Since my first day of kindergarten in 1995, my JanSport and I were inseparable. It was a fluorescent green SuperBreak model. My dad wrote my name on the front with a Sharpie (he did his best to ...

For a while, Pletz; his wife, Jan (after whom the backpack was named); and Mr. Yowell operated out of a dusty workshop, rented from Pletz’s father, at the corner of 175th and Aurora.