The 6 Best Kids Backpacks for School of 2025

Some of the backpacks we’ve tested are no longer sold. The following are the models that are still available.

The 8-liter Deuter Kikki is cute and well made. It has contoured shoulder straps and two sturdy, mesh-free water bottle pockets. But it’s suitable only for preschoolers, and it fits their lunch, at most.

The Fjällräven Kånken Mini is durable and beautiful. But at 7 liters, it’s too small for anything beyond preschool use.

Jansport backpacks come with a lifetime warranty, but the well-made 10.2-liter Jansport Half Pint is too small for school-age kids and is best suited for preschoolers.

The Wildkin Early Elementary Backpack for kindergartners to second graders comes in more than a few dozen popular patterns. But in our tests, the mesh water bottle pocket ripped within the first few months of use, and Wildkin offers only a 90-day warranty.

We dismissed the original 16-liter Fjällräven Kånken before testing because the shoulder straps are made from unpadded webbing material and are unsupportive.

The Herschel Heritage Backpack XL Youth is a popular backpack for elementary students for its brand appeal and attractive designs. It includes a laptop sleeve capable of holding a 13-inch laptop, and it has a removable sternum strap. But we’ve heard from parents that the backpack has not held up over time.

The Fjällräven Räven 28 is a sturdy 28-liter backpack that lasted through a year of middle school with little sign of wear and tear. We appreciated the front pocket’s organizational panel, which includes a combination of open and mesh zippered pockets. But while the external side pockets are made with the same durable cotton-polyester material as the backpack, they have no give, so we struggled to fit a standard water bottle inside. This model also does not include a chest strap.

The 26-liter Jansport Superbreak is lightweight and appropriately sized for older students. But it does not provide as much padding and comfort as our picks, nor does it have a sternum clip, a laptop sleeve, or much in the way of organization.

The L.L.Bean Super Deluxe Book Pack is a sturdy, heavy-duty 41-liter backpack designed for teens, with a padded laptop sleeve (for a 17-inch laptop), a padded back, and plenty of organizational pockets (it also comes in a 38-liter version). But when this bag is filled, its three cascading pockets expand outward, making it bulky and unbalanced. We also tried the smaller 37-liter Deluxe Book Pack, which our fourth-grade tester liked. But both have mesh water bottle pockets and do not have a chest clip or hip belt to help distribute the weight.

We used to recommend the 28-liter The North Face Borealis Backpack as a durable and ergonomic backpack for adult-sized middle schoolers. (The North Face also sells the 27-liter Women’s Borealis Backpack.) But its starting weight of about 2 pounds made it seem hefty. We also heard complaints from teens that the bungee cords snapped.

This article was edited by Amy Miller Kravetz and Kalee Thompson.