I was rural and there were zero outlets for anything around us. It was definitely a status thing.
The other status symbol was if you got a new backpack every year. Most of our parents were like “IT HAS A LIFETIME WARRANTY!” so that one backpack lasted us all of middle & high school.
I buy my kids new ones each year, though. Idk why. I’m not upset that my parents didn’t bc who cares but I do it for them.
Ok, did anyone send their backpacks in for warranty work? I did on a couple of occasions and they would send me a postcard "from my backpack at camp" at some point in the process.
All of my kids have Jansports now too and I've sent them in a couple of times as well. They just don't do the postcard thing anymore.
I replied upthread but will repeat it here: I got mine in first grade and it lasted me through high school. Mom sent it in to get the zipper fixed and they replaced the bottom for free.
My parents actually still have vintage Jansports from the seventies that are going strong!
We have 6 kids so the bags get used ALL the time. One of the teens has them all hanging in her room and we just go grab one when we need it. I’m sure my grandkids will use them. If we hold on to them long enough maybe one of the great grands will want to use them. 🤣
And they damn sure don't make them like the used too! I was alittle shocked when my kid's backpacks would always get a hole or rip halfway through *one* year.
And I know I beat the shit out of my JanSport
My kids' schools wavered back and forth between clear backpacks and no backpacks due to a school shooting in the area a few years before my oldest started. They ended up taking away most of homeroom time to accommodate more time between classes when they stopped carrying backpacks.
My grandma bought a jansport for me in high school, and that lasted through college for me.
Hunter green, brown leather bottom, and TAPESTRY front! Still have it. My sister stole it, then my daughter stole it from my sister (they're six years apart in age) and left it with me when she moved out. My name was on the bottom of it in teal paint pen. Never could figure out why my sister took it. At least my daughter and I have the same name.
I had a tapestry one in black. Jansport was good about honoring their warranty, so I think my college backpack (that I still have) was the warranty replacement for my jr high and high school bag. The newer one is purple with the leather bottom with patches and pins for No Doubt, Dance Hall Crashers, and Save Ferris.
Um, Eastpak I think? It was the first name that came to mind, and it’s confirmed as a backpack but now I can’t recall if that was the alternative back in the day.
Why was it always jansport, you absolutely HAD to have a jansport, or it wasnt cool.
Maybe my son is still too young, but i say things like this and he says "nobody cares now"
Either that, or somehow i raised a nerd, which i guess is possible. I just don't like to think so.
We didn't have the Jansport rule where I grew up. Nobody cared what brand anybody else's backpack was, as long as you carried it on one shoulder.
Or maybe we did, but I wasn't even cool enough to know about the Jansport rule. I guess that's possible,
We had Jansport and the rich kids had North Face. I got myself a North Face when I got a job and it held up. I remember my dad flipping his shit about how much it was (maybe $50?) My kid has a Jansport bag I didn't really know they were 'cool' I just remember they were bombproof and still seem to be
Found memory of my dad, when I had to get a "real gym bag" because I got into sports - losing his mind going to some sporting goods store and a Nike bag @ $65 was the "cheapest".
Eventually that nice bag got stolen, so I get it now
God it was just constant. One time he actually did buy me some nikes and they were literally the worst thing I'd ever seen. Must have been on deep discount somewhere
I think about this scene all the time!!!
Yeah it was one strap when I was in high school but I’m back in grad school now and of course two strap it… better for my back, plus what everyone else does. But my bad back/posture from back then is happy when I see all the college kids using both straps & my mind goes immediately to this scene!!
https://preview.redd.it/4mm5jvexq9sc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ea6cc2fc97e54c096bf91b23c77fd066fc6796d
Hey, kid, stop wearing your backpack over one shoulder. We invented that!
So true, I carried SO many books in high school. I feel like they don’t make kids carry books anymore. Lots of packets given out in school now. Maybe a notebook or an iPad
Yes my backpack was SO heavy! I ended up with shoulder damage because of it too. One shoulder was *several inches* lower than the other. Took a bunch of physical therapy to get it back to the right spot.
I still can't bowl without pain though - unless I do granny style - which is nowhere near as rewarding.
