Most kids' backpacks are built to survive one school year, not four. Zippers give out somewhere around week twenty, the bottom panel wears through from being dragged across a bus floor or a hallway instead of carried, and the stitching at the shoulder-strap anchors stretches loose well before the last day of school. …

Outdoor and adventure gear is a category where catalog shopping still makes a lot of sense. The products require real specification — load ratings, insulation fill power, waterproof ratings, sole types — and a good catalog organizes that information in a way that search results rarely do. The companies below have been …