Festival season is upon us! First up: Coachella. Weekend 1 is April 13-15 and weekend 2 is April 20-22. We’re going to weekend 2 and have some really exciting news to announce next week about what we have planned down in Palm Springs, so stay tuned! In the meantime, we’ve selected some of our favorite JanSport packs for festivals. Packs from the JanSport Heritage Series, especially the nylon bags in the collection, are perfect for Coachella. We pulled some more favorites from our Instagram. Follow us @jansportofficial [...] Read More >

Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, Tallest Man on Earth, Sufjan Stevens, Of Montreal and a slew of other great artists have all contributed rare vinyl test pressings and other awesome items to an online auction benefiting the new born son of Mike Adams, frontman of JanSport Unzipped compilation artists Husband & Wife and Mike Adams At His Honest Weight (now playing in the streaming player below.) The Bloomington, Indiana music community (home to labels Jagjaguwar, Secretly Canadian, and Dead Oceans, JanSport Battle of the Bands [...] Read More >

Ok, so we know that Deerhoof isn’t really a “new” discovery (the band’s been around in one form or another since the early 90′s), but it was the first time we actually managed to catch them live and it was everything we had hoped and dreamed for. We caught the band way out on East 4th Street at the Scoot Inn. Thrasher magazine took over the place for a multi-day skateboarding and music extravaganza known as Death Match, and it was awesome. The Scoot [...] Read More >

Continuing with some SXSW follow-up, we want to bring you another of our favorite SXSW discoveries: The Preservation. We were immediately drawn to the The Preservation’s brand of jingly pop with a sound that’s a little bit Ben Folds, a little bit The Fruit Bats, and alot-a-bit likeable. The Preservation officially formed in November of 2009 and have proven to be an ambitious and accomplished group in the short time since. They recorded and released a demo that Winter and went on tour for 12 [...] Read More >

Want to win a limited edition silk-screened poster from the Austin Bonfire Sessions? We have ONE to give away that’s been signed by White Denim, Strange Boys, Bear Hands and Fly Golden Eagle! To enter, all you have to do is leave us a comment on this blog post and we’ll randomly select a winner on April 10! Be sure to fill out your email address in the box provided so we have a way of contacting you. Good Luck! Read More >

It’s only taken us a week, but we did promise to fill you all in on a few of our favorite artists from this year’s SXSW in Austin. We’ll begin by starting your weekend off with the most epic of picks: Austin post-rockers The Calm Blue Sea. The Calm Blue Sea channels all the post rock cliches that we all know and love: roaming song structure, swirling and whirling reverb drenched guitars, massive room filling drum sounds, and long winding buildups that always culminate [...] Read More >

The Planet Granite fundraiser last week was a huge success with over $20,000 raised to keep Castle Rock State Park open! Read more about it here. Read More >

We had an amazing time at SXSW last week and have to admit, we miss Austin. Here are some photos to hold us over until next year. Enjoy! We kicked off SXSW with the first of our Bonfire Sessions at Mohawk with White Denim, Strange Boys, Bear Hands and Fly Golden Eagle. The day consisted of great music, cornhole, Frank’s hot dogs, free beer and free JanSport backpacks! And of course – - it wouldn’t be a complete trip to Texas without some BBQ. The [...] Read More >

Planet Granite climbing gym in Sunnyvale will hosting an auction event tonight beginning at 7:30pm. There will be some great gear up for sale donated by REI, Planet Granite, and of course JanSport. To top it off, Planet Granite will match all donations up to $10,000. All money raised we be given to the Portola and Castle Rock Foundation, an organization that supports California State Parks. On July 1st, 70 California state parks are scheduled to be closed indefinitely due to state budgets cuts [...] Read More >

All good things must come to and end, and SXSW is no exception. We begrudgingly departed Austin yesterday after an incredible week of live music, BBQ and plenty of Fireman’s 4 (ask for it next time you’re in Austin at your favorite local watering hole.) Before we left Austin, we couldn’t resist making one more poor dietary decision and stopping off at our favorite downtown BBQ joint and inhaling this monstrosity of meat…. Last week, we wrapped up the JanSport SXSW festivities on Friday [...] Read More >