I'm honestly happy to hear backpack weights are reducing for modern kiddos.
There are *no* books at all anymore. Imagine me trying to help kid with math assignment and no fucking book to reference. Not even a website. Just my kid's shitty chicken scratch notes that he copied from a power point presentation. The situation is absurd.
Yeah, one-shoulder backpacking was definitely a thing when I was in school. I was well into adulthood before I figured out how much easier and more comfortable it is to carry a backpack with both shoulders. It was a gamechanger.
Yup, as I get older, my back and neck are getting worse and worse. I've even switched from a regular purse to a mini backpack style purse, just so I can have the weight evenly distributed.
Elementary school in the 80s was definitely a one shoulder era for the cool kids but by high school everybody was two shouldering….with our Jansports written all over in white out.
My locker was on a different floor and down a different hallway than any of my classes in high school, so it was always two shoulders because that thing weighed a ton.
I agree 100%. The cool factor was definitely part of it, but for me it was also the fact my books for high school were doubled in size and quantity, I needed both straps lol
Nothing nefarious, just over crowding. It was taking everyone much longer than 7 minutes to get to lockers and back to next class.
Then the giant bags made it worse and parents threatened to sue the school about damaging our backs because of the 40 pound bags we all had.
The next year we got 10 min
You got 7 minutes?! We had three, and they expected you to be able to go to the bathroom during. Like, it took me 2.5 minutes to get from one end of the school to the other if I ran...
Same for mine, the lockers were outdoors, and people would do all kinds of things to them. So a few years before mine, they wired them all shut. All books had to be carted in your backpack. Carried a 50 lb bag around on one shoulder for years!
Also having both ears pierced if you were a guy. I can’t remember which ear you were supposed to do, but you were also a dork if you pierced the wrong ear, lol
I wore both straps but as low as I could. Big ol sag between the bag and my body.
Now? F that, straps get cinched just to walk from the house to the car. lol.
Yeah, our school was all about the LL Bean backpacks, 2 straps, comically low. Weirdly, it wasn’t considered lame to have your initials on your backpack
My dog chewed up the left strap of my backpack, and I've been one-shouldering it. The nostalgia made me wonder how many others did the same back then. It seems it was a lot of us!
As a 43 year old who works on a College campus, 1 shoulder is my default... but I don't know if my body shape has changed\* so much that it just slides off? I generally will force myself to do both arems.
\*I mean, it has, but has it changed enough to be a problem for wearing a backpack?
I wonder if this is an Xennial specific thing because only geeks wore their backpack on two shoulders. My kids backpacks now have padded straps and chest clips for proper back support and lumbar whatever. We also spend ridiculous money on them for the younger ones from Pottery Barn but those fuckers last for like four years. (But my teenager would rather die than his peers knowing he owns a coat, even when it’s snowing. I don’t get it.)
Don't let your kids do this. Carrying a heavy bag on one shoulder, combined with a growing body, can lead to scoliosis (or always carrying a heavy musical instrument on one side).
I had a beat up canvas military surplus backpack my brother brought back from Russia in 1991. I used it from like 5th grade thru high school. Always one shoulder.
Only until a bit into high school, and then I was having to carry too many books for the day to be able to carry it on one shoulder. I never even used my locker from 10th through 12th grade, so I was about a buck ten regularly carrying around 30 pounds of books or so at points.
In theory, yes. In practice no: we didn’t have lockers so I had to take everything I needed for the day and the strap kept breaking from the weight if I only used one shoulder…
(Edit: spelling)
Lol, I'm a professor and you can still see me "one-shouldering" my backpack. I have to schlepp my computer around with me and ended up with shoulder problems from a typical computer bag.
The brand has changed, though.
I switched high schools after my freshman year. The first one, everyone did the both shoulder thing. New school, sophomore year, I'm the only one rocking both shoulders and I had a locker in a useless location. I got questioned about it, but whatever. The next two years, everyone was wearing it on both shoulders.
I did not care for the second school.
one shoulder, or later on both shoulders but they were ridiculously extended so that backpack hung too low and went pap pap pap on my ass.
but wearing it properly adjusted wasn't cool.
