Loading Up the Backpack With Organizing and Computer Tools

Back-to-school shopping time is, well, back. And the bywords for 1997 are organization and computers.

As in products to keep supplies and paperwork organized, and accessories and storage items for computers.

With the school supplies market estimated at $4 billion in the United States alone, manufacturers are forever trying to come up with something new. This year, that means stores will be stuffed with bigger backpacks, pack organizers, an array of student planners and pouches for putting stuff away neatly.

The elimination of lockers by school districts across the nation means that students are lugging loads of textbooks and other supplies. In response, both JanSport Inc. and Mead Corp. have come out with giant-size backpacks.

“The one that’s blowing off the shelves is our new Big Student Pack,” reported Rhonda Lewis of Wisconsin-based JanSport. One option: a mesh backpack for districts requiring kids to carry see-through bags.

JanSport also has a new “Blade Pack” designed to hold in-line skates as well as school items. Another style has a padded interior space for a laptop computer.

One new offering from school-products giant Mead offers a more durable twist on the three-ring zipper pouches that students insert at the front of loose-leaf binders to hold pens, erasers and the like. Instead of being made from easily ripped plastic, this pouch is made from stitched nylon, with sturdy zippers and metal-rimmed holes. The reverse side can hold four computer disks.

Over the past year, Xerox Corp. has introduced a new line of organizer-friendly products under the trademark docit.

Its 13-pocket expanding file makes for a backpack organizer designed to eliminate the dog-eared work sheets and twisted homework papers that are a general plague of stuffed packs. Unlike paper expanding files, this one--which comes in the bright colors that attract kids--is designed not to fray, pull apart or get crushed at the corners.

The docit line also offers “punchless” plastic report covers that bind reports with a built-in clip that cannot fall off.

Student planning notebooks have been around for a couple of years, but they’re getting more elaborate. Mead, Day Runner and other companies now have entire lines of organizers, spiral and loose-leaf, with pages for notes, calendars, addresses and school assignments. Several offer storage space for computer disks.

“Their lives are stressed and busy and they want to make their approach to school and life easier,” said Steve Jacober, president of the Ohio-based School and Home Office Products Assn.--and he’s not speaking about harried business executives.

Day-Timer just introduced what might be the ultimate in student planners. In addition to the usual calendars, assignment pages and address books, these new binders have grade tracking sheets in every subject, college/career tracking sheets, forms for planning projects and pockets for calculators, cards and papers.

For the younger set? Pentech has come out with washable markers that color at one end and stamp the alphabet and numbers at the other. Avery Dennison, king of office stickers, is marketing a “Printertainment” software kit that enables kids--at least those with access to color printers--to design and print their own stickers as decorative labels for report covers and other schoolwork.

Let’s not forget lunch boxes. Instead of those bulky blocks of frozen blue stuff to keep food cool, Aladdin is introducing Icy Cools--reusable, flexible ice blankets that more thoroughly line the box or can be wrapped around any item.