My Backpack Has Survived Worse Than Me

By Jack Mercer · Gear · June 13, 2026

On the one piece of gear that’s outlasted three jobs, two house moves, and most of my optimism.

I bought this backpack nine years ago for what was supposed to be a six-month work trip. The trip ended on schedule. The backpack did not retire with it.

It’s been dropped down a flight of stairs, soaked through twice, overstuffed well past what its zippers were rated for, and patched once with duct tape that’s somehow held for two years.

It’s carried laptops through three different jobs, baby supplies through two kids’ worth of early chaos, and on one memorable occasion an entire deflated paddling pool I refused to admit wouldn’t fit in the car.

I’ve looked at replacing it more than once. Newer ones have better laptop sleeves, smarter pockets, less duct tape involved. I always end up putting it back, half out of stubbornness and half because it still works.

There’s something almost insulting about how much abuse a forty-dollar bag has absorbed compared to how I’ve held up over the same nine years. It hasn’t needed a single rest day.

Eventually one of the straps will give out for good and I’ll have to let it go. Until then it’s staying exactly where it is, slightly battered, vaguely waterproof, and somehow still doing the job better than most things I’ve bought since.

Sometimes the best gear review is just: it’s still here, and so am I, and neither of us looks great but we’re both still working.

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Jack Mercer writes about real life for men who are too busy living it to talk about it. No advice. No solutions. Just one bloke being honest.