I don't understand why would Staples sell 3 different quality of notebook binders with prices spaced apart based on quality. I just don't see the point of spending a lot of money on the most expensive notebook when kids will inadvertently rough & tumble their notebooks all thru school year. By the end of school year the notebook is already worn down with 50/50 chance of reusing it again for the next year. Area schools have their lockers so narrow the notebooks are easily scraped into it. Kids don't have a choice in the size of binders it's what the teachers demand as requirement for their class. For the price notebook should be able to withstand the casualty of school/locker beatings.
High school sophomore may be putting a lot of pressure on the interior pockets but it is only October and they are ripping after month and a half. Rest of the binder is better than average.
I bought quite a few of these binders and work ok but the problem i had was that they started to fall apart on the inside where the metal meets the middle of the binder. Not all of them did that however.