@Ninji Oof. That seems like the end of the zipper was not stitched well enough, to be honest.

@joepie91 I think it’s happened from me hurriedly opening/closing it too much and putting stress on it

In a similar vein, there’s a pocket just inside that has a plastic outer layer, and I ripped it a long time ago— probably by not being careful enough with the zipper

@Ninji I would still consider that a quality issue; that is a normal thing to be doing with a backpack, and it should survive that (and mine indeed does).

The plastic lining is likely material deterioration; I've seen that failure mode on more cheap backpacks, it's a materials quality issue. I suspect a lack of UV resistance, making the material brittle.

@joepie91 yeah… i wonder how i can actually find one that i know will stand up to my use, though 🤔

I previously had an AmazonBasics one which I retired after some seams on it split apart. I’d bought it because my partner had one and recommended it, and theirs is still fine to this day, but I wasn’t as lucky

@Ninji I have an AliExpress-specific(?) heuristic: figure out the price 'brackets' of different options, then pick the second cheapest bracket, and buy one in there.

Not the cheapest bracket; those have all the corners cut, including the ones that shouldn't be. The second cheapest, because those are likely to *just* be cost-optimized, while leaving the important quality bits intact.

@Ninji (This assumes that you don't have the money to just buy one from a brand with a reputation for ethically-manufactured and quality stuff, of course)

@joepie91 I could probably justify this now that I’m employed again— but I don’t know how to actually go about finding a decent one…