Murray (Pletz) McCory founded JanSport with his father, Norman Pletz, and girlfriend, Jan Lewis in 1967. The idea for the company stemmed from Murray's backpack design featuring a flexible aluminum frame, which won him an award while a student at the University of Washington in 1966. After this success, Murray started producing outdoor packs and tents with help from Jan, who the company is named after, Norman, and his cousin, Skip Yowell. From their first office on the second floor of Norman's transmission shop, JanSport began designing products for outdoor recreation, like tents, sleeping bags, and backpacks. One of the company's first significant innovations was the Mountain Dome tent, which gained popularity during the early 1970s. However, JanSport is probably best known for its backpack designs. Their Alpine Phantom flexible frame pack became a popular pack for outdoor sports, and the campus daypack became a staple for book-toting students in classrooms across the nation. JanSport was sold to K2 corporation in 1971-72 and Murray left the company in 1982. Since 1986, the company has been owned by VF Corporation. Jan remained with JanSport, eventually becoming the Director of Development in 2000 before retiring in 2005. Skip retired in 2010 as the company's Vice President of Global Public Relations and passed away on October 19, 2015.
The collection consists of materials related to JanSport created and collected by the brand's designer Murray Pletz from 1968 to 1991. The materials include original design sketches of clothing and bags, textile swatches, early JanSport logo designs, magazine clippings related to JanSport, and a biographical note about JanSport written by Murray Pletz in 1987, located in folder 7. The materials in folder 7 and folder 8 were each originally held in a 3-ring binder.
The materials are arranged chronologically, with undated materials first.
Processed in May 2021.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.
Permission to publish material from the Murray Pletz papers must be obtained from the
No restrictions on access, except: not available through interlibrary loan.
This collection was donated to USU Special Collections and Archives by Murray Pletz in 2021.
Outdoor Recreation Catalogs (ORA 001) Outdoor Recreation Serials (ORA 002)