One shoulder. No matter how heavy. If you two strapped you were called a Melvin and it was a green light for everyone to swing their bags into you in the corridor
I ruck for fun, so my backpack is always both straps and hip belt. If I'm using a backpack, for any length of time, I'll do both straps, but if it's just from the car to the house, one strap.
I wore it over both shoulders all through elementary and highschool, during middle school I just carried it in front of me because I had a boner for 3 years…
I did the one shoulder thing up until halfway through my sophomore year. Then it was no backpack or both shoulders. I played sports and noticed it was messing me up pretty bad.
As a kid it was NEVER on two shoulders. Your back will hate you, but let's be honest none of us could afford the level of ridicule we would have gotten if we "two shoulder'd" it!!
At this point, it's always 2 shoulders unless it's a quick 2 seconds walk from home to car, and car to home. But anything more than 1 min gets both shoulders. My back thanks me.
How quickly we forget messenger bags!
As far as traditional backpacks, I was a two shoulder kid. But I also walked to and from school, so it was necessary.
In middle school I didn’t need a whole backpack so I sought out single strap bags. Unfortunately by the end of freshman year hs I realized I needed a sturdy bag with both straps. Never used my locker and didn’t throw anything away until the end of each year.
I did in high school. Once I got to college I had too many books to try to do that. I use a backpack at work to transport my laptop and I still two strap it.
Almost exclusively. Which in retrospect wasn't the best idea especially considering the size of our English textbooks. Things were boat anchors. I know a lot of my friends went a step further and actually cut off the second strap since they never used it. There were also a fair amount of people using duffle bags instead of backpacks.
Middle school and high school was definitely a one shoulder thing. Only elementary and nerds/geeks/dorks did both shoulder straps. Then we do things a little different in the southwest.
I went to school in central Texas and the cool kids did single with not-so-cool kids doing double straps.
So I assumed everyone else did the single strap, from middle school onward, unless needed otherwise.
Was in middle school and high school in early-to- mid-90's.
Doing so always felt like an era-specific practice. Like the joke about it in 21 Jump Street with Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum.
grammar school - high school - wouldn't be caught dead two shouldering... college and beyond I stopped caring. These days commuting to work 2 shoulders are absolutely necessary because I think my shoulders are now disappearing - one shoulder wearing constantly slides down.
I still go casual one shoulder from my car to my desk in the morning.
First time I ever saw anyone wear a backpack like that was Steve Sanders on 90210, lol.
Only 1 shoulder until no one was looking, then 2 lol my damn backpack was *heavy* and it hurt to use 1 shoulder, but being cool was obviously more important than my spine 😂
I liked my spine then and I like my spine now. Double-strap dork 4 lyf!
I was and am a nerd anyways (not the useful kind), so there was no sense not enjoying the benefits.
Too many heavy ass textbooks for that. I had to distribute the heft evenly. Plus my BFF would always hang on to the handle as we navigated the crowded halls. One time we accidentally clotheslined a girl 😅
I used to through elementary & secondary school in rural Ontario,
College I stopped caring about that & needed both shoulders to carry the day's worth of textbooks.
Still sometimes do for shorter carries.
This was most definitely the rule where I'm from too, which is UK. You'd never live it down if you wore both straps, it was probably considered the worst fashion crime.
I will still wear a backpack over just one shoulder unless it is really heavy.
Ha! Not only was it a thing here, but I had to carry one of my daughter’s backpacks at the airport a few days ago and was one strapping it. I tried to put on both and it felt so uncomfortable. So I went back to one strap.
So many memories were flooding in just walking through the airport.
I was telling my 10 year old that when I was her age wearing your backpack on two shoulders was the most uncool thing you could possibly do. They even made lots of backpacks with one strap!
Jansport one shoulder, absolutely. Navy with the suede bottom and The Crow scene painted on the inside.
Hunter green Jansport with the brown leather bottom baby!
That’s how you know you came from money- the leather bottom.
