Six years ago I bought myself a very nice new backpack. I expected it would last forever. What could possible go wrong?
Only this one thing: the crown of the zipper pull. This is pretty much the only thing that could break and be impossible to fix.
Or is it?
If you ever have time to kill and are seeking new knowledge, I very highly recommend YouTube and zipper fixing videos. What a rabbit hole.
Step one was to order some zipper pulls and supporting supplies like sturdy thread and a nuclear strength needle for the canvas.
Step two was another zipper pulls order since I bought the wrong size. I now have about 30 zipper pulls. Is there a place to donate them? Is this like all the weird hardware that a household collects over the years where you just keep it in a box and don’t know what to do with it? If you need black backpack zipper pulls in #6, #8 or #10, please contact me.
I watched a number of videos and had two possible strategies that I thought would be pretty hairy but that I could accomplish.
Spoiler alert: I did not fix it.
I bravely cut a few threads trying to get to the zipper but the backpack is so well made it was really tough. Also, I determined that I really couldn’t do either strategy without either (1) turning the backpack inside out – and it’s too sturdy for that, or (2) just completely deconstructing the bag and hoping for the best which seemed like a recipe for a long afternoon(s) of swearing and regret.
I opted for (3) just living with it as it is. It’s not that tough to deal with.
