The article tries to articulate the value add through attention to detail in manufacturing "so the bags survive 6 years of rough and tumble", but I'm not really getting it. What am I missing?
I had a $60-in-1995 northface backpack that lasted through hauling 5+ periods of textbooks every day, walking and biking to middle school and highschool. It worked fine, in fact my dad still uses it (30 years later) to hold and transport teaching materials for a college course he teaches. Lots of kids got by with a single basic $25 Jansport.
Today, kids in the U.S. don't even tote many (or any) books, most of the content and schoolwork takes place on a lightweight Chromebook that stays in the classroom.
The moment you add an aspect of culture and social pressure all economics goes out of the window. The bags cost $450 because it is the expectation that grandparents will buy an expensive school bag for their grandkids, that's it. Everything else ("it's handcrafted!", "it has 200 parts!", "it's durable") is reverse justification from there.
It's the same as trying to figure out why a tiny piece of abundant rock costs thousands of dollars when sold as an "engagement ring".
> Everything else ("it's handcrafted!", "it's durable!") is a reverse justification from there.
Thanks for this, exactly. It's the same thing with designer bags. After the rise of "superfake" luxury bags that cost literally a tenth of the real thing, I remember reading some blogs trying to argue why people should buy authentic, basing it on BS "handcrafted quality!" reasons (the reason they were called "superfakes" in the first place is because the quality was basically as good as the original). Sure, some of the reasons were actually true (it does cost a lot more to pay workers in France compared to China), but any rationale besides "I want other people to know I spent a lot of money on a bag" is just post hoc rationalization.
> The moment you add an aspect of culture and social pressure...
yep I personally think gender reveal, 21st birthday all out party and easter egg are senseless but here we are
Curious coincidence, I bought a randoseru (ランドセル) [1][2][3] early this morning and complained to my wife all the way to the store. She doesn’t want our children to look different at school. They are already different enough for being hāfu [4] and she doesn’t want to traumatize them even more. The bags are stiff and, in my eyes, quite ugly, and children are supposed to carry several books every day, good exercise but there are much better alternatives. Schools are just too bully to let anyone use a different style.
As the saying goes → 出る杭は打たれる “The stake that sticks out will be driven down.”
This may well be for the best. It's good to fight against bad traditions, but don't use your kids as the battlefield. Being forced by their parents to be "different" can really make a kids' life into hell.
I enjoyed the article but like much of online content about Japan it comes off like obsessive fan service.
Can you imagine carrying 1-2kg empty backpack with you every day? Just because something took long to make doesn't mean it's superior in production or quality or even perception. It's pretty, fashionable and the tradition is wholesome but that's where it ends.
I got a free backpack with my new Thinkpad laptop recently. It's light, well designed, mass produced, easy to personalize - would take this over the 450$ school bags any time of the year.
I got a free backpack with my new Thinkpad laptop recently.
It's light, well designed, mass produced, easy to personalize
- would take this over the 450$ school bags any time of the year.
Just to be clear: you're using your freebie bag to carry a laptop and not 6kg/13lb of schoolbooks, correct?
Something tells me the answer is "yes" which kind of makes me wonder why you're mentioning it
Do you also drive around in a compact car and think "man this is so much better than a school bus" and pat yourself on the back every time you see a school bus
I can imagine because I did it. Many kids might learn out of Chromebooks in the US, but textbooks and copybooks continue to have value for many people, and don't depend on security patches or constant charging. For years I carried 6-7kg of books up and down steep hills for a mile each day, rain or shine. While I'm also a big fan of modern backpacks, purpose built ones designed to last have their own value.
I'll hazard a guess - Japan is a walking society, and these backpacks are being worn every day, laden with books, back and forth from home to school, or on buses or the subway.
Americans generally get driven to school. The backpack is worn only between classes at school and then moved from car trunk to home, not worn during those times.
I personally wore out a $100 Eddie Bauer backpack every other year or so during middle/high school. I walked to school every day for over a mile, rain or shine. The zippers would completely fail, or the shoulder straps would detach. Eddie Bauer had a lifetime warranty so they replaced the backpacks without question.
My kid has been using the same $100 bag for his entire school career. He’s in 5th grade and walks to school over a mile 90% of the year. In a northern climate. That bag looks like it will last another 5-10 years.
Frankly, his classmates have cheaper bags with similar outcomes so I doubt price is highly correlated with performance past a certain price point.