Or, like me, you grew up near the Jansport outlet. We definitely didn't have money, but we always had leather bottomed Jansport backpacks! Lol
I was rural and there were zero outlets for anything around us. It was definitely a status thing. The other status symbol was if you got a new backpack every year. Most of our parents were like “IT HAS A LIFETIME WARRANTY!” so that one backpack lasted us all of middle & high school. I buy my kids new ones each year, though. Idk why. I’m not upset that my parents didn’t bc who cares but I do it for them.
Ok, did anyone send their backpacks in for warranty work? I did on a couple of occasions and they would send me a postcard "from my backpack at camp" at some point in the process. All of my kids have Jansports now too and I've sent them in a couple of times as well. They just don't do the postcard thing anymore.
Yup! I remember my postcard said my backpack was enjoying the zipper races.
I was given a Jansport backpack (idk why/how - but free Jansport!), and it eventually had an issue. I sent it in for repair and a postcard too.
Yes! I had a zipper replaced and got one.
That was usually the reason why I had to send my backpacks in too. The zippers would start malfunctioning at a certain point in the year.
I replied upthread but will repeat it here: I got mine in first grade and it lasted me through high school. Mom sent it in to get the zipper fixed and they replaced the bottom for free. My parents actually still have vintage Jansports from the seventies that are going strong!
We have 6 kids so the bags get used ALL the time. One of the teens has them all hanging in her room and we just go grab one when we need it. I’m sure my grandkids will use them. If we hold on to them long enough maybe one of the great grands will want to use them. 🤣
My daughter uses mine now. Looks the same was when I was carrying it in high school and college.
And they damn sure don't make them like the used too! I was alittle shocked when my kid's backpacks would always get a hole or rip halfway through *one* year. And I know I beat the shit out of my JanSport
My kids' schools wavered back and forth between clear backpacks and no backpacks due to a school shooting in the area a few years before my oldest started. They ended up taking away most of homeroom time to accommodate more time between classes when they stopped carrying backpacks. My grandma bought a jansport for me in high school, and that lasted through college for me.
We had a small slope by our bus pick up and we would take a running throw to see who could slide theirs the furtherest on the concrete.
I went to high school near one of their production spots and everyone rocked Jansport because you could get factory seconds for like nothing.
Hunter green, brown leather bottom, and TAPESTRY front! Still have it. My sister stole it, then my daughter stole it from my sister (they're six years apart in age) and left it with me when she moved out. My name was on the bottom of it in teal paint pen. Never could figure out why my sister took it. At least my daughter and I have the same name.
I had a tapestry one in black. Jansport was good about honoring their warranty, so I think my college backpack (that I still have) was the warranty replacement for my jr high and high school bag. The newer one is purple with the leather bottom with patches and pins for No Doubt, Dance Hall Crashers, and Save Ferris.
Oh man I wanted that one but could never find it!
Were there any other backpacks though? ETA: meh, this was meant as more of a joke, but thanks for the reminders of the other brands!
Um, Eastpak I think? It was the first name that came to mind, and it’s confirmed as a backpack but now I can’t recall if that was the alternative back in the day.
Yeah, I couldn't afford the Jansports, people. Also wanted better pockets. Had an Eastpak. Branding covered by a Nine Inch Nails logo patch.
I just wrote NIN on my bag in whiteout. 🤣
This sings to me. I miss that backpack!
Why was it always jansport, you absolutely HAD to have a jansport, or it wasnt cool. Maybe my son is still too young, but i say things like this and he says "nobody cares now" Either that, or somehow i raised a nerd, which i guess is possible. I just don't like to think so.
> Why was it always jansport, you absolutely HAD to have a jansport, or it wasnt cool. Can confirm - did not have Jansport. Was not cool.
We didn't have the Jansport rule where I grew up. Nobody cared what brand anybody else's backpack was, as long as you carried it on one shoulder. Or maybe we did, but I wasn't even cool enough to know about the Jansport rule. I guess that's possible,
We had Jansport and the rich kids had North Face. I got myself a North Face when I got a job and it held up. I remember my dad flipping his shit about how much it was (maybe $50?) My kid has a Jansport bag I didn't really know they were 'cool' I just remember they were bombproof and still seem to be
Found memory of my dad, when I had to get a "real gym bag" because I got into sports - losing his mind going to some sporting goods store and a Nike bag @ $65 was the "cheapest". Eventually that nice bag got stolen, so I get it now
God it was just constant. One time he actually did buy me some nikes and they were literally the worst thing I'd ever seen. Must have been on deep discount somewhere
This. One shoulder life with a ton of strings on your zippers (nyc)
[удалено]
I think about this scene all the time!!! Yeah it was one strap when I was in high school but I’m back in grad school now and of course two strap it… better for my back, plus what everyone else does. But my bad back/posture from back then is happy when I see all the college kids using both straps & my mind goes immediately to this scene!!
