Well hey there Youtube, friends.
Welcome back to my channel.
What's that I have on my back you ask? Why?
It's my FjallRaven Raven 20L bag.
Well, how do I like it? I'm glad you asked.
And let me tell you a little bit about this backpack.
It retails for 90 us, 110, 120 Canadian.
You're probably wondering why you recognize the fuel robin
esthetic in the name.
That's because everybody knows the Kanken backpack.
That's like the super popular one.
I actually ended up getting this backpack on a whim on a trip to San Francisco.
I got this because it was like a store credit for this bike
rental thing that we did.
And the credit could be applied to products and their store.
And this was one of them.
See, I'm not the type of person that makes a purchase on the fly like that.
I had like, short time constraints.
I was going to catch my flight that night.
I'm more the type of person that does research
or watches YouTube tutorials, watches more tutorials, asks Amazon questions,
checks for reviews, really at the depths of what Google will show me.
And then like I'll add it to my cart, I'll think about it and maybe I'll get it.
Maybe I won't. Who knows?
I'm more of that type of shopper.
But sometimes you got to live a little, you know, who is this bag for?
I don't know why I just yelled at the camera like that.
Who is his bag for?
This bag, I would say is for the EDC-er, the minimalist simple backpack
and not necessarily for the workout gym person, more like got to carry a laptop,
some documents, some small lunch,
maybe like an extra sweater or something like that.
But if if you're more of the yoga
type of a workout person
or more of the minimal clothing for your workout
type of person, then that'll work.
I've managed to fit some boots in here, but then like I emptied out the entire bag
and it was just like big boots that I needed for something.
I don't see it as being like a school backpack.
I mean, if you're in university, I guess it would depend on the subject
matter you're studying.
I have a hard time seeing how you can carry like a biochem biochemistry 101
type of book in this.
It's not the biggest bag.
It does say it's 20 liters, but we all know that's not really standard.
And it is more on the smaller dimensions.
Let's get into the quality, the style of tech specs,
all that fun stuff on the outside.
So this bag is quite small.
That's really why I liked it.
I'm about 115 to 120, depending on depending if I ate a burrito or not.
The bag is probably the only backpack that looks normal size on me.
This is, I think, what backpacks look like on most people.
But that's an issue for me, which is kind of why I didn't go
for the Bellroy Classic, even though I've seen videos and I love that vibe.
It's just like flatter the wider backpack and it doesn't appeal to me.
This is cute. It comes with 10 plus colors, depending on the region,
depending on the time of the year.
They seem to update their colors quite a bit. And it's super cute.
That's what it does.
It's like a grayish blue on the other side.
It's very minimal.
It's got this cute little Fjallraven leather patch that matches up here,
which also coincidentally matches my Raybans sunglasses case.
That was just the fun for me.
Has a little embroidered stitched
logo of the Fjallraven Fox here, I believe it's a fox.
And then you have the little Swedish flag, as I believe they have
on all their backpacks, just very subtle, tucked away.
And then G1000, which is their eco durable wax canvas type of material.
The bag itself is water resistant.
They actually do sell a wax that you can apply to this and other of their products.
That would make it a lot more water-resistant and durable.
If you're drenched in the rain, it will get wet.
The zippers are YKK, but they're not waterproof.
Don't get caught in the rain with this backpack.
It's not that type of backpack.
It's really more of an urban EDC, minimal carry backpack.
That's what I would call it.
I use it for work every day.
I've used it for many of the things
that I actually use this snowboarding and hiking.
And it's been pretty great.
The zippers are YKK very simple, but they work easy to zip,
2 water bottle holders on the outside.
There's no elastics, they're very clean looking that there's no elastics.
Your water bottle can easily come in and out.
The coming out part when you don't want it to fall out is a small issue at times.
They eat up at the space you have inside.
So when your bag is packed out quite a bit, it does get
hard to get a water bottle in there.
I have had issues I couldn't just like
pull the water bottle holder and then just like put it in.
It was like, oh, it's it's not getting into, oh it's stuck
I'm going to have to wiggle it in there and just push things in there,
doesn't happen too often.
Some compromises you have to make on a bag.
You just got to know which ones you can live with.
Also, there's straps they don't come with anything to keep these bad boys in place.
They just kind of like flop around everywhere and kind of get dirty.
I can't comment on the long term durability of the bag
since I've only had the bag for a few months.
But I did see another review three years in that this part can get ripped,
especially by putting on the ground if you're not careful on asphalt or anything.
And it did rip with time.
I don't know if Fjallraven will cover this.
Probably not. By then, you know, probably outside of warranty.
They do not have a flat bottom, which is
a mild annoyance.
And I don't really know why they did that,
because you're not going to be carrying heavy loads on this bag.
So I don't see why they would need that angle to like
bring the weight more towards your back instead of it
levering off your back, because it's also not a very wide bag.
I think seven, six, seven inches, I guess it looks cuter
because when you're wearing it, it looks smaller than it is.
Maybe that's why it looks more than it is, not the end of the world.
I had this issue on my last backpack so I'm used to so when I put it down.
I always had a leaning against something.
But that means that when I do reach into my backpack,
I usually have to use two hands because it will just wobble around.
Just makes it a little less convenient to use
because you can't just open it at work, leave it there, and then just pop
your hand in there, blindly grab whatever you need to like bend over deliberately.