I'm guessing when you have a $450 back pack you're also taught to take care of it. A zipperless buckle/draw string bag with performance fabrics would probably be just as durable as these bags. And I'm not convinced these bags are provide buyitforlife value since a lot of videos show old bags getting repaired/restored which considering the materials and construction involved, probably cost as much as a new bag. The manufacturers has a section on leather care and maintenance when alternative is to throw a fabric bag in the wash.
I used a single ~$200 REI backpack for all of high school and college. In high school I either took the bus or rode my bike to school, and college was exclusively walking. I replaced it after college because it was incredibly grubby and overkill now that I'm no longer hauling textbooks around, but I still have it and it's perfectly functional
The article seems to be aware of the fact that plastic backpacks can be durable too: "Some schools in Shimane prefecture have moved to city-provided lightweight nylon backpacks called ran-bags (yeah, don’t ask me how they name things in Japan). Unlike the randoseru, these cost a much more affordable 8,000 yen (57 USD), are lighter, and just as durable."
Also, you add your kid to Club 450 USD-schoolbag. That can be good or bad, as the other kids in that club may or may not be assholes and your kid may or may not want to be in that club. Does your kid even want to be the kid with the 450 USD school bag?
I came from a family that could easily have afforded the 450 USD school bag. But that would have been ridiculous to me. If you are rich and want to teach your kid to treat money so they can survive without inheritance, you definitely should do the opposite of buying them the 450 USD school bag. A lot about a good person is about valuing the right things the right amount. School bags are cool, but bad ones are not that much worse than 450 USD ones.
As someone coming from one of the richer families in my schools I always was the guy using what was there. My brothers old bag, some rucksack that wasn't in use anymore, a shopping bag. I certainly never looked rich. If I wanted anything more I had to buy it using my own money, and that was slimmer than the money of some of my poorer peers. If I made my case well and long enough in front of my parents they would support what I was trying to get with a fraction of their money. And there was always birthdays/christmas. I was one of the few kids in school not playing the game of defining yourself via branded cloths and I had a convinced stand on that. Nobody that I truly cared about gave a damn about this anyways, quite the opposite: Many had respect for me not playing these games and having the convidence to do it. To
My parents not just buying me every shit was one of the best educational things they ever did (and they did a lot of good).
450 USD is a lot of money for any bag, the only kind where this kind of money makes sense is specialized hiking gear (if you hike enough to justify the expense). But sometimes not spending 450 USD on a bag is the lesson you need to teach your kid.
My kids carry a ton of books, I'm a large guy and find their bags weigh a ton, it's awful for my kids. I have a 5'3 100' daughter and her bag weighs a significant portion of her own weight.
And their Chromebooks are not the tiny svelte high end ones. They're the chunky cheap and heavy ones too. And they're Middleschool, so can't leave them in one classroom, they get toted around, and back to home for homework every day.
> Today, kids in the U.S. don't even tote many (or any) books, most of the content and schoolwork takes place on a lightweight Chromebook that stays in the classroom.
This may be a regional thing, because my kids have to lug heavier loads back and forth to school every day than I ever had to when I was a kid, and that's on top of their Chromebooks and sometimes an instrument for band. They also don't get lockers big enough to store anything substantial so they've got to carry everything all the time. We pretty much go through a new backpack each year for each kid because they get so worn down from having their capacity continuously stretched to the limit.
Man I'm kind of a bag snob but even pricier brands that differentiate on quality and worker wages are not $400.
I got a Tom Bihn Synapse backpack for around $200 in 2017 that I've traveled to many countries with and has been through I think way more than a kid going to elementary school. It's still going strong today.
It was made in a US factory with workers being paid good wages. $400 is a luxury/captive audience/conspicuous consumption price point.
Craftsman also use to make each nail by hand. Looks like kids getting saddled with heavy 200 year old bag designs whose function hasn't updated with the times.
> Today, kids in the U.S. don't even tote many (or any) books, most of the content and schoolwork takes place on a lightweight Chromebook that stays in the classroom.
> I had a $60-in-1995 northface backpack that lasted through hauling 5+ periods of textbooks every day
Mine did that, and has since been lying out in the rain in the back yard holding firewood. It's a decade+ later and the thing is still perfectly fine other than being a bit dirty. Bet a good wash would get it back to being perfectly usable as a backpack.
I’m with you on that. I’ve had a north face bag for almost 20 years (and it looks like it!) but it’s still strong as can be.
The unfortunate thing is I was in the market for a new bag and went to the north face store of course and the only bag they had in the whole store was some shoestring style bag. Quite disappointing to see north face forget their roots.
Hello! Author here. Pleasantly surprised to see this on the front page! I thought I'd address a couple of questions here:
- Why is it so expensive?
