Boys' Accessories
Buy and sell boys’ accessories in Guatemala.
A school backpack that made it through one year usually has another in it, and in Guatemala it tends to change hands between the end of classes in October and the January start. That backpack and its lunch box are the heart of boys’ accessories, alongside the belt and tie a school uniform calls for and the caps and watches a boy picks for himself. Pieces are new and pre-owned, and the usual seller is a family clearing out what a son has outgrown. You agree the deal with the seller directly, so ask to see the zips working before you settle on a price.
School backpacks, uniform belts and caps for boys:
the backpack is the purchase that matters. Younger boys want a print: a Totto dinosaur, Spider-Man or another licensed character. By ten or eleven most have moved to a plain backpack in a dark colour from Totto, JanSport or a generic label, and one with a cartoon on it becomes hard to give away. The uniform kit is the second group, and taste has nothing to do with it. A school that sets the uniform often sets the colour of the belt and tie too, so a buyer wants an exact match. School shoes and the uniform itself sit under boys’ shoes and boys’ clothing, and the girls’ side of the same shelf is in girls’ accessories.
Hand-crocheted shoulder bags from the highlands:
the men of Todos Santos Cuchumatán crochet the ones they carry every day, and child-sized versions in wool are made in the same mountains. A handmade one lasts for years and is worth buying used; check that the strap stitching is tight where it joins the bag, because that is where it gives way under a load of exercise books.
Choosing a boy’s backpack by his back, not his grade:
it should be no wider than his shoulders, end above his waist and have two padded straps worn on both shoulders. Kids’ backpacks come in a small and a large size; pick by the length of his back, not by how much he might grow by next January. A wheeled backpack spares his back but is heavy when empty and awkward on stairs, so it suits a small boy at a school without many steps better than a twelve-year-old. With caps, an adjustable strap buys a couple of years that a fitted cap does not. With sunglasses, look for UV400 or 100% UV on the label; a dark lens without it lets the pupil open wider and is worse than none. A new Totto kids’ backpack runs from about Q350 to Q500. A used one fetches much less, and two things set the gap: the zips, which are the first part to fail, and the print, because the dinosaur that thrilled a six-year-old will not interest a nine-year-old at any price.
Zips, wheels and fake G-Shocks:
run every zip from end to end: a zip that snags or splits is the costliest repair a backpack can need. On a wheeled one, pull the handle out to each stop, spin both wheels and look for cracks where the frame meets the base. Inside a cap, check the sweatband; heavy staining does not wash out. The Casio G-Shock is the watch boys ask for and the one most often copied. A fake feels light, the printing on the face is soft at the edges and the backlight is weak or patchy, and the model number on the caseback should match a real model.
Listing a backpack or uniform belt between October and January:
those are the months parents shop for the new school year, and a backpack posted in March tends to wait. Photograph it front, back and inside, with close-ups of the zips and, on a wheeled one, the wheels and the extended handle. Give the brand, the size and how many school years it has done, and show a watch running. For a uniform belt or tie, put the name of the school in the title: the buyer is nearly always another family from the same school, often near enough to collect it at the gate at home time.