PACKED WITH STYLE: The Story of the Backpack—Now a Fashion Accessory

Few accessories have traveled as effortlessly between utility and fashion as the backpack. Today, it can be rugged enough for a mountain trail, polished enough for the office and luxurious enough to appear on a designer runway. Yet the backpack began not as a fashion statement, but as a solution to one of humanity’s oldest challenges: how to comfortably carry what we need.

There is no single inventor of the backpack in its broadest sense. People have carried supplies on their backs for thousands of years, using everything from woven baskets and animal hides to wooden frames and cloth sacks.

An important ancestor of the modern framed backpack appeared in the United States during the 1870s. U.S. Army officer Henry C. Merriam applied for a patent for an improved military knapsack on June 18, 1877. U.S. Patent No. 204,066 was granted on May 21, 1878. Merriam’s design used a sheet-metal framework to hold the pack away from a soldier’s body and distribute the load more effectively. It also attempted to consolidate items that soldiers ordinarily carried as separate pieces of equipment. View Merriam’s patent record.

The backpack moved closer to its modern form during the early 20th century, as inventors experimented with stronger and more comfortable external frames. One influential design emerged in the Pacific Northwest. After experiencing the discomfort of a borrowed Inuit-made sticks-and-sealskin pack during a 1920 trip to Alaska, outdoorsman Lloyd F. Nelson of Bremerton, Washington, began developing what became known as the Trapper Nelson pack.

Nelson filed his patent application on July 31, 1922, and received U.S. Patent No. 1,505,661 on August 19, 1924. Its wooden frame, canvas back support and detachable canvas pack created a durable system that is widely credited as the first mass-produced external-frame backpack. Hunters, hikers and other outdoorsmen now had a sturdier way to transport supplies over long distances. View Nelson’s patent record and HistoryLink’s account.

Then came a little functional glamour. In 1938, outdoor-equipment designer Gerry Cunningham developed an early rucksack that replaced traditional flap-and-buckle closures with zippers. Cunningham is widely credited with creating the first zippered backpack, although that “first” is difficult to establish conclusively. The new closures made equipment lighter and easier to access—an especially helpful improvement for climbing and hiking. Cunningham later established Gerry Mountain Sports and moved its operations to Boulder, Colorado, in 1946. The Gerry and Ann Cunningham archival collection documents their work in outdoor-equipment design.

The backpack’s modern silhouette took another major turn in Glendale, California, where Asher “Dick” Kelty and his wife, Nena, began making backpacks from their home in 1952. Dick formed and welded lightweight aluminum frames in the garage while Nena sewed the pack bags.

Their early designs incorporated contoured aluminum frames, nylon pack cloth, padded shoulder straps and waist belts. These features helped stabilize the pack and distribute its load more comfortably. Later developments in padded hip belts allowed even more weight to be carried through the hips instead of resting primarily on the shoulders. Kelty’s innovations helped make backpacking more practical and accessible—and considerably more sophisticated. Fashion’s entrance, stage right. Kelty’s company history and a Los Angeles Times profile support the company’s 1952 Glendale origins.

From military necessity and mountain expeditions, the backpack eventually made its way into schools, airports, offices and fashion collections. Leather, nylon, canvas and technical textiles transformed it from specialized equipment into an accessory capable of completing an entire look.

And the next decade? The backpack will likely become even smarter, incorporating lighter sustainable materials, modular compartments, charging technology, tracking or security features and designs that move seamlessly from commute to runway. The backpack of tomorrow may carry more technology while appearing to carry less—proving that sometimes the most fashionable evolution is simply function, beautifully redesigned. - OFP

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