Customer Reviews L.L.Bean Kids Kids Bean’s Explorer Backpack Color-Blocked III

First and foremost, I am a huge fan of the L.L.Bean backpacks and their quality. I like buying a backpack that will hold up for several years in a row versus buying a new one every school year. I have a history of buying them for myself when I was in school. Over a period of 15 or so years, I had TWO L.L.Bean backpacks. (I only bought the second one because my taste in style/color choice changed when I became an adult.) Gotta love it! I purchased two of these specific backpacks for my (almost) 2nd-grade twins (one in blue and the other the teal/flower design). They fit well, but there's room to grow, which is what I wanted. For context, my twins are 50 percentile in size for their age range (7). The bags are sturdy and have lots of fun storage compartments inside and outside of the bag. I preferred the original style myself, but my kids thought this style was cooler, so I gave in. They love them and can't wait to use them. Note: the blue backpack with neon orange trim is SUPER cool. Definitely my favorite between the two fabrics they chose.

My son's favorite colors are orange and blue, and so I knew this bag would be a hit! I was looking for a higher quality, non-character bag that would last him at least a few years. This one was perfect. He used it the entire school year and it still looks great. I plan to get my daughter the same one, but whish the girl ones were more two tone/contrasting colors like this one. (The orange on this one is BRIGHT, which some have mentioned but I like it bc it makes my son easy to spot in the car pool line, or to other vehicles when crossing the street!)

My kindergarten daughter loves her new big-girl Explorer backpack! It has the room she needs for lunch box, snow pants, water bottles, stuffed animals. It is a great color. And judging by the impressive state of her older brother's three-year-old Explorer backpack, she will get many years of hard living out of it!

Purchased this backpack after my 5-year-olds target-bought backpack started falling apart, 3 months into school no less. It's so hard to find anything of good quality anymore, but with L.L. Bean I always know I'm getting high levels of quality and durability. This backpack is solid and sturdy. No, it doesn't have pictures of disney characters on it, and frankly it makes me love it all the more. This backpack is one that will last for years; yes I can already tell. If you're thinking about it, just buy it. It doesnt disappoint. The zippers are very smooth- no sticking and no coming undone while still "zipped". The materials are perfect for my kid, who wouldn't know how to "take care" of things even if her life depended on it.

Looks great!! Perfect size! Son loved it!!!!

We bought the first one of these for my son five years ago for daily school use, and it's still in excellent condition. Our second one for our daughter is on its third year and also looks great. These are a bargain given the durability.

I bought two, one for My Grandson and one for My Granddaughter, they loved them so that's the best review ever!

My grandson loved this:color, shape, size, weight, and utility. Great look and design.

Daughter used this for a week long camp. Worked great, she loves the color and design so much she plans to use it for school this year.

Perfect fit for my 8 year old. Plenty of room and she likes the looks as well.

Bought this for my work, best purchase I have made in a long time, sturdy, yet lightweight. Outstanding quality.

This backpack is for my 7 year old grandson. He picked it out himself and he loves it. It is so strong and durable. It will last for years.

We bought this backpack for our step-grandson. It's quality and design are great and it is very durable. We know this because we used to buy Bean backpacks for our kids when they were little.

Backpack is great. There was a hiccup in the order but customer service was amazing. Received before school started

Smaller than expected, but works for what we need.

A good size backpack that I used for 11 days on a train trip. It held a bottle of water and some essential supplies while traveling and hiking.

My grandson loves it! It is prefect for a 4th grader

My 6th grader picked out this backpack. He likes the colors and styling but it's smaller than expected. You definitely could not fit all your school items and a lunch box in this backpack. He's going to keep it as he likes it and is going to carry his lunchbox seperately.

This backpack is roomy, sturdy & the colors are beautiful and vibrant.1

Good durable backpack - my son loves the colors (orange back is super bright). Inside is spacious wipes clean easily. Would give 5 stars but side pockets are not ideal - they are mesh and it's only a matter of time before kids shove pens/pencils in those pockets and they'll get a hole. Also the side pockets only hold shorter water bottle securely - taller bottles tip out.

I purchased this backpack for my 8-year-old son. He is about 50" tall and slim. I like that the backpack appears durable (only used for a week so far) and has a lot of handy pockets. It is plenty big for his purposes. My only complaint is that the straps are too wide for his narrow frame. They don't fit well on his shoulders, making it easy for the bag to fall off. For a boisterous third grader this can be a frequent issue.

Great vibrant colors and many compartments and cup holders that my 9 year old son loves. The only concern is that it's smaller than I expected. I hope it will be big enough.

Great bag- the side pocket isn't the greatest for water bottles but it does hold them. Love that it has a pocket inside for their chrome book

This bag is great with enough space. If it had a chest strap, I would have given it 5 stars

My 6yo (52lbs, 47.5") used the Junior backpack last year for kindergarten and it just wasn't enough space with snow pants, lunch box, and tablet. We decided to upgrade for 1st grade and have been using this backpack for summer camp. It does look slightly big on him, but given how fast he's growing it will be a great fit soon. For summer camp, he has fit a change of clothes, bathing suit, towel, and lunch in the main compartment. We've put sunscreen and a spare mask in the front pocket and there's tons of space there for more. He loves having a water bottle pocket on the outside, but I wish they were deeper and went to the bottom of the bag. It means we can't use the taller Congito water bottles because they make the bag tip over. That is really our only complaint! We did get him the blue and bright orange. We love neon colors because we can always spot him, but it'd be great to see multiple options--we felt a bit limited in our selection. This bag will easily get him to middle school!