I got this for my fourth grader in October of 2010 (after another back pack only lasted her 3 weeks of school before ripping).  It made it through the year only breaking at the last week of school, the bottom cracked in half, it still rolled and worked fine (it just slouched or how my daughter put it, it was drepressed) but other than that there were no other issues. I will be buying another one for this comming school year.