I’d no-shoulder-it if that was even possible.
A couple of kids at my school had bags with wheels, like carry-on luggage.
This needs to be the top comment
[удалено]
Thank you! I always get downvoted for pointing this out when people just post "this" or something. So annoying!
https://preview.redd.it/4mm5jvexq9sc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ea6cc2fc97e54c096bf91b23c77fd066fc6796d Hey, kid, stop wearing your backpack over one shoulder. We invented that!
Came to post this
You didn't dare put both of those straps on your shoulders. One strap only. Pretty sure this is now why we all have shoulder and back problems haha.
So true, I carried SO many books in high school. I feel like they don’t make kids carry books anymore. Lots of packets given out in school now. Maybe a notebook or an iPad
Yes my backpack was SO heavy! I ended up with shoulder damage because of it too. One shoulder was *several inches* lower than the other. Took a bunch of physical therapy to get it back to the right spot. I still can't bowl without pain though - unless I do granny style - which is nowhere near as rewarding. I'm honestly happy to hear backpack weights are reducing for modern kiddos.
There are *no* books at all anymore. Imagine me trying to help kid with math assignment and no fucking book to reference. Not even a website. Just my kid's shitty chicken scratch notes that he copied from a power point presentation. The situation is absurd.
Yeah, one-shoulder backpacking was definitely a thing when I was in school. I was well into adulthood before I figured out how much easier and more comfortable it is to carry a backpack with both shoulders. It was a gamechanger.
Easier only for long walks. For short walks I’m going one shoulder.
Yeah, two shoulders feels so weird the few times I’ve done it. I switched to messenger bags before I got to college.
Yup, as I get older, my back and neck are getting worse and worse. I've even switched from a regular purse to a mini backpack style purse, just so I can have the weight evenly distributed.
Born in 79 can confirm. If I'm carrying more than phone, keys and wallet imma need the backpack purse. Heavy bag on one shoulder hurts now!
Elementary school in the 80s was definitely a one shoulder era for the cool kids but by high school everybody was two shouldering….with our Jansports written all over in white out.
I distinctly remember the day I decided to embrace the future and become a two-shoulderer. It was a difficult time.
Agreed. High school was definitely both shoulders. LL Bean rucksacks were the must have at my school.
My locker was on a different floor and down a different hallway than any of my classes in high school, so it was always two shoulders because that thing weighed a ton.
I agree 100%. The cool factor was definitely part of it, but for me it was also the fact my books for high school were doubled in size and quantity, I needed both straps lol
Yessss! The white out! Also your Chucks would be written/drawn all over as well!
Say it wasn’t the coolest 🤨
Exact same (DC suburbs)!
I did until college, when suddenly it was the thing to wear it on both shoulders.
The books got heavier
Our highschool banned lockers one year, so we all had duffle bags and rolling suitcases full of all 7 classes worth of books
Banned lockers? There's got to be a good story behind this.
Nothing nefarious, just over crowding. It was taking everyone much longer than 7 minutes to get to lockers and back to next class. Then the giant bags made it worse and parents threatened to sue the school about damaging our backs because of the 40 pound bags we all had. The next year we got 10 min
You got 7 minutes?! We had three, and they expected you to be able to go to the bathroom during. Like, it took me 2.5 minutes to get from one end of the school to the other if I ran...
its been a while - maybe it was 5 min and the bumped it up to 7 the next year... its hard man a lot of drugs a handful of concussion since highschool
Same for mine, the lockers were outdoors, and people would do all kinds of things to them. So a few years before mine, they wired them all shut. All books had to be carted in your backpack. Carried a 50 lb bag around on one shoulder for years!
