Best School Backpacks for Elementary School Students

This guide covers school backpacks for younger children and elementary school students—roughly, kids from preschool or kindergarten through fifth or sixth grade.

If you’re looking for kid backpacks for hiking, camping, and travel, check out our guide to the best camping and hiking backpacks for kids.

If you’re looking for a school backpack for a high school or college student, we have a separate guide for that.

If your child’s school requires students to carry clear or mesh backpacks for security reasons, we have a guide for those as well.

If you’re looking for a good laptop backpack for an adult, read about our favorite laptop backpacks.

Since 2015, we’ve tested close to two dozen kids backpacks in four rounds of testing. All along, we’ve looked for models that fit the following criteria.

• Quality and construction: A student’s backpack must stand up to the rigors of daily school life: Being alternately overstuffed and underfilled, getting dragged across floors, having various liquids spilled on (or in) it, and hanging from its handle for hours.
• Capacity: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that a backpack “should never weigh more than 10 to 20 percent of your child’s body weight.” A backpack that’s too large also simply won’t fit a younger child well. Fifteen liters is about right for second graders or younger students. Older kids need a larger pack to hold larger binders and bigger books. Based on what our own kids regularly take to and from school, 20 to 25 liters is a good size—though the AAP’s weight warning, above, still applies.
• Comfort: We looked for well-padded shoulder straps (webbing won’t suffice), some kind of padding against the back, a size that fits a kid’s frame well, and (optionally) a chest/sternum strap to keep the shoulder straps from sliding back and off the child’s shoulders—a common problem for smaller kids. A rolling backpack can relieve small shoulders of the weight of folders, books, extra clothes, a lunch box, and a full water bottle.
• Organization and features: Besides the main compartment, a backpack should have an exterior pocket (with some organizational options) for quick access to smaller items and a handle for hanging the pack and for occasional one-handed carrying. Reflective strips for safety are a bonus, but not necessary, since you can add your own. An exterior water-bottle pouch is nice, but one wouldn’t fit well on some small backpacks, and a heavy water bottle can make a small backpack unbalanced.
• Price: A kid’s backpack should be affordable since there’s a good chance that between growing kids and normal wear and tear you’ll have to buy a new one in a couple years. We focused on the $20 to $50 price range. You can spend as little as $10 (or less!) for a cheap backpack, but something that inexpensive won’t last as long, be as comfortable, or come with the warranty of a good pack.
• Brand and warranty: Sticking to companies with a history of quality construction, good customer support, and a solid warranty is worth doing, though we don’t consider a weak warranty a dealbreaker—especially since it can be hard to convince some kids to use the same pack for several years.

Though some camping- and hiking-style packs fit the above criteria, the main pocket on such packs is usually more rounded and narrow at the top and thus not shaped ideally to hold a standard-sized notebook or binder. The exterior pockets, too, are designed with outdoor gear, rather than school tools, in mind. For this guide, we focused on traditional “school” backpacks.

Once we had our contenders in hand, we examined them carefully, packed them with various combinations of kids stuff, and had several kids of different ages put them on and carry them around. We then continued using them, in some cases for multiple school years, to see how they would hold up over time.

Our pick

L.L.Bean Junior Original Book Pack (Solid Colors)

For second grade or below

A traditional school backpack, built tough and sized for younger students.

L.L.Bean Junior Original Book Pack (Prints)

For second grade or below

A patterned version of the Junior Original Book Pack.

$30 from L.L.Bean

Our pick

L.L.Bean Original Book Pack

For third grade and above

L.L.Bean Original Book Pack (Prints)

For third grade and above

The same backpack as the Junior Original, but with more space for older kids’ carrying needs.

L.L.Bean’s Junior Original Book Pack (available in solid colors or various prints) is the pack we’d buy—and have bought—for our own younger elementary schoolers; the standard Original Book Pack (also available in solid colors or various prints) is our pick for older elementary school kids. Each one is rugged, comfortable, spacious enough to hold plenty of gear without letting kids get overloaded, reasonably priced, and covered by a one-year satisfaction guarantee.

The two packs are identical in design; the only real difference between them is size. The Junior Original is appropriate for a younger child, while the Original has more space—about 8 cubic liters more. Each pack gives you a roomy main compartment with a good-size smaller compartment plus a convenient internal organizer sewn onto the front. We’ve found that it’s easier to get stuff in and out of the main compartment than with other bags since the wraparound, head-to-head zipper lets you open the pocket on three sides—many backpacks have a single horizontal zipper that makes it more difficult to access what’s inside. The L.L.Bean backpacks have a traditional look and lack a sternum strap and mesh backing. But multiple kid testers have found them to be durable and comfortable, and they come in an appealing range of designs.

