backpack technology

Now that I'm on a new campus where I don't have an office on either side to leave things in--and let me tell you, I rather miss that arrangement--I found myself hauling rather a lot of books around on a daily basis.  Which, frankly, was not working for me.  So I started digging around to see what I could find, and I came up with Ivar.

Considering the amount of money I dumped on the Pilot model, I wish I could report unreserved praise, but I'm only having so-so results.  You'll see from the picture on the main page that it looks like there's two "shelves" inside the bag, plus the bottom.  In practice, there is just one, then two pockets.  Now, the bag is wider, which lets me put books and folders on their spine in the middle, thus distributing the weight and preventing them from flopping over.  Small heavy books can go in the top shelving area.  And then if there is something like a hoodie to go in, I can throw that in the exterior pocket which has all the slack.  So it's a pretty good system.  But it seems like the sort of thing that would work a lot better if it were just carried that one step further, you know?

There is one important note--if you're just moving quickly from one room to the next, tossing it over one shoulder tends to be very painful and not at all workable.  Granted, complaining that an ergonomic backpack can't be worn incorrectly is kind of like complaining about the maneuverability of a minivan or the storage capacity of a sports car--either way, you're missing the point.  But it does represent an inconvenience.

Still, it's functional enough, so I'll keep using it.  Besides, I really enjoy it when some basic device that we've been using for centuries gets a sudden upgrade, so I'm glad to see someone rethinking backpacks at least a little bit.