Galactic Style Guide – Backpacks II

Welcome back to another installment of the Galactic Style Guide, the bimonthly series where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! In this entry, we’re returning to our examination of in-universe backpacks, this time focusing on some less rigid examples, encompassing not just backpacks but also things like satchels and bedrolls.
As we said last month, this kind of unassuming and field-functional gear is woefully underrepresented among the GFFA costuming community (who tend to go for eye-catching and…less-than-functional). This is too bad, because a good pack can really elevate an impression and make it feel like a living, breathing kit and not just a costume: it shows the viewer “I am a real individual with needs beyond what I carry on my belt or in my pockets.”
Let’s dive in and get some ideas!

The softpack that gets the most screentime in the Lucas films is probably the one Luke totes Yoda around in during his Jedi training. As far as I know, nobody has yet identified it as a milsurp piece (though the buckles might be?) so it may have been made in-house for Episode V. If anyone has any details on it, please share them below in the comments!

Some members of the Endor strike team in Episode VI wear these OD green softpacks, which I’ve always heard were some kind of CommBloc/North Vietnamese manufacture. Unfortunately, as there are no fan-made cottage options for anything close to screen-accurate at present, most Endor costumers use a Czech model 60 rucksack, which is built along similar lines, and can be modified to be even closer.

In the pre-EA Battlefront and Battlefront II (respectively), the Rebel snipers wear these small gray packs. If you squint, the BF1 iteration halfway resembles the Endor pack above, while the BF2’s twin rectangular layout is kind of reminiscent of the rigid two-box Rebel backpacks we looked at last month.

Langdon Foss’ work on Wizards of the Coasts’ RPG materials (which we’re a big fan of, and have analyzed before) featured two soft knapsacks in the Galactic Campaign Guide:

Now, good living history tends to focus on the experience of the ‘common folk’, and where there’s war and conflict, there’s bound to be refugees…so in a setting called Star Wars, we should expect to see lots of these. While the main plots of titles tends to overlook this important demographic, when we do see them, there’s a particular style of luggage they tend to carry!

As we can see, an awful lot of galactic refugees carry their worldly belongings in what appear to be oversized, drawstring pillowcases! My only question is: who’s up to the challenge of portraying an unremarkable, down-on-their-luck, space-tramper?

Now, how about some…nondescript, over-burdened examples (often with bedrolls!)?

Next, we’ll look at some examples of side-slung satchels – I had thought about making a separate post for such things, but I haven’t really come up with enough examples to warrant it (leave a comment below if you know of any others!).

Remember that time Jason Sudekis punched Baby Yoda at the end of Mando season one (2019)? If you didn’t know, the bag holding the little gremlin was a piece of real-world milsurp – a British P37 satchel. It probably wasn’t even necessary, but I like how the propmakers held back and only gave it one simple, angular Imperial rank plaque-type greeble – less really is more.

And finally, a few examples from ‘Rogue One‘.

In the Rogue One prologue, young ‘Jyn Erso’ hastily grabs a military-style softpack (of Serbian make, according to one of our SWLH facebook members), and the RO visual guide includes her mom’s survival pack:

In the same film, adult ‘Jyn’ briefly slings a small, inconspicuous pack/bag (note—again!—the drab color and natural-fiber material):

While at first I didn’t have any details or better shots of this pack, I went back and scanned the relevant scenes and found a closer look when the crew arrives at ‘Jedha’:

From what I can see, it’s essentially a Rogue One iteration of the Endor softpack from above!: it retains the shared wide flap for the two lower pockets, but closes the flaps with straps or buckles instead of the CommBloc wooden toggles.

I wanted to close with this example because I was really surprised to see the difference between the packs we’ve looked at in this series…and the things that came up when I first searched for ‘Jyn Erso Rogue One backpack’:

As I said then, these kinds of synthetic-fabric, zipper- and rivet-laden, overdesigned backpacks covered in English or Aurebesh text and ‘factional branding’ don’t exist to help you immerse yourself in the Star Wars galaxy – they exist to let other nerds know you’re a Star Wars fan. They’re expensive, look goofy, don’t weather well, and aren’t made for real, authentic use. If you want a ‘Star Wars backpack’, go browse a military-surplus shop and look for something with

• Natural fabric (cotton or linen canvas, real leather)
• Muted, earthy colors (shades of brown, gray, blue, or green – avoid true black)
• Limited hardware or decoration
• Wouldn’t you know it, these are the foundations of good Star Wars costume design in general!

Hopefully, this has given you a better idea of what an authentic GFFA backpack looks like, and I hope you can find one that will give your GFFA kit some real-world functionality and survival points!
So far, these are all the examples of soft packs I’ve managed to dig up, but I’m sure there are more out there – let me know in the comments below or come discuss with us in the SWLH facebook group! See you next month!

ADDENDUM From The Future: Fern in Skeleton Crew wears a backpack that appears to be made from a WW2-style musette bag:

(Special thanks to my monthly supporters R.F. and P.D.! Researching, compiling, and writing this series takes a lot of time and energy. If you’ve learned something from this series, or will use this post as inspiration for your own in-universe backpack, please consider supporting my work via ko-fi, or with a small donation below! Thank you!