This outer pocket is about 1½ inches wider, 1 inch taller, and ½ inch deeper on the larger bag: 9 by 9 by 2 inches compared with 7½ by 8 by 1½ inches. On both bags, the pocket is large enough to hold a pencil case or a hardcover book. The compartment also contains an organizer panel with a couple of open pouches, a zippered mesh pouch for money, two pencil/pen slots, and a lanyard with a clip for keys or tchotchkes.

The main compartment is roughly 11 by 14 by 4 inches on the Junior Original and 13 by 16.5 by 4.5 inches on the standard Original. That may not seem like a big difference, but it means that although the 16-liter Junior Original can hold a lunch bag, a couple of books, notebooks, or thick folders, and a lightweight jacket or sweatshirt, the 24-liter Original is large enough to hold a bulky three-ring binder, a lunch bag, and a book or two, in addition to that jacket or sweatshirt.

Unlike the bottle pockets on the backpacks from Lands’ End and Pottery Barn Kids, which are made of mesh and tend to wear through over time, the bottle pouch on each L.L.Bean backpack is made of the same rugged material as the bag itself (the REI Workload Mini’s pocket combines both materials). A thick strip of elastic at the top of the Bean bags’ water-bottle pockets also holds your child’s water bottle in place more securely than the thinner elastic on the Lands’ End pockets or the mesh backing on the REI. The bottle pouch on both the Original and Junior Book Packs holds a kid-sized water bottle comfortably.

Though you may be tempted to get the standard Original for a younger child, figuring they’ll grow into it, you’re better off getting the size that fits right now. The standard Original won’t fit a smaller child comfortably, and they could be tempted to put more stuff in it than is healthy to carry. The Junior worked well for one of our daughters through second grade; in fact, if it weren’t for the larger amount of stuff she had to carry as a third-grader, we’d have stuck with the Junior for another year.

The pack’s shoulder straps are a little stiff but thickly padded, and after a full school year of daily use, the strap padding on our Junior Original test bag showed no signs of breaking down or compressing. In 2019, L.L.Bean updated the Original to increase the length of the shoulder straps and add wider storm flaps to prevent zippers from snagging on them—a common complaint we read about the previous version. Overall, apart from the expected dirt and a few scratches in the large Scotchlite reflective strip on the front, the bag looked and functioned great after a year of use: We found no loose stitching or seams, the zippers all moved smoothly, and the fabric wasn’t worn through anywhere.

The L.L.Bean packs are among the least expensive of the ones we looked at, and they have a one-year satisfaction guarantee. Although L.L.Bean’s updated policy no longer offers a lifetime guarantee, our experience with L.L.Bean is that the company honors warranties quickly and easily, with few or no questions asked. For a bit more, you can get an embroidered monogram of your child’s name or initials, a nice touch that both our kids and their teachers appreciated.

Unlike our runner-up and also great picks below, the Junior Original and Original packs don’t come with a sternum strap to help keep the shoulder straps from sliding back and off the child’s shoulders—another reason to make sure you get the right size for your child, rather than a larger pack to “grow into.” (If you really want a sternum strap, they’re relatively inexpensive.)

Runner-up

Lands’ End ClassMate Small Backpack (Prints)

For second grade or below

These backpacks have a sternum strap for added support and offer more capacity for younger kids than the L.L.Bean Junior Original, but they’re not quite as durable.

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Runner-up

Lands’ End Classmate Medium Backpack (Solid Colors)

For third grade and above

Lands’ End Classmate Medium Backpack (Prints)

For third grade and above

A patterned version of the ClassMate Medium Backpack.

Though they don’t feel quite as well made as the L.L.Bean backpacks and they have minimal organizational features, the Lands’ End ClassMate Small Backpack (for younger kids) and ClassMate Medium Backpack (for older kids) offer a bit more space than their top-pick counterparts, the L.L.Bean Junior Original and Original, respectively, along with a couple of extra features.

At just under 20 liters of capacity for the Small and 27 liters for the Medium, the ClassMate backpacks each give you about 4 liters more space than the respective L.L. Bean packs thanks to about an inch more of height and, more important, an inch or two more depth (front to back). This means that you can squeeze another couple of books, or a heavier jacket, inside each—though it also means more opportunity for overloading the backpack.

Both ClassMate bags also have two elastic-top, mesh water-bottle pouches, one on each side, as opposed to a single external water bottle pocket on the L.L.Bean packs. Though the water-bottle pouches are useful, they’re made of mesh, which doesn’t hold up well over time. One Wirecutter staffer’s child has used the ClassMate Small for a couple years, and though the bag itself is still in good shape, the water-bottle pouches had holes within six months and weren’t usable by the end of the first school year. (The Lands’ End warranty should cover this.)

