The 2026 Back-to-School Backpack Report

“State backpacks all the way. They are my all-time favorite and my kiddos love them too,” says Emily Gerbracht, a marketing consultant and parent of three kids ages 4, 7, and 9. She likes that the brand’s bags are durable enough last beyond a single school year and come in lots of different designs with something for every kind of kid, from butterflies to sports, with matchinglunch bagstoo. Gerbracht’s youngest, a 4-year-old son, chose a firetruck Kane mini backpack for preschool this fall and is super-excited to start using it.

“This will be year three for my 4-year-old daughter using the mini Kanken backpack from Fjallraven,” says Strategist deputy editor Simone Kitchens, who particularly appreciates that it never gets mildewy despite her packing it all the time with ice packs that tend to sweat throughout the day.

Since my husband is an elementary-school teacher at a school that also has a preschool, my son started going to school early. He was the youngest and smallest in a mixed-ages classroom, so we needed an equally small backpack that could fit hiswater bottleandlunch box. We got a mini-backpack from Jan & Jul that he is still using for school and for travel years later, at age 3.5. It has a small front pocket that’s great for snacks or an extra pair of shoes, two very stretchy side pockets that are perfect for a water bottle and a toy or a stuffie, and an inner sleeve pocket in the main compartment that works well for any papers sent home by his teachers. He loves wearing it and using the chunky zipper pulls to get his lunch out by himself at drop-off and has no problem keeping the straps up while walking or running around. It comes in a bunch of adorable patterns, but the shape of it looks like a big-kid backpack rather than something more babyish.

Since he’ll be going to a new school this fall, I have been thinking about getting him a new backpack and matching lunch bag to help hype him up for the change. I love this striped one from Storq that you can get personalized with one of four different fonts and seven different colors. The colors and patterns are bright, fun, and gender neutral. And the chest strap looks more secure and not as high up on the straps as the chest strap on the Jan & Jul backpack (which, as he has gotten bigger, has started to rub on his neck).

Away’s backpacks for little kids are stylish, well made, roomy, and lightweight. I love the color combinations and how easy they are for little kids to use without help, thanks to a simple design with bright contrasting zipper pulls and Velcro tabs. They also work great for travel with a convenient strap across the back for securing the backpack to a rolling suitcase. My family also has thematching lunch bagthat is made of the same durable nylon, which my son throws and drags around school every single day and which I have put in the washing machine many times without issue. Strategist lead editor Lauren Levy got an Away backpack for her 3-year-old son that he will be using for preschool this fall, and they are both very excited about it.

Levy also recently bought this Adidas backpack for her 6-year-old daughter who will be going into first grade; her daughter chose the bag because it matches a new pair of Adidas sneakers (also with flowers) that she is getting for school. “It’s pretty, has lots of pockets and zippers — which is great for all the little trinkets she finds essential to carry with her everywhere — and is much more lightweight than the State backpack she also has and used last year,” says Levy.

“This is predictable but my favorite is the L.L.Bean Original Book Pack,” says artist and marketing consultant Christine Mitchell Adams, who has a son going into first grade. “It comes in fun patterns that kids can get excited about, plus it has plenty of space and is comfy even when it’s filled to the brim.”

Meanwhile,Misha & Pufffounder Anna Wallack and her kids love the solid-colored L.L.Bean book pack. Wallack had one in red when she was a kid and her 12-year-old daughter will be using a green one she got last year when she starts seventh grade this fall. “I bet it will last her all of middle school,” adds Wallack. You can add a custom monogram to your backpack for $10 or for free if you have an L.L.Bean credit card.

“My tween wants this Vera Bradley backpack, which I’m happy to see is even cheaper on the outlet site than usual,” says Strategist beauty writer Krista Bennett DeMaio. According to her daughter, who is going into seventh grade, Vera Bradley is cool and just the right size for school: “I like the quality of it, and it has cute designs — this one has a print on the inside.”

“I don’t know where I originally got my JanSport backpack, but it’s still in terrific shape and has been through the washing machine (in a mesh bag) quite a few times. Then my 9-year-old borrowed it earlier in the year and now it’s become her regular backpack,” says Strategist writer Diksha Basu, who has started to sort of want it back now that she’s seeing her daughter use it all the time. “I worry this is going be the theme of parenting as they get older and so much cooler than me,” she adds.

Tamany Bentz, co-founder of Pour Tous, is also a fan of JanSport backpacks. “My daughter loads hers with more than just school supplies. She has a hair brush, lip gloss, Vanicream, Aquaphor, and a Tide Pen in her backpack for school. So I need a backpack with a large central area and then at least one small pocket on the front. We opt for a JanSport every year; they hold up nicely so we usually invest in a new one every other year,” Bentz says.

Jen Cram, also a co-founder of Pour Tous and a mom of three, told me that her kids don’t actually use their locker like she did growing up, so their backpack is their mobile locker in a lot of ways. For this task two of her kids (ages 11 and 17) are both loyal to the JanSport Right Pack because of its durability and lots of space. “It’s got a laptop pocket, room for binders, and a spot for their water bottle, and the leather bottom offers a little better durability,” she says.

Last year, my 12-year-old niece had aHerschelbackpack that she loved. But this year, she wants something new and is eyeing a North Face. She likes lots of pockets to help keep all her stuff organized and wants this black one because it won’t get dirty but also has pretty rose-gold highlights.

This is what Trolio’s fifth-grader will use this year — it’s actually smaller than the comparatively gigantic L.L.Bean she used in third and fourth grade, when she was carrying more stuff back and forth to school each day. This year she will have a locker for the first time, and the bag has to be slim enough to fit in there sometimes as well. She chose a pretty periwinkle color, though Trolio plans to spray it with Scotchgard to hopefully keep it from looking dirty immediately.

Previously, Trolio’s daughter used the L.L.Bean Deluxe Book Pack that was roomy enough to carry her Chromebook, a packed lunch, and gym shoes or a hoodie back and forth to school on her bike. It has two water bottle pockets, two large main pockets, a front pocket, a soft-lined tech pocket for stashing her smart watch during class, and a laptop sleeve.

We heard from the parents of older kids in high school and from college students that many of the same brands they used in middle school — Nike, JanSport, North Face — are still popular later on. Bentz says the most important thing for her teenage son is that his backpack has a lot of padding. “While he doesn’t carry much, he does carry a laptop and I have no faith that he isn’t dropping his backpack every time he walks through a classroom door. We have had really good luck with the Nike Elite backpack and are reinvesting in that this year,” she says.

Cram’s third child, a 15-year-old, is a fan of North Face backpacks but is currently using the Oakley Spark backpack because of its capacity to keep all of his stuff organized: “It has a laptop sleeve, a water-bottle pocket, and, depending on the day, it can hold a lunch bag,” she says.

JanSport’s retro designs are a major part of the brand’s appeal among older kids and adults. And this one can hold a ton of stuff: It has an extra-large water-bottle pocket, a dedicated laptop compartment, two front zippered pockets, and an organizer panel with a built-in key fob. I love the bright-orange color that won’t blend in with all the other black and navy backpacks.