JanSport SuperBreak Plus Backpack Review
The school-bag classic, now with a laptop sleeve and a bottle pocket
JanSport SuperBreak Plus reviews in one place: the school-bag classic with a padded 15-inch laptop sleeve and a bottle pocket. Who it fits, who should skip it.
Bottom Line
At around $36, this is the backpack that keeps turning up in driveways and school pickup lines, and it earns the repeat business. It carries a 15-inch laptop, a couple of notebooks, and a water bottle without fuss, and buyers keep rebuying it in new colors year after year. It's light, it's simple, and it's backed by a name people trusted in the 2000s. Nothing fancy here — it just earns its keep.
Read enough JanSport SuperBreak Plus reviews and the verdict is consistent: this is the decades-old silhouette with the two things owners always asked for — a padded laptop sleeve and a water bottle pocket.
It Fixed the Two Things People Griped About
The upgrades are the padded 15-inch laptop sleeve and the side water bottle pocket, and they're why buyers reach for this over the base model that costs about $10 less. Owners report hauling it through a full school year, weekly washes included, with the stitching and zippers still holding. At 14 ounces it stays light, and the 600D polyester shrugs off the scuffs that kill store-brand bags in a few months. The story repeats: parents burn through three generic backpacks, buy this one, and stop.
Rain Is the One Thing It Can't Handle
It's not water resistant, full stop — treat a downpour or a leaking bottle as a threat to whatever's inside. Organization is thin, one big compartment and a front pocket, which a long-term reviewer called out directly. And the sleeve is a true 15 inches, so a bulky 16-inch laptop rides loose in the main pocket instead.
Buy It for the Commute, Not the Storm
Students and commuters carrying a normal laptop and books will get years out of it. Anyone who needs a weatherproof, heavily compartmentalized bag should look elsewhere.
SuperBreak Plus vs JanSport Cool comes up constantly, and the honest split is weight and money against sheer volume. This one is 14 ounces empty and runs about \; the Cool is a full pound, costs around \, and opens to 34 liters across two main compartments for people hauling a whole day of books and gym clothes. What you get here instead is the padded 15-inch sleeve and less weight on your shoulders. Neither bag is water resistant — that is JanSport’s own spec on both — and both cap out at a 15-inch laptop, so a thick 16-inch machine rides in the main pocket either way. Carry less and the Plus is the better buy. Carry everything and the Cool earns its extra \.
