Re-Nylon Backpack
The bag that made luxury nylon — the 1984 black backpack, remade in regenerated ECONYL.
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Story & heritage
The Re-Nylon Backpack carries the most important lineage in the house. In the 1980s Miuccia Prada turned Pocono nylon — a tough, military-spec black nylon her grandfather had used to cover steamer trunks — into waterproof bags, and the now-iconic black nylon backpack, dated 1984, is held in the collection of MoMA. Relaunched in 1985 with the triangular enamel logo plaque, it made luxury nylon a category of its own.
In 2019 Prada reissued that heritage design as part of Re-Nylon, swapping virgin nylon for ECONYL regenerated nylon made from recycled and purified plastic waste. The backpack thus closes a loop: the bag that defined nylon luxury, remade as a statement of sustainable intent.
Materials & craft
The backpack is built from Re-Nylon — regenerated ECONYL spun from reclaimed ocean plastics, fishing nets and textile waste — keeping the lightweight, water-resistant, hard-wearing character that made the original a workhorse. The form stays faithful to the heritage design: a clean black silhouette with buckled front pockets, a Saffiano-trimmed strap, and the enamel triangle logo as the sole ornament.
How to choose & style
This is the icon to buy if you want heritage without formality — it dresses down beautifully and reads as quietly knowing rather than flashy. Worn in classic black it is effectively a neutral, slipping under a tailored coat as easily as over a sweatshirt, and it suits a minimalist who wants one bag that signals taste rather than logo-volume. Treat it as the everyday anchor of a capsule wardrobe and let its history do the rest.
