When going to the store to pick out school supplies, the one thing to get for your every need was a Trapper Keeper. This all-in-one notebook/folder combo was amazing. It had color coded sections of folders, conversion charts, a place to keep all your weapons of choice, a smooth binder ring slider, all held together by a shiny plastic sleeve secured by Velcro.
The reason it was called the Trapper Keeper was because the folders folded over on the outside edge so when you carried it, it would “trap” your pages and the binder is where you would “keep” the trappers.
You would have a pretty large selection of covers, some were just plain colors and others that had just abstract designs, but you had to choose carefully because what you picked pretty much secured what kind of school year you were going to have. Get there early because you just don’t want to have a pink polka-dotted school year. 
For the last few years, I’ve really been wishing I never threw my old trappers away. I had some cool ones.
I remember hauling around one of these things, along with all my textbooks for three periods. But I kept all my loose papers in my textbooks, so I never really used my Trapper Keeper for anything but as a pallet for those textbooks. I was “Portable Locker Man” to all my classmates.
By the time they were no longer popular, my mom got me one and it was purple w/ an abstract design. It was still cool.
I still thought those things were popular right up to the mid 90’s, but perhaps I haven’t noticed the decline of their presence.
I remember when this was around (from the company who dumped upon us Teddy Ruxpin and Laser Tag)…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_Act_%28school_supplies%29