First Impulse

It was 1998. I was walking down a steep, San Francisco street. A herd of kids came running down the hill behind me. They were racing to the school bus at the bottom of the hill. I stepped out of their path and watched this stampede, thinking—hey, this is like a herd of horses with saddlebags flying all over the place. In this case, the saddlebags were backpacks and every one of the children, all 10 to 12 years old, were struggling under the momentum of these hefty packs as they ran. It was hard to keep a straight line trajectory to the bus with those packs bouncing about and throwing them off course in a haphazard way. But they all made it safely to the bottom. No mishaps, until. . . .

The last kid to board the bus gingerly placed a foot on the first step, stretched out his arms to grab the hand rails, but before his hands reached the rails he tipped over backwards. He didn’t fall down. He didn’t collapse over. He didn’t trip. He literally TIPPED over backwards, and he lay there rather like a turtle on its back struggling to get right-sided. Fortunately, the pack was filled so thick with "stuff" it prevented the boy’s head from hitting the pavement. When I got to him to help him up, he was laughing. The kids on the bus were all laughing, too. The bus driver who also came to the boy’s aid, chuckled. I smiled and dusted the kid off, asking "You OK?" He was fine and boarded the bus happily laughing.

In that moment I promised myself I’d work on what I saw as a very serious problem. I consulted with my best friend, Deborah Bugel, RN, MA and she educated me to the even more serious health problems involving backpacks, bone development and child growth. Together, she and I began work on a new type of backpack that would provide maximum weight distribution and stabilization. We were determined to design a "proactive" backpack -- a pack that not merely prevented strain and injury to the user’s body, but engaged the body in healthy moves and mechanics.

After many years of design and research, prototyping and testing we developed the Ultimate Pack® with the lumbar support shelf system, a weight bearing system unlike anything provided by standard backpacks.

The Ultimate Pack® truly is fashioned for a fine spine, and it is my sincere wish you enjoy its benefits throughout the many fine adventures of your life.

Karen FitzGerald, founder and President of Itfitz®, has been a business management consultant in private practice,1973-1993. In 1994, Karen launched Think I.N.C., a consultancy known for its work troubleshooting business problems. In 1998 she set about to solve a serious health problem manifesting in growing children-the problem of back, spine and muscular-skeletal injury caused by backpack use in our student population. She spent two years in R&D before going after patents. She was issued two utility patents and one design patent for the product now called the Ultimate Pack®. The patents as well as all trademarks and other intellectual property have been assigned to Itfitz, Inc.