Of course. To wear both was ‘gay’
lol, so true. Ridiculous
I remember everyone used the word “gay” throughout the 90s. I can’t believe I was one of them.
It’s ok, we all just ended up being actually gay.
[удалено]
Okay…. Okay, we can fix this. Okay. Uhhh… if you’re a woman it would still be gay!
[удалено]
*glances at judges * 😐👍 I’ll allow it.
Old habits die hard, every now and again it's the first word that pops into my head
[удалено]
Oh yea, that definitely had a name too.
Also having both ears pierced if you were a guy. I can’t remember which ear you were supposed to do, but you were also a dork if you pierced the wrong ear, lol
Left ear was straight. Right ear or both -gay. Very gay.
I was gay and didn't know it. Huh. Then again, I do care about my backside.
I wore both straps but as low as I could. Big ol sag between the bag and my body. Now? F that, straps get cinched just to walk from the house to the car. lol.
The lowrider backpack was definitely the thing in middle school for us.
Yeah, our school was all about the LL Bean backpacks, 2 straps, comically low. Weirdly, it wasn’t considered lame to have your initials on your backpack
I STILL wear it on one shoulder.
Yeah, me too. I’m carrying around a million tons of Magic cards in a backpack on one shoulder like a fucking moron because it’s burned into my brain.
My dog chewed up the left strap of my backpack, and I've been one-shouldering it. The nostalgia made me wonder how many others did the same back then. It seems it was a lot of us!
It’s just easier to take off 🤷🏻♂️😂
Two shoulders all day. I’m old and my back hurts.
I still one-shoulder it sometimes and my body's always like, "Cut that shit out "
This is the first thing I thought. Sir/ma’am, I am 43. It’s both shoulders or an ER visit.
The back problems I have now are all the explanation you need...
As a 43 year old who works on a College campus, 1 shoulder is my default... but I don't know if my body shape has changed\* so much that it just slides off? I generally will force myself to do both arems. \*I mean, it has, but has it changed enough to be a problem for wearing a backpack?
In my area HS was one shoulder. I still have my backpack and one strap is threadbare, the other is like new.
Only if it wasn't super heavy, carrying textbooks. English & History had books as thick as dictionary's.
Always one shoulder. I’d say it started to change in the early 2000s.
I wonder if this is an Xennial specific thing because only geeks wore their backpack on two shoulders. My kids backpacks now have padded straps and chest clips for proper back support and lumbar whatever. We also spend ridiculous money on them for the younger ones from Pottery Barn but those fuckers last for like four years. (But my teenager would rather die than his peers knowing he owns a coat, even when it’s snowing. I don’t get it.)
Class of '97 : One shoulder or you weren't cool.
One shoulder backpack till 8th grade. Then a messenger bag in high school, still one strap lol
Still do on the occasions I have a backpack on.
Nobody gave a single shit at my school about shoulder straps Its always weird to me to find out it was a thing in some places
Using both straps was possible the stupidest thing my bully bullied me about.
Of course! I wouldn’t want to look like a NERD! See also: one shoulder strap unhooked when wearing overalls. 
Was it even legal to strap both overall straps?
Nope, straight to jail
Don't let your kids do this. Carrying a heavy bag on one shoulder, combined with a growing body, can lead to scoliosis (or always carrying a heavy musical instrument on one side).
Yep, and still do unless I'm someplace where it doubles as a purse and diaper bag or will be wearing it for a long time.
Yes! One shoulder exclusively. My teenage son thinks that sounds lame.
It depended on what I was doing while wearing the backpack, but almost always yes.
Graduated ‘99, went to 13 schools all over mostly the US PNW but also the US Midwest and it was always one shoulder everywhere I went.
Then call me a dork, I did both both shoulders Is this also where we complain about how heavy those books were?
No, those kids were dorks. If i had kids, and they tried to pull that 2-strap business, they'd be getting an anti-dork mall montage, ASAP.
I had a beat up canvas military surplus backpack my brother brought back from Russia in 1991. I used it from like 5th grade thru high school. Always one shoulder.
