Shoulder bag for school recommendations

[modernista]

Hi,
DD has refused to carry a backpack anymore. To her credit, she has started using her locker a lot more so is carrying less books but I would like to buy her a bag which has wide/ padded straps and is large enough to hold some books. Style wise she likes classic designs or the canvassy look.

There are older threads on school bags but they are mostly on backpacks for Year 7s. I would be grateful for ideas as I find shopping with my fussy DD stressful so I would like to do some targeted shopping.

Happy to buy her something designed for women to carry files/ laptops as I can always use it if she rejects it.

[Amber]

Buy a cheap one. Within 3 months she will be back with a backpack. Seen it 3 times in one house now.

[modernista]

She has been using an old one of mine. Plain black. Now she wants a new one and I thought of using that as an opportunity to get a 'sensible' one.
But its not going to work, is it? Ok will get her one that will disintegrate fast!

[Amber]

The brand which is popular at my sons' school is the one which is the opposite of wet with a word meaning 'very good' in front of it. We have two discarded ones in our porch. To be fair, only the one disintegrated and they were not at the top end of spending (not my money: I refused to buy a new one when they already had a perfectly good backpack each) so their lack of use isn't too much of a national disaster.

Give her £20, send her to town and tell her to supplement it with her own money if she wants anything more expensive. That way you can't be held responsible when she doesn't like it, nor will you be open to the accusation that you didn't subsidise her, so she couldn't afford a 'decent' one, nor that you weren't supportive and didn't understand her. If none of this makes sense now, it soon will, as your daughter is about to become a teenager.

[kenyancowgirl]

Seriously, if you have a market, have a look at the bag stall - they usually have "in" styles at a cheap price (haggling skills to the forefront) and if it doesn't last, they come back week in week out. The particular brand Amber refers to is the bane of my life - along with a shop that rhymes with black and surname is our next but one King...overpriced but over loved in this house!

[Snowdrops]

You could also try TK Maxx. They sometimes have nice canvas type bags in, at a decent price.

[Peridot]

I'm going to recommend Eastpak again (see other bag thread in Warwickshire!) but not the Padded Pak'r backpack this time - my daughter has a large messenger-style Eastpak bag with zip and extra flap-over section with more compartments. She absolutely loves it. They come in lots of different fabric designs and are a bit different from those branded ones others have mentioned. When I've got more time later I'll try and find some online and check out what the model is called.

[southbucks3]

Son number one bought an inferior wet shoulder bag for his birthday in September, it got just beyond Christmas before disintegrating beyond repair, it had been repaired once. I wanted to take it back, but dh pointed out that it simply was not designed for carrying heavy books. Son number one reverted to a backpack he has had since year 5 bought from a hiking shop. He was so happy with it initially, but a hard lesson learnt.
The adidas equivalent I had as a child, in subtle bright yellow, was still being used by my dad as an overnight bag nearly thirty years after I had discarded it for an awful Aztec thing with tassels.

[KS10]

DD has a satchel-type bag. I think it cost £12.99 online. It was half the price of her first bag which distintegrated after a few months.

[kittymum]

Where I work quite a few have the Adidas cross body type bag which comes in a variety of funky colours (other brands are clearly available). Ds has had one for the last 3 years of primary which is still in brilliant condition and IMO they're much better then the not so great wet ones (that shop is the bane of my life!).

I asked our babysitter (just done her gcse's) about bags recently and she said she (and most of he friends) have the my pack (sp?) ones.

Also where I work lots of the ks4 girls just have basically large tote type bags which are generally no good for carrying much

Just looked them up - Mi Pac