The ClassMate also has a sturdy, height-adjustable sternum strap, and its shoulder straps are more hiking pack in style: They’re slightly wider and have a mesh backing, though with a bit less padding than the straps on the L.L.Bean packs. The ClassMate backpacks also have much thinner back padding, making them potentially less comfy when stuffed with random art projects and other oddly shaped objects.

The ClassMate’s exterior pocket isn’t as useful as the one on the L.L.Bean backpacks: It has no organizational panel, and its zipper is covered with a nylon flap that makes it more difficult to access than the pocket on the L.L. Bean Original Book Pack. Though the L.L.Bean packs have a large reflective panel on the outside, the Lands’ End bags have only two thin reflective strips. The result is that the L.L.Bean backpacks make a child much more visible when they’re walking in dim or dark environments.

Despite the design differences, the L.L.Bean and Lands’ End bags are essentially the same weight. We had three elementary school students try all four bags (junior/small and standard/medium of each brand), complete with school gear inside, and they didn’t find either style noticeably more or less comfortable.

Overall, the L.L.Bean packs feel a bit sturdier, have better organization and better reflective features, and are a better fit for elementary school kids because of their slightly smaller sizes, but if you need more room or just prefer the style, the Lands’ End bags are well made (they and the Pottery Barn Kids bags are the two picks here that use YKK zippers) and include a lifetime warranty. Like the L.L.Bean bags, both ClassMate backpacks can be monogrammed.

Also great

Pottery Barn Kids Mackenzie Backpacks

More styles and a rolling option

Pottery Barn Kids makes the widest variety of styles we found, including some of the most durable character backpacks available. It’s also the only one of our picks that comes in a rolling option that’s appropriately sized for elementary students.

Pottery Barn Kids Mackenzie backpacks offer more design options than our other picks, with a range of patterns and character options to suit preferences for furry or scaly things, vehicles, baseball, superheroes, Star Wars characters, and Disney princesses. They also offer more size options, with packs in similar sizes to the large and small packs offered by L.L.Bean and Lands’ End, as well as a backpack for preschoolers and a rolling model sized right for elementary schoolers.

The main compartment in the Pottery Barn Kids large-sized backpack is 16.5 by 11.5 by 6 inches, or approximately 22 liters of capacity, suitable for third grade and up and most equivalent in size to the larger L.L.Bean and Lands’ End packs. Like the L.L.Bean packs, it’s roomy and durable with convenient organizational pockets, but it offers additional features such as a height-adjustable sternum strap, mesh lining on the back, contoured shoulder straps, and a daisy chain for attaching knickknacks. The rolling option is slightly smaller in capacity than the large-sized Mackenzie. While L.L.Bean and Lands’ End make rolling backpacks as well, at 32 liters and 26 liters, respectively, they’re too big for many elementary schoolers.

The large and rolling Mackenzie backpacks are both intended for kids taller than 48 inches. The small-sized Pottery Barn Mackenzie pack, for kids 43 to 49 inches in height, is equivalent to the smaller L.L.Bean and Lands’ End packs. The pre-K size, which we did not look at, is recommended for kids 36 to 42 inches tall.

The construction of each of the Pottery Barn Kids bags is similar. Like all of our picks, this bag has wraparound, two-way head-to-head zippers for the main compartment and the external pocket—making things easy to access—as well as a padded back and padded shoulder straps. It has four external organization pockets, the most out of our picks. The top one near the handle is designed to store a phone or small electronic device and has a headphone port. The main outer pocket is about half of the size of the bag and has an organization panel with three open sleeves, three to four pencil/pen slots (depending on the size), and a clip for keys. The bag also comes with two bottle pockets with polyester fronts, mesh side paneling, and elastic tops. Multiple parents told us, however, that mesh with a more open knit like that on the Pottery Barn Kids packs will always catch on something and rip, which is consistent with our long-term test experience with the Land’s End bags, which have similar pockets. (One parent recommends duct tape for repairs.) The bottle pocket on the L.L.Bean book bag is made of the same nylon fabric as the bag, which we think is a more durable design choice.

One parent noted that the top handle of poor-quality backpacks is always the first to break. The handle on the Pottery Barn Kids packs is notably reinforced with double stitching and is the only one among our picks that is padded for comfort. We found the buckles and the webbing on the compression straps lacking, however: The straps easily loosen with a slight pull and are sometimes challenging to adjust and tighten, and one parent we spoke to said they ripped off easily.

The backpacks also do not have reflective strips, a prominent safety feature on the L.L.Bean backpacks. Compared to the L.L.Bean backpacks, which have a storm flap for their main compartment, the exposed zippers on Pottery Barn Kids bags make the bag’s contents more vulnerable to the elements.

