Office Depot, Sharpie launch backpack design contest

NEW YORK Office Depot and Sharpie have teamed up for Project Backpack, a contest that gives customers the chance to have their backback produced during the 2010 school season.

Customers can enter the contest by creating a design on one of four Office Depot canvas backpacks that can be purchased ($14.99 each; available in blue, pink, olive and green khaki, that will include two free individual Sharpie markers of your choice) from a participating Office Depot store, or by downloading an official contest template from www.myprojectbackpack.com .After designing the backpack using Sharpie markers, participants can upload a photo or scanned image of their backpack to www.myprojectbackpack.com along with their official entry form.

Apanel of judges will select the top ten finalists whose designs will be posted back to www.myprojectbackpack.com where the public will vote on the official winner. The grand prize winner will receive $5000 and will have their backpack produced during the 2010 school season, the first runner up will receive $3000 and the second runner up will receive $2000.

“Students rely on Office Depot for their back-to-school products and solutions during the entire school year,” said Wade Eveleth, senior director of merchandising for Office Depot. “We are excited to launch this contest with Sharpie and provide everyone with a really fun way to show off their creativity by designing a backpack that will be on store shelves for the 2010 back to school season.”