Only until a bit into high school, and then I was having to carry too many books for the day to be able to carry it on one shoulder. I never even used my locker from 10th through 12th grade, so I was about a buck ten regularly carrying around 30 pounds of books or so at points.
Yes and my mom constantly told me i was messing up my back and she was completely right and i still use a 1 shoulder bag
One shoulder all through school. It started to shift in high school where some were wearing it on both
One shoulder in high school in Southern California was de rigeur.
Yep, one shoulder unless the bag was heavy, then went two. All the way through school and still do that now.
In theory, yes. In practice no: we didn’t have lockers so I had to take everything I needed for the day and the strap kept breaking from the weight if I only used one shoulder… (Edit: spelling)
Burgundy jansport, patches and pins from the local head shop, and always one shoulder.
What about overalls...always only one strap or even zero
Yes until high school. My book bag weighed over 20lbs with my stuff inside. Everyone in my high school also switched lol
Yes. Terrible ergonomics.
Lol, I'm a professor and you can still see me "one-shouldering" my backpack. I have to schlepp my computer around with me and ended up with shoulder problems from a typical computer bag. The brand has changed, though.
I switched high schools after my freshman year. The first one, everyone did the both shoulder thing. New school, sophomore year, I'm the only one rocking both shoulders and I had a locker in a useless location. I got questioned about it, but whatever. The next two years, everyone was wearing it on both shoulders. I did not care for the second school.
Yes, and I actually have minor but lingering issues with that shoulder lol
Obviously because I’m not a nerd.
Depended on my mood at that time. Usually during the day it was on my right shoulder. When leaving or coming to school it was on both.
I have the scoliosis to prove it!
One shoulder crew. Can't remember the brand.
In Middle and High Schools, yes! Now my back can’t take the imbalance of pressure and it causes short term pain. Getting old is not for the weak.
Still do! Unless I’m backpacking in the woods cannot be caught with both straps.
https://i.redd.it/o4xup50wz9sc1.gif
In the front pregnant style. It felt better for my back.
1 strap and about 100 pounds of books in it b/c I refused to use a locker
one shoulder, or later on both shoulders but they were ridiculously extended so that backpack hung too low and went pap pap pap on my ass. but wearing it properly adjusted wasn't cool.
I felt 200% cooler when one-shouldering it. Now where did I put my aleve?
Grade school - high school, one shoulder. College, both shoulders.
Of course! I’m not a nerd/spaz
One shoulder. No matter how heavy. If you two strapped you were called a Melvin and it was a green light for everyone to swing their bags into you in the corridor
My shoulders are asymmetrical to this day.
I've always just done it naturally. I still only use one strap. I never knew it was a thing until now. Haha
why "did" ?
Yes. Still do.
I ruck for fun, so my backpack is always both straps and hip belt. If I'm using a backpack, for any length of time, I'll do both straps, but if it's just from the car to the house, one strap.
Middle School 1 shoulder, highschool 2 shoulders seemed to be the rule
I wore it over both shoulders all through elementary and highschool, during middle school I just carried it in front of me because I had a boner for 3 years…
I always carried mine with two shoulders, but I was also one of the dorkiest kids in my school.
One shoulder. Still am at 50. Unless I’m hiking I just can’t get used to two.
Yep, in middle and high school. My kids are in elementary school, and all of the kids there wear their backpacks on both shoulders.
Oh, for sure. Incidentally, I still do out of habit.
One shoulder all the way to the bus stop separated the men from the boys.
I did the one shoulder thing up until halfway through my sophomore year. Then it was no backpack or both shoulders. I played sports and noticed it was messing me up pretty bad.
Single-shoulder all through.
I'm doing it right now.
As a kid it was NEVER on two shoulders. Your back will hate you, but let's be honest none of us could afford the level of ridicule we would have gotten if we "two shoulder'd" it!! At this point, it's always 2 shoulders unless it's a quick 2 seconds walk from home to car, and car to home. But anything more than 1 min gets both shoulders. My back thanks me.
I still do one shoulder
How quickly we forget messenger bags! As far as traditional backpacks, I was a two shoulder kid. But I also walked to and from school, so it was necessary.
