With daily trips between school and home, and a day’s worth of textbooks to carry, we as parents can’t help but worry about the growing size of school bags for kids. After all, we’ve all experienced the same before, and are well-acquainted with the pains of bad posture. Thankfully, besides trolley backpacks which kids can quickly outgrow of, ergonomic school bags are here to save the day.
Usually these don’t come cheap, but we’ve rounded up some of the best ergonomic school bags for kids for under $200 you should invest in – with a dash of different features and colours to suit your child’s personality.
Cute, eco-friendly, and ergonomically designed, the Affenzahn Small Hilda Hippo is more than a school bag – it’s also your child’s study buddy. Its cheeky design is both eye-catching and functional – pull its cheeky tongue to reveal your child’s name. The bright colours are reflective, designed for safety purposes. Its height-adjustable chest strap ensures the straps and the soft shoulder pads stay snugly and comfortably on their shoulders.
Suitable Age: Kindergarten
Materns’ school bags comes in an array of fun prints and scenes that’ll brighten your kiddos’ school days, from space to dino and dessert-themed designs.
On the functionality front, each comes with a high-elastic sponge padded backrest that distributes weight and reduce strain as well as other nifty features like an adjustable chest buckle with whistle, magnetic clip for easy opening and closing, and reflectors around the bag for visibility in the dark. Plus, the material’s water-proof, too.
At 450g, the IMPACT Spinal Protection Backpack is a reasonably light school bag that won’t add extra weight to your child’s back. This is especially important for kids of primary school age, given the load they will have to bear for their daily lessons. Design-wise, the bag’s simple yet everlasting design and colour schemes has an unassuming look to it, which makes it an easy match for any school uniform.
Suitable Age: Primary School
If you’re looking for a bag with great back support, you can’t go wrong with the Bromin Lite, recommended for kids aged six to 10. Combined with cushy waist and chest straps, this bag is made out of lightweight material to even out the weight within Accessing the bag’s content is easy, and its large front compartment extends inwards to keep the bag compact.
Suitable Age: Primary
As its name implies, Dr Kong’s series of Spine Pressure-Free backpack collection, with varying designs for toddlers to those above 150cm, is meant to reduce the pressure (literally, not figuratively) on your child. Each bag comes with a patented spine pressure-free design that promises to help prevent “round shoulder” as well as reduce neck, shoulder, and back tension. The hollow tunnel design ensures there’s no unnecessary impact on the spine during movement. This is complemented by a waist belt to distribute some of the weight away from the shoulder to the waist.
Suitable Age: Toddlers to secondary school
Effectively prevent “Round Shoudler”, reduce neck, shoulder and back pressure
Deuter’s Genius school bags are outfitted with an aluminium frame and special spinal support cushioning that embraces the spine to ease any stresses from carrying a load. Chest straps, a hip fin, and soft padded shoulder straps also distribute weight evenly and keep everything nice and secured.
And if you’ve got an active kid, you’ll be glad to know that it’s designed to reduce perspiration by promoting ventilation. You can opt for the pink colourway with a woodland creatures-themed print or blue with a space-themed print.
Suitable for: Primary school
A stabilising anatomically-shaped aluminum frame with height-adjustable shoulder straps, removable hip belt, and chest belt optimally distribute the bag content weight to promote good posture.
The design also allows much of the weight to be shifted away from the shoulders and the stronger pelvic area. Andyou don’t have to worry about your kid outgrowing the bag — the shoulder straps can be adjusted along the aluminum frame to ensure a perfect fit for the growing child, from 1m to 1.5m.
Suitable Age: Primary, Secondary School
At first glance, the Impact Ergo-Comfort Spinal Support Backpack looks like a sturdy bag. But don’t let its chunky design fool you, this is a bag that’s light and comes with a patented orthopaedic spinal protection system. Besides its comfortable straps, the bag also adds more levels of comfort with its high quality ballistic nylon material and air breathable ventilation system.
Suitable Age: Primary school
As your kids grow older, they will be looking for a bag that is both practical and gets nods of approval from their friends. The Ivar Urban 20 does just that. On the practical front, its lightweight Ivar-Lift design provides superior weight distribution, load balance, and perfect organization. Design-wise, it sports a minimalistic design that attracts looks of envy, and perhaps approval, from kids in the upper primary and secondary levels.
Suitable Age: Primary, Secondary School
Stable, robust, lightweight and German-designed, the Satch Sleek comes with adjustable straps to accommodate your child’s height from 1.4 m onwards. With sufficient reflectors to keep your child safely visible, it also comes with various compartments and expandable pockets to increase its storage capacity. Worry not, for the ergonomic behind this back ensures your child carries the weight evenly across their shoulders, back, and waist.
Suitable Age: Primary, Secondary School
An upgrade over its smaller counterpart, the Satch Pack is built with anatomically-shaped aluminium rails and adjustable shoulder traps to fit your child to a tee. It mimics the core feature and design of trekking backpacks for everyday use, providing your child with stable and even weight distribution for easy carrying. Its back is also ergonomically shaped and breathable to provide an extra layer of comfort.
Suitable Age: Primary, secondary school
Hiking bags are made for carrying heavy loads with additional support, and this one from Decathlon has two foam backs and side compression straps as well as thumb loops and a chest strap to distribute weight evenly. Not only does it come in several stylish colorways, it’ll set you back just $10.
Suitable Age: Primary, secondary school
When choosing an ergonomic school bag that is good for your kid, you should definitely look beyond the aesthetics and marketing of the bag. Focus on the form factor and design that targets the fit to your child, its weight distribution and back posture. These are factors that will impact your child’s comfort when carrying the school bag.
Height of bag should be fitted to torso length
We know that online shopping is the craze these days. But when it comes to buying a good ergonomic school bag, you should aim to go to a physical shop to try it out. That’s because you need to know whether the height of the school bag is suitable for your child.
According to a senior principal from the Singapore General Hospital, the bag should rest between the C7 vertebrae and the top of the hip bone (iliac crest). This means the bag cannot be too small or too big, so you’ll need to let your child try out the bag to know if the fit is just nice.
Wide and cushioned straps for better support
The bulk of the school bag’s weight lies on the shoulder of your child. Thus, having thickly padded and wide straps make it more comfortable for your child when he/she carries the school bag.
Padded, ventilated and posture guiding backrest
Poor posture is one of the main reasons that lead to long term back injury. To prevent that from happening to your child, make sure he/she carries an ergonomic school bag with a posture guiding backrest. The posture guiding backrest ensures that your child maintains his/her posture form while carrying the load of his/her books on his/her shoulders.
It also helps to have additional padding and ventilation on the backrest, which will increase the level of comfort.
Multiple compartments for even weight distribution
Having more than one compartment lets your kid distribute the weight of his/her books. He/she can pack the heavier items closer to the backrest and leave the lighter items toward the outside.
Structured shape with strong base
Unlike conventional school bags, ergonomic school bags should come with a structured shape. In particular, it needs to have a strong base so that the weight doesn’t shift and sag towards the lower half of your child’s back.
Text: Si Jie Lim/SingSaver Additional reporting: Michelle Lee
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