You can definitely buy cheaper randoserus made in China and these are giving lower-end Japanese manufacturers a run for their money. For example, https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B09H5RLGQF is around 45 dollars.
Even off-the-shelf Japanese randoserus are cheaper than the customized ones.
Some basic reasons for the high cost are: materials (leather, fake leather) are expensive, there are many parts, manual assembly, and the variations and customizations don't lend themselves to scale.
Randoseru often last longer with good care, and are in fact passed down. Many organizations also collect and donate used randoseru to the less privileged. There are also businesses that will recycle the high quality materials into other accessories: See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHcgol5i7gs
In addition to this, some people also get their randoseru "minified", where it's cut up and a fist sized version made. My wife still has hers.
My son just received his first randoseru and the company that made it offers to "minify" using almost all of the original key parts from his, in the future.
While I think Japanese society has lots of good traits and outcomes such as a low crime rate, and a ethic to involve everyone in process improvements, this is another clear example of what the English call "keeping up appearances". It seems Japanese call it "tatemae" -
https://japan-dev.com/blog/honne-and-tatemae
If it's so expensive and durable, where does that bag go after school? Why does each generation have to buy new bags, why are they not passed down from parents to children?
Do you expect a sensible “because of reason X” answer to those questions?
I have zero expectation of rationality from this type of thing. People will give reasons to buy a new one, just like you gave reasons to use an old one. But ultimately it is the cost/benefit of aligning behaviors with other people which will drive their decisions.
A new randoseru made of genuine or synthetic leather can carry a price tag of around 30,000–40,000 yen at a chain store/supermarket. Typically randoseru from department stores or traditional workshops will be priced in the region of 55,000–70,000 yen, with some models (particularly those branded with logos) reaching over 100,000 yen. Clarino, a synthetic material frequently used as a substitute, reduces the cost somewhat. Often randoseru are available on auction sites in new or used condition at much lower prices, particularly after the start of the Japanese school year in April. As of January 2012, the five top randoseru in order of popularity at Amazon.co.jp are in the range of ¥8,280–¥16,980 yen.
Translating those numbers to US dollars and rounding a bit, we get:
New one at the supermarket: US$ 210-280
Department store or traditional workshop: US$ 390-400
Prestigious logo: $700
Most popular on Amazon.co.jp back in 2012: US$ 60-120.
What the distribution of sales are between those $60 bags and those $700 bags is, and how much shit a kid carrying a $60 bag will get from the kids carrying the pricier ones, I dunno. It certainly seems that Mr. and Mrs. One-From-Nippon are definitely looking at some upscale-ass randoseru though.
I ran with the same Jansport bag from 1989-2000. I wonder if they still offer that awesome warranty? As a kid my family really didn't know about it and it was pre-internet. My grandma was amazing repairing it. These bags do look pretty cool IMO but I feel there's more to the price that is essentially the generational guilt-trip of a custom that makes it that price.
I was going to say something similar, I think I had the same cheap Jansport pack from the mid-80s until well into college. Replaced it with another <$25 pack from Costco that I've kept until now. The main difference has been the inclusion of a padded laptop pocket.
The free backpacks I get every so often from work are "ok". My employer gave me a <$100-ish pack I've also enjoyed for the last decade or so without trouble.
Unless that pack comes with a bit of gold in it, or part of a college degree, I have no idea what makes it worth it.
I was talking about randoseru with my daughter just the other day. She and her sister both attended Japanese public elementary schools and used the same randoseru for all six years. Though she was tall for her age, she complained about the weight of it then and doesn’t have fond memories of it now. Her son will be starting at a public elementary school in Yokohama in a couple of years, and she doesn’t seem eager to get a randoseru for him. While some of the kids I see walking to and from that school have randoseru, most are carrying lighter and more versatile cloth backpacks.
This grandparent will be happy to pay for whatever my daughter wants for her son, though it’s likely that she will insist on paying for it herself.
To insert a sentence that has nothing to do with the topic, I am in China. My daughter is in the second grade of elementary school. Her schoolbag must weigh 6 kilograms and contains various books, exercise books, and test papers. This was not the case when I was in elementary school. My little schoolbag was empty, with only 2 books and 2 thin notebooks. Nowadays, children have too much homework and they have to write until 10pm every day.
Readit News
I had a $60-in-1995 northface backpack that lasted through hauling 5+ periods of textbooks every day, walking and biking to middle school and highschool. It worked fine, in fact my dad still uses it (30 years later) to hold and transport teaching materials for a college course he teaches. Lots of kids got by with a single basic $25 Jansport.
