Fjällräven Kånken No.2 Laptop 15
I am a backpack person. I like to carry it around almost anywhere, and use my backpack 6/7 days. It goes where I go and travels with me. Before getting my current one, I used to just buy one for 50€, use it for 4-5 years until it was worn down and get a new one. In 2021 I decided to invest a bit more money to get something nice that would last long. After reading a lot of reviews and watching Youtube videos, I landed on the Fjällräven Kånken. I was hoping that its popularity wasn't just hype and instead came from well designed and high quality products. I spent around 175€ for the Kånken No. 2 Laptop 15. It comes with leather handles and a laptop compartment in the back.
Torn Expecations
Sadly, I have overestimated its durability or treated it worse than I thought. Within two years of carrying it around, little tears appeared at the bottom of the laptop compartment. I ignored it and they grew in size and number. My assumption is that the construction of the laptop compartment is made of multiple thinner layers, instead of one thick layer like for the rest of the body. Combined with my careless treatment, it led to the material breaking down. Still, I spent a lot of money and wanted to get at least 10 years of use out of it.
The Repair
Something had to be done, but I didn't (and still don't) know how to properly fix it. I searched online, but nothing useful came up. Not knowing kept me from attempting to do anything, until I finally decided to do a repair this February. Over 3 months later it is still holding up and doesn't show any obvious signs of wear, except for discolourations. We will see for how long it holds up.
Disclaimer: I don't really know how to patch backpacks or most things. I just did what made sense with the little knowledge I do have. Please research and ask people who know their stuff. Now, I wanna outline what I did. I used heavy cotton - "Gabardine", 100% cotton, washable at 30°C and polyester thread.
- First, I cut little pieces of fabric that would fit in the holes and sewed everything shut and together. The goal was to stop the holes and tears from growing.
- I cut out a piece of fabric to cover the whole area, with a centimeter extra to fold the edges.
- With the help of a sewing machine I went around the whole piece with a straight stitch. I folded in the edges everywhere I could so that my fabric wouldn't fray.
- I continued by hand, and stitched my fabric to the backpack. I was careful not to pierce through all the layers, since the thread would be exposed on the inside. This was tricky and took some time. I used some plastic to push the end of the needle through the thicker parts.
Conclusion
All in all, I think this repair took me around 5 hours. In hindsight I would choose a darker fabric to avoid obvious discolorations, but it's not important enough to change it now. I very much like the extra compartment, but the material breaking down so fast is not inspiring confidence. It's a nice backpack, it doesn't fall over easily and I like the shape. On the other hand, there's little internal organisation and the side pockets on the outside are smaller than they look and can take up inside space. I probably would have gotten a regular Kånken model, instead of the fancy one.