The big thing a lot of people miss about a lot of these large companies is that they build a great reputation by making high end products (like that old backpac

The big thing a lot of people miss about a lot of these large companies is that they build a great reputation by making high end products (like that old backpack you mention) but as they expand they also start making much more diverse product lines. I bet that 1989 backpack was also not cheap (for its day) while comparatively the one you got recently probably was quite cheap. Most of these companies still do produce the high quality stuff but it is priced high as well. Figuring out which products are which as the consumer can be tricky.