; 49 years ago 1967 seattle washington u.s. website jansport.com jansport is an american brand of backpacks and collegiate apparel now owned by vf corporation one of the world s largest apparel companies . 1 jansport is the world s largest backpack maker and together jansport and the north face also owned by vf corporation sell nearly half of all small backpacks sold in the united states . 2 history edit jansport was founded in 1967 in seattle washington usa by murray pletz his wife janis jan lewis for whom the company is named and his father norman pletz . 3 4 5 jansport innovated with a panel loading daypack unlike traditional top loading packs . 6 in 1975 jansport introduced the first convertible travel pack as well as its signature daypack . 6 in 1986 vf purchased jansport s then parent blue bell . citation needed jansport s corporate headquarters is based in alameda california at vf outdoor headquarters where it shares offices with divisional siblings lucy and the north face . a distribution facility in everett washington which had opened in 1971 closed in march 2012 . jansport also has a warehouse in appleton wisconsin which houses its collegiate apparel division . 2 jansport started by developing the external frame backpack which used a metal frame with a cloth packsack attached to it ; the products made include technical day packs and internal frame backpacks . up until the early 1990s all jansport packs were made in the united states . citation needed jansport headquarters in san leandro early 1990s jansport d 3 references edit lizzie jagger teams up with wrangler for denim spa moisturizing jeans . daily news . new york city . january 17 2013 . retrieved 2013 02 01 . a b horovitz bruce 2007 08 20 . new badge of cool high tech high fashion backpacks . usa today . p. 1a . retrieved 2009 09 01 . netherby steve december 1973 who is jan sport field and stream 78 8 116 118 rachel abrams october 17 2015 . skip yowell jansport co founder who blazed trail for backpacks dies at 69 . new york times . retrieved october 18 2015 . jansport unique and fun a company with personality . retrieved october 18 2015 . a b jansport inc. . fundinguniverse.com . retrieved 2011 06 15 . external links edit jansport official web site vf corporation retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title jansport & oldid 729520491 categories luggage brandscamping equipment manufacturershiking equipmentcompanies established in 1967companies based in san leandro california1967 establishments in washington state american brandshidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from february 2014 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages catal deutschespa olgaeilgebahasa indonesiabahasa melayunederlands svenska edit links this page was last modified on 12 july 2016 at 19 27 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view