Backpacks aren't professional. They don't look good for the average office. If the equipment these people wear matches their clothes well, a backpack will ruin the lines of a good suit, wear down your shoulders, and make you look more like a child than a serious employee. I would say that you should not carry a backpack with a suit.
It's not worth damaging the shoulder and the material for greater comfort, and I think there are more professional alternatives, such as briefcases, that will help you get ahead instead of ruining your clothes. OP should not carry a backpack with a suit. It looks very vulgar and unprofessional. Just because some TV personality has done it DOESN'T mean it's OK in real life.
What's next, wearing tracksuits or pajamas in the office? Show some respect for yourself and dress appropriately, not like a slob. I use a wallet, but my partner has just started carrying a backpack with his laptop full of papers. I know that backpacks are common because people carry their laptops and all kinds of things with them, but they look silly in anything other than casual attire, in my opinion. It's funny that this comes up, because it would never have occurred to me if my manager hadn't told me that HIS manager had problems with backpacks in a professional environment (my manager is the head of sales for half the country in a Fortune 50 company) and I would have categorically told my manager: “no backpacks”.
I need two bags for everything (I end up using both my laptop bag and my nice work bag) and a backpack is really the best option for me. I live near Washington and see a lot of people in the subway wearing suits and backpacks (usually nylon laptop backpacks). Knowing that you can safely carry your laptop from home to work in a quality backpack says it all. As an auditor, I use a backpack mainly because carrying records and a laptop to customers makes the traditional auditor's bag cumbersome and difficult to carry everywhere.
And finding this feature is very easy, since most adult backpacks are specifically made to be able to carry laptops and other equipment safely. I probably (definitely) belong to a minority, but leather backpacks remind me of those ridiculous tiny wallets that everyone had in the 90s. Mine, however, is plain black twill, one of the smallest backpacks Everlane offers, and I think it looks a little more polished than the sportier backpacks I see everywhere (including my boss) carrying everywhere (including my boss). You should buy a regular briefcase, put backpack straps on it and use it as a backpack when convenient, and when you need a professional look, take it instead.
That said, I only dedicate myself to technology for one day in an interview. Even when they asked me to give a presentation, 26% brought a laptop to show the book I co-wrote in my portfolio, I carried them in an elegant bag, not in my daily travel backpack. Although I could carry a DayGlo backpack and no one would care (an engineer from a consumer electronics company), what I use is one of the Peak Design backpacks. I work in accounting and, although many young people who come bring backpacks on a daily basis, practically everyone over 40 uses a laptop bag, either for carrying on the shoulder or on wheels, or some type of briefcase.
I don't know whether or not to carry a backpack for my customers' trips because I have a really bad back and carrying my huge laptop to customer offices on a shoulder bag would be disgusting.
