This Randoseru Backpack Rethink Angered Some Grumpy Grown-Ups


The carrier sells for around ¥5500 (ca. USD $50). To call it a hit would be an understatement. Orders have already reached 3,000 units. And there’s a three-month wait for new orders. Honestly, I wouldn’t have expected anything less from the country that makes the world’s best toilet seats.

You can see the invention in action in this video from TBS Dig[4]:

“Look at it before you spout off!”

Who could have a problem with a delightful invention such as this?

Adults, that’s who.

Grumpy people with nothing better to do with their lives flocked to Twitter. I guess to complain about how the samposeru would make Japanese kids weak…or something. Several argued that the device was inconvenient. Even dangerous. What happens when you go downhill?!

But perhaps the funniest comment was the person who proclaimed: “Whoever invented this doesn’t understand kids at all!” (Who’s gonna tell ‘im?)

A post about the samposeru garnered over 1,000 such comments. Many of them were negative. But what came next was fantastic: the kids took to Twitter to respond to some of the more egregious complaints.

For example, someone asked, “Wasn’t the randoseru designed to protect your back and head if you fall over?” To which one of the kids replied: “The randoseru will knock you over itself ’cause it’s so heavy! You walk around with a bunch of kerosone bottles strapped across your back – you’ll fall over too!”

Another: “If you lose hold of it on a downhill it’ll be nothing but tears. What if it hits someone?”

The reply: “It has two tires – how’s it gonna roll down a hill? We thought about that in the design. Look at it before you spout off!”

If this inventing thing doesn’t work out, these kids have bright futures as social media mavens.

In all seriousness, a doctor who worked with the kids on the project reports they were all taken aback by the negativity. “The kids and I think thought people would tell us we’d done good. [The criticism] is really crushing.”

Hopefully they can brush it off and keep kicking ass. Meanwhile, this is a good lesson for all of us to think before we go off online. You never know who’s reading on the other side of the screen…

What to read next

10-Year-Old School-Skipping “Revolutionary” Goes Viral in Japan

Footnotes

[1] 中村鞄のランドセル。Nakamura Kaban

[2] ランドセルの相場は?人気メーカーの価格帯とおすすめ12選. Bio-Cafe

[3] ランドセル、どんどん重く? 大量の教科書とタブレットと水筒と… Asahi Shinbun

[4] 重たいランドセルに希望の光?小学生が開発した「さんぽセル」に大人が反論!大人VS小学生の「さんぽセル論争」|TBS NEWS DIG



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