Back Tpack

Because most children wear backpacks the wrong way and suffer pain, bad posture and injuries, Salem physical therapist Marilyn Miller Von Foerster redesigned a new school bag, called the BackTpack.

The new backpack was tested on 40 middle school students who gave it favorable reviews. “It went from about 68 percent of students with pain to 12 percent, just with the given load,” said Miller Von Foerster. “I asked if they stand or walk differently and about 80 percent said I stand straighter.” Chiropractor David Duemling sells the BackTpack through his clinic and said it can really help people with bad backs and prevent problems in the future.

• Eighth grader McKenna Clayton, one of Duemling’s patients, tried out the backpack. She suffers from sway back, or when her spine curves too far inward. “It’s always just really hard because I’m tipping backwards,” said Clayton. “It gets really sore and it’s very tough to carry a regular backpack.” Clayton originally thought the backpack looked and felt odd when she first put it on, but began to like it after wearing it for a few hours. “I loaded it up with books, my normal school load and it was a lot easier to carry around,” she said.


• Jeff Thorne, another backpack tester, said he saw some advantages to the design. “If you’re riding the bus, you don’t have to take it off and put it on the floor,” he said. “You can leave it on you [and] you can know it’s secure on you.” Though his back felt better, Thorne said the bag wasn’t practical to fit odd items like shoes and clothing.

Miller Von Foerester has sold about 3,000 of the bags to people around the world. Though she’s not making a profit yet, she said she wants to help people feel better one back at a time.

sourcing - H/T to Bethany Thompson for the heads up on this!

Article quoted in full from: KATU.com

Graphics from Back Tpack website