Hard lunch boxes are the fragile ones

A soft-sided cooler with a heavy-duty zipper will survive backpack life better than any hard lunch box.

I know it sounds backwards. But hard lunch boxes are the ones that die. Plastic cracks when you throw a backpack around, and stainless steel bentos dent — once the lid won’t seal properly, it’s garbage. A soft bag just absorbs the hit and bounces.

The real enemy is the zipper. Cheap bags die at the zipper within a few months, so buy one with proper heavy-duty hardware. The Yeti Daytrip and the Carhartt lunch bag are the two I’ve seen survive years of school and job-site abuse.

If you’d rather carry an actual container instead of a bag, the Stanley food jar is damn near indestructible. But for the daily backpack throw-and-go, a tough bag is the better buy.

Your backpack is a washing machine with elbows. Buy accordingly.