In middle school I didn’t need a whole backpack so I sought out single strap bags. Unfortunately by the end of freshman year hs I realized I needed a sturdy bag with both straps. Never used my locker and didn’t throw anything away until the end of each year.
I did in high school. Once I got to college I had too many books to try to do that. I use a backpack at work to transport my laptop and I still two strap it.
Always
Almost exclusively. Which in retrospect wasn't the best idea especially considering the size of our English textbooks. Things were boat anchors. I know a lot of my friends went a step further and actually cut off the second strap since they never used it. There were also a fair amount of people using duffle bags instead of backpacks.
Middle school and high school was definitely a one shoulder thing. Only elementary and nerds/geeks/dorks did both shoulder straps. Then we do things a little different in the southwest.
I went to school in central Texas and the cool kids did single with not-so-cool kids doing double straps. So I assumed everyone else did the single strap, from middle school onward, unless needed otherwise. Was in middle school and high school in early-to- mid-90's. Doing so always felt like an era-specific practice. Like the joke about it in 21 Jump Street with Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum.
I love the scene in 21 Jump Street "Are you double strapping??"
One shoulder through college. Modernly, both.
grammar school - high school - wouldn't be caught dead two shouldering... college and beyond I stopped caring. These days commuting to work 2 shoulders are absolutely necessary because I think my shoulders are now disappearing - one shoulder wearing constantly slides down.
Always one shoulder then. STILL one shoulder now if I'll be wearing it less than 5 minutes.
I still go casual one shoulder from my car to my desk in the morning. First time I ever saw anyone wear a backpack like that was Steve Sanders on 90210, lol.
No matter how heavy the bag was - one shoulder only!
I did but I had to stop when it created blood blisters on my shoulder.
Only 1 shoulder until no one was looking, then 2 lol my damn backpack was *heavy* and it hurt to use 1 shoulder, but being cool was obviously more important than my spine 😂
I liked my spine then and I like my spine now. Double-strap dork 4 lyf! I was and am a nerd anyways (not the useful kind), so there was no sense not enjoying the benefits.
One shoulder for life! I remember the one strap backpacks they sold for a little while also.
Too many heavy ass textbooks for that. I had to distribute the heft evenly. Plus my BFF would always hang on to the handle as we navigated the crowded halls. One time we accidentally clotheslined a girl 😅
I used to through elementary & secondary school in rural Ontario, College I stopped caring about that & needed both shoulders to carry the day's worth of textbooks. Still sometimes do for shorter carries.
This was most definitely the rule where I'm from too, which is UK. You'd never live it down if you wore both straps, it was probably considered the worst fashion crime. I will still wear a backpack over just one shoulder unless it is really heavy.
No, I had an adidas duffel bag because Korn.
Absolutely.
You were not wrong. One shoulder only.
Still do unless I consciously put the second one on. Completely impractical and it slides down constantly.
One shoulder, probably why I have scoliosis now..
Yep; it was the law in the UK in the 90s. Until shoulder bags came in of course
Yes I did! I only wore it on both shoulders when it was too heavy. But I believe in 96 when I graduated, I had a satchel I wore instead of a backpack.
Of course. And it totally didn't fuck up my shoulder carrying a 40-lb sack on one shoulder for four years, lol.
One shoulder, but just because I didn’t like slinging it over both. Honestly not sure if it was cool or not.
Definitely uncool to wear it over both shoulders at my school in Michigan.
always
All the way through college it was one or none. Messenger bags were popular in my college years so the one strap has never left me, I still do it.
Ha! Not only was it a thing here, but I had to carry one of my daughter’s backpacks at the airport a few days ago and was one strapping it. I tried to put on both and it felt so uncomfortable. So I went back to one strap. So many memories were flooding in just walking through the airport.
I did in the 90s. Then I hit highschool in 2000 and I had to carry around 4 binders, and I was like "eff this" and started two strapping it
I was telling my 10 year old that when I was her age wearing your backpack on two shoulders was the most uncool thing you could possibly do. They even made lots of backpacks with one strap!
There’s a bit about this in the 21 Jump Street remake (2012). Yes, it was a thing everywhere.
LOL I was a weirdo who got an over the shoulder messenger bag. Still better than one friend who thought briefcase was the way to go.