Today, kids in the U.S. don't even tote many (or any) books, most of the content and schoolwork takes place on a lightweight Chromebook that stays in the classroom.
It's the same as trying to figure out why a tiny piece of abundant rock costs thousands of dollars when sold as an "engagement ring".
Thanks for this, exactly. It's the same thing with designer bags. After the rise of "superfake" luxury bags that cost literally a tenth of the real thing, I remember reading some blogs trying to argue why people should buy authentic, basing it on BS "handcrafted quality!" reasons (the reason they were called "superfakes" in the first place is because the quality was basically as good as the original). Sure, some of the reasons were actually true (it does cost a lot more to pay workers in France compared to China), but any rationale besides "I want other people to know I spent a lot of money on a bag" is just post hoc rationalization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good
So yes, it is expensive because of tradition, but it is also a well made, practical item.
Then go and look at the prices of some luxury brands. These bags are cheap by comparison.
I’m not going to try and justify the manufacturing process, but this could be the price of manufacturing something locally and not in a sweat shop.
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As the saying goes → 出る杭は打たれる “The stake that sticks out will be driven down.”
[1] https://tsuchiya-randoseru.jp
[2] https://www.seiban.co.jp
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randoseru
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hāfu
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Generally I believe you are allowed to use a different bag, it's just... uncommon.
Can you imagine carrying 1-2kg empty backpack with you every day? Just because something took long to make doesn't mean it's superior in production or quality or even perception. It's pretty, fashionable and the tradition is wholesome but that's where it ends.
I got a free backpack with my new Thinkpad laptop recently. It's light, well designed, mass produced, easy to personalize - would take this over the 450$ school bags any time of the year.
Something tells me the answer is "yes" which kind of makes me wonder why you're mentioning it
Do you also drive around in a compact car and think "man this is so much better than a school bus" and pat yourself on the back every time you see a school bus
That's so light, of course I can. I'm legitimately baffled by the implication that this is heavy for a backpack.
Deleted Comment
Americans generally get driven to school. The backpack is worn only between classes at school and then moved from car trunk to home, not worn during those times.
I personally wore out a $100 Eddie Bauer backpack every other year or so during middle/high school. I walked to school every day for over a mile, rain or shine. The zippers would completely fail, or the shoulder straps would detach. Eddie Bauer had a lifetime warranty so they replaced the backpacks without question.
Frankly, his classmates have cheaper bags with similar outcomes so I doubt price is highly correlated with performance past a certain price point.
I came from a family that could easily have afforded the 450 USD school bag. But that would have been ridiculous to me. If you are rich and want to teach your kid to treat money so they can survive without inheritance, you definitely should do the opposite of buying them the 450 USD school bag. A lot about a good person is about valuing the right things the right amount. School bags are cool, but bad ones are not that much worse than 450 USD ones.
As someone coming from one of the richer families in my schools I always was the guy using what was there. My brothers old bag, some rucksack that wasn't in use anymore, a shopping bag. I certainly never looked rich. If I wanted anything more I had to buy it using my own money, and that was slimmer than the money of some of my poorer peers. If I made my case well and long enough in front of my parents they would support what I was trying to get with a fraction of their money. And there was always birthdays/christmas. I was one of the few kids in school not playing the game of defining yourself via branded cloths and I had a convinced stand on that. Nobody that I truly cared about gave a damn about this anyways, quite the opposite: Many had respect for me not playing these games and having the convidence to do it. To
My parents not just buying me every shit was one of the best educational things they ever did (and they did a lot of good).
450 USD is a lot of money for any bag, the only kind where this kind of money makes sense is specialized hiking gear (if you hike enough to justify the expense). But sometimes not spending 450 USD on a bag is the lesson you need to teach your kid.
It just points out that these bags do need to last 6 years so they aren’t throwaway items.
In fact, towards the end it points to how some schools are managing to achieve the same with $60 bags “ran-bags”.
I think you’re reading too much into it if you think the article is trying to justify the cost.
It’s trying to explain the cost, which is driven by the fact that these are hand made and have a ton of parts and also need to last many years.
I don't think it does. The emphasis is on being a hand crafted item:
> A randoseru can have up to 200 die cut parts and polyurethane back plates, and are mostly assembled by hand, making it an expensive item to produce.
It even says that cheaper bags are even better:
> Unlike the randoseru, these cost a much more affordable 8,000 yen (57 USD), are lighter, and just as durable.
