I was into hiking and camping at a young age (Boy Scouts, friends who's parents did it) but my parents weren't what you'd call outdoorsy. We were good for about

I was into hiking and camping at a young age (Boy Scouts, friends who's parents did it) but my parents weren't what you'd call outdoorsy. We were good for about one or two family camping trips a year. I'd saved up some cash and bought a few things from REI over the years but now it was a week before freshman year of high school and I needed a new backpack. I also had my eye on an REI house brand beauty for hiking that was a whopping $99 (this was 1997 and we weren't exactly the kind of family spending $99 on frivolous things). Shocked at the outrageous price (being used to $15 Jansport) my mom proclaimed that it would never happen. I brought up the fact that I had never made it through an entire school year with one single cheap bag and that one REI bag would last me all of high school, so we'd be saving money. Smash cut to 18 years later the water proof interior lining had all but completely flaked off and the drawstring channel tore in such a way that it was time to just call it quits. That bag survived through 4 years of high school, 4 more of university, 200+ (maybe twice more) days of real backwoods camping, at least 500 fishing and hunting trips, 4 continents, and two kids of my own. It was a very sad day when I finally had to admit it was time to put that old bag down to rest, but I didn't even think twice about where I was going to replace it from.