For this guide we only looked at the Mackenzie backpacks because they are the most popular Pottery Barn Kids model and have more capacity than the others. The Mackenzie design also comes in a wider variety of prints and styles, including the super-cute Critter collection. The Pottery Barn Kids standard line of backpacks also includes the Fairfax and sportier Colton, which are both slightly smaller, with more pockets and without compression straps or a daisy chain.

The Mackenzie line comes in several dozen colors and patterns, from preppy stripes to Liberty London prints to Star Wars to the Marvel and DC universes, with glow-in-the-dark and glitter options sprinkled among them. Models also include laptop backpacks and a matching suite of luggage options such as suitcases and duffle bags. Like L.L.Bean and Land’s End, Pottery Barn Kids offers monogramming. While the L.L.Bean backpack has a loyal following for its functional design and overall quality, which parents we talked to said was better than that of Pottery Barn backpacks, those same parents reported that kids tended to prefer the patterns offered by Pottery Barn Kids. Unlike our other picks, the company does not offer a guarantee on its products.

Upgrade pick

REI Workload Mini Pack

More comfortable and supportive

This backpack’s design incorporates many of the features of a good hiking pack: ample padding, mesh for ventilation, and a well-placed sternum strap that helps distribute weight.

Compared with the similarly sized L.L.Bean Original, the REI Workload Mini offers more comfort, with thicker padding on the back panel and the ergonomically-shaped shoulder straps, a height-adjustable chest strap with an unobtrusive buckle that is easy for smaller hands to unlatch, and a soft mesh lining on the back and shoulder straps that makes the bag feel less stiff and more conforming to the body. Like the mesh backing on the Lands’ End and Pottery Barn backpacks, the mesh on the Workload Mini doesn’t actually help with air circulation, but the fabric is noticeably better-quality and softer than the mesh on other models we tested, and the more tightly knit mesh is less likely to snag and tear.

The added features make this book bag more expensive than the L.L.Bean Original backpack, and while it is priced similarly to the Pottery Barn Kids Mackenzie large backpack, it is smaller with fewer pockets and limited design options (it comes in Kabocha Orange with a geometric print, Clean Green with a leaf and berry print, and solid black).

The Workload Mini’s main compartment is roughly 15½ by 11½ by 6 inches and holds about 18 liters. It has an internal tech sleeve with an elastic top that can fit a 13-inch laptop (or hydration reservoir, according to REI). The backpack snugly fit the OmieBox, one of our largest lunch box picks, two 200-page paperback books, a two-inch binder, a notebook, a sweatshirt, and two folders.

The Workload Mini’s zippered external pocket is deep and wide—9.5 by 8.5 inches with ample gusseting (about 2 inches, compared to the L.L.Bean Original’s 1.5 inches) so it easily stored our two paperbacks with space for a pencil case and a snack bag of chips. The pocket has a panel organizer with three slots for pens and pencils, a lanyard with a clip for keys, and a small slot for other items. The knots at the end of the cord pulls on the zipper provide added grip when opening and closing the bag. As with the L.L.Bean, the zipper for the Workload Mini’s main compartment is protected by a storm flap that provides additional protection from rain and water.

The exterior pocket has a lash tab, a diamond-shaped patch that can be used to hang additional gear, and daisy chain loops with reflective stitching. According to REI, the daisy chain can be used to attach a jacket, but it seems better suited to attaching decorative charms. There is one water-bottle pocket; its front is made of the primary fabric of the backpack, making the pocket more durable than all-mesh ones. While the L.L.Bean has elastic at the top of the pocket to secure the water bottle, only the elasticity of the mesh keeps the bottle in the REI bag.

The shoulder straps and back padding offer the best cushioning out of all our testing picks. You can adjust the shoulder straps effortlessly by pulling on the strap tail and releasing the buckle. The chest strap on the Workload is small in size and can be adjusted vertically for height and tightened easily by a kid wearing the pack. One side of the chest strap buckle also doubles as a whistle. There’s an elastic band to fold and tuck away the end of the strap, but feeding the strap through can be challenging because the opening is narrow.

While the L.L.Bean’s top strap is long enough so that if you grip it, your fingers will bunch close together, the haul strap on top of the Workload Mini is short, which allows a more comfortable wide grip on the bag.

The Workload Mini is recommended for kids from 5 to 10 years old. The pack comes in only two patterns and solid black, and some of our kid and parent testers didn’t care for the limited options. The 9-year-old who tried on the pack with his usual school load told us that it “makes everything feel so much lighter” compared with the Herschel backpack he usually carries. Unlike with the L.L.Bean, there is no option for monogramming the REI pack through the company. The Workload Mini comes with REI’s one-year warranty, which is similar to L.L.Bean’s updated policy.