And their Chromebooks are not the tiny svelte high end ones. They're the chunky cheap and heavy ones too. And they're Middleschool, so can't leave them in one classroom, they get toted around, and back to home for homework every day.
This may be a regional thing, because my kids have to lug heavier loads back and forth to school every day than I ever had to when I was a kid, and that's on top of their Chromebooks and sometimes an instrument for band. They also don't get lockers big enough to store anything substantial so they've got to carry everything all the time. We pretty much go through a new backpack each year for each kid because they get so worn down from having their capacity continuously stretched to the limit.
Likely a disrespect for a living wage for a common craftsman, and a misunderstanding of what quality goods actually are.
Certainly a lot of kids here survived on cheap $25 jansports, but did the people making them?
I got a Tom Bihn Synapse backpack for around $200 in 2017 that I've traveled to many countries with and has been through I think way more than a kid going to elementary school. It's still going strong today.
It was made in a US factory with workers being paid good wages. $400 is a luxury/captive audience/conspicuous consumption price point.
Craftsman also use to make each nail by hand. Looks like kids getting saddled with heavy 200 year old bag designs whose function hasn't updated with the times.
I mean, I do that anyway as a hobby, but I don't owe it to anyone.
Not in Japan, according to the article.
Mine did that, and has since been lying out in the rain in the back yard holding firewood. It's a decade+ later and the thing is still perfectly fine other than being a bit dirty. Bet a good wash would get it back to being perfectly usable as a backpack.
The unfortunate thing is I was in the market for a new bag and went to the north face store of course and the only bag they had in the whole store was some shoestring style bag. Quite disappointing to see north face forget their roots.
Those zippers never lasted long for me.
- a disastrous mistake.
- Why is it so expensive?
You can definitely buy cheaper randoserus made in China and these are giving lower-end Japanese manufacturers a run for their money. For example, https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B09H5RLGQF is around 45 dollars.
Even off-the-shelf Japanese randoserus are cheaper than the customized ones.
For an example of the well-thought out design of randoseru, this video does a good job: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WtWiuWBU9r8
Some basic reasons for the high cost are: materials (leather, fake leather) are expensive, there are many parts, manual assembly, and the variations and customizations don't lend themselves to scale.
This article lists some reasons Japanese randoseru are so expensive: https://rand--torisetu-com.translate.goog/kakaku?_x_tr_sl=au... .
- What happens after 6 years?
Randoseru often last longer with good care, and are in fact passed down. Many organizations also collect and donate used randoseru to the less privileged. There are also businesses that will recycle the high quality materials into other accessories: See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHcgol5i7gs
My son just received his first randoseru and the company that made it offers to "minify" using almost all of the original key parts from his, in the future.
Definitely not the same, unless I don’t understand the English usage (I’m American, but I’ve spent a lot of time around Brits and British English).
Tatemae can run deep in complexity and nuance.
At a guess, so can "keeping up appearances".
I have zero expectation of rationality from this type of thing. People will give reasons to buy a new one, just like you gave reasons to use an old one. But ultimately it is the cost/benefit of aligning behaviors with other people which will drive their decisions.
A new randoseru made of genuine or synthetic leather can carry a price tag of around 30,000–40,000 yen at a chain store/supermarket. Typically randoseru from department stores or traditional workshops will be priced in the region of 55,000–70,000 yen, with some models (particularly those branded with logos) reaching over 100,000 yen. Clarino, a synthetic material frequently used as a substitute, reduces the cost somewhat. Often randoseru are available on auction sites in new or used condition at much lower prices, particularly after the start of the Japanese school year in April. As of January 2012, the five top randoseru in order of popularity at Amazon.co.jp are in the range of ¥8,280–¥16,980 yen.
Translating those numbers to US dollars and rounding a bit, we get:
New one at the supermarket: US$ 210-280
Department store or traditional workshop: US$ 390-400
Prestigious logo: $700
Most popular on Amazon.co.jp back in 2012: US$ 60-120.
What the distribution of sales are between those $60 bags and those $700 bags is, and how much shit a kid carrying a $60 bag will get from the kids carrying the pricier ones, I dunno. It certainly seems that Mr. and Mrs. One-From-Nippon are definitely looking at some upscale-ass randoseru though.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randoseru
The free backpacks I get every so often from work are "ok". My employer gave me a <$100-ish pack I've also enjoyed for the last decade or so without trouble.
Unless that pack comes with a bit of gold in it, or part of a college degree, I have no idea what makes it worth it.
This grandparent will be happy to pay for whatever my daughter wants for her son, though it’s likely that she will insist on paying for it herself.