consumers often choose the cheapest option, especially when wages are constrained; this incentivizes lower quality.
• Others counter that buyers aren’t irrational: price and brand are often the only visible signals because specs and real quality are obscured.
• There’s concern that once a brand earns trust, it becomes rational (from the firm’s perspective) to degrade the product and cash in on that trust.

Economic Calculus: Cheap vs Durable

• Several comments dissect cost-per-year math, noting you must discount future spending (net present value) and consider opportunity cost of tying up capital in a $200 “buy it for life” bag.
• Counterpoint: cheap-goods churn especially harms poorer buyers, who can’t front-load quality and end up paying more over time (Pratchett “boots theory” cited).

Difficulty Finding Quality & Role of Reviews

• Many find it much harder now to identify truly durable products: SEO spam, affiliate reviews, influencer marketing, and brand dilution make research costly.
• Suggestions include niche forums, “buy it for life” communities, YouTube testers, and checking details like YKK zippers and material specs, but this is time‑intensive.

Brand-Specific Anecdotes

• Strong praise for smaller or premium makers (GoRuck, Osprey, Deuter, Peak Design, Tom Bihn, Crumpler, Aer, Savotta, etc.), often with decade‑plus success stories and good warranty experiences.
• Some of these, however, are reported to have already been acquired or started offshoring, prompting fears the same decay cycle will repeat.

Meta: AI-Generated Writing Concerns

• A substantial subthread argues the linked article itself appears partially or mostly LLM‑generated, citing repetitive “punchy” cadence and stylistic tics.
• This is seen as ironic—using “cheapened” AI prose to lament degraded physical goods—and as another example of declining quality and trust in content.