Like what? What's in here.
So that is that is a thing.
Handles are nice, simple, nice leather straps are extremely simple.
Just no like padding, no anything.
So if your back is sweaty or whatever, that can be an issue.
Probably it's not like the most comfortable either.
But I haven't really had any issues with my laptop in there.
Is there like... it's not even...super thin.
Yeah, very thin.
But I've never had any issue.
I carry this maybe Max like an hour at a time.
The straps have these simple mesh type of padding.
I read that this could bother some people.
I do wear a tank tops in the summer, but I since I bought this in the fall,
I haven't had the chance to try that.
I don't know if this will dig into my shoulders.
That could be annoying, but I haven't tested that out.
I also did notice I think this is on purpose where does come pre curved.
So it kind of looks a bit funny.
There's nothing on it. You see all these little lines.
But when you do wear it, that means that I've seen this on
like one other bag That means that here it's all nice and smooth.
So I think we're pretty good with the design in terms of the static.
So I believe that was intentional.
But then there's a lot of other things that they did that I just didn't quite.
Get. Let's get into
the bag, you get simple organization, quick access up here.
One large compartment,
another small compartment, and then another small compartment.
Sunglasses like quick access standard, nice little fleece lining in there,
pretty big fits, sunglasses, fits phone, fits your keys, wallet.
It does eat up space in the interior of the bag, though.
So something to keep in mind.
And it does get in the way of your laptop,
depending lap, laptop or laptop. Laptop.
The laptop compartment, it is large and there's no elastic.
It's not the best laptop compartment.
It's overly padded.
It wasn't very well designed on a technical level.
Yeah. They like stuck a thing in there.
Oh, it works like every time I have to use this is like annoying
because it just doesn't sit flat in the back .
You know, you see what I mean? It just it doesn't.
Yeah, it's not the best.
I find on the bottom, but it's not suspended.
So when you do put the laptop in there, you can't just plop it in.
But anyway, I wouldn't really recommend you doing that,
especially since the bag doesn't sit flat.
If you do do that, your bag will probably fall over.
And then you'd be like: AH, well, laptop in my bag.
So just don't do that.
Just be more gentle, softly, lean on one side, but not the other.
So I don't see the purpose of.
Well, that could be OK if you have an iPad without a cover.
But who does that?
Who walks around with an iPad without a cover?
That's just I just like asking for trouble, like.
It's really large, there's no elastic, your laptop flops around in there.
Then you have space in the bottom to keep in mind that when you do fill out
anything in these two other pockets, because everything is so flat profile,
they don't have their own volume.
So it will be eating space on the inside of the bag, which means sometimes
I'll be putting things in here. I'm not paying attention.
Things will go to the bottom and you have to scoop it up.
So it becomes quite hard to pack this bag fully to use to its advantage.
I normally don't have a fully packed, so it's not a huge issue.
So then you have a little gap from here to here,
like about two and a half, three inches.
Things can get lost there, but the interior is right.
Easy to see your things.
There is also a small pocket here, but you can put other little things.
I put my female toiletries stuff in there.
As a woman, you kind of always just need that pocket.
This pocket is quite generous.
I love to put my headphones in here.
I no longer keep my XM3 in the case.
I just plop them in there.
But they end up usually not going all the way to the bottom.
Oh, yes. You also have hand warmers from when I was snowboarding the other day.
So let's put that aside, because if I put things
in this organization right here, it creates a gap here.
So a lot of times my headphones were kind of just fit loosely in the top portion,
which which makes the main compartment
anything that falls under there even more lost.
But then it gets really annoying with my headphones
actually end up going all the way to the bottom,
because then they kind of get stuck here for like a loop.
Anything I have here usually kind of just ends up floating, though,
and then I'm always worried that something will catch onto the mesh.
But so far it's been good, there's a little mesh organizer, their key hook.
And I put emergency little natural deodorant
and some cables that are always handy to have that goes in there.
And then here I just hand cream Battery Park.
This little pocket sits the magic mouse perfectly.
One thing I am quite bummed about
is that they don't have a pen organizer, PEN HOLDER!
I don't know why they don't have this.
And I don't know if they could have fit it right here
that could have fit in front of her. They could have fit on the top.
They could have fit it. So many places it's a pen.
You always need a pen.
My mom always told me to pack a pen
in every single bag.
Especially when you're traveling, you always need a pen.
So that's that little pouch.
I love my XM3s, go back in there.
This pocket, this talk, it's a little hard to get into.
You can't really put anything crazy in there. Nope.
My first aid kit.
This is where my pen goes. But last time
I tried finding my pen in my bag and there wasn't very much stuff.
My pen ended up being stuck in this thing, so I was able to find it.
That was really annoying.
And you know what I could have used at that time?
Dedicated pen compartment.
I think Bellroy Classic has that.
When I saw it, I want that pen thing.
I'm very tempted to try and makeshift something to just like a loop or something
just to stick my pen somewhere.
Yeah. On the good notes I
will say I love this little backpack for what it is minus its negatives.
It's great as an EDC-er, it's small.
It's compact, it's cute. Matches a lot of my stuff.
I really actually like it.
I didn't buy it full price.
Maybe that's why I also like it.
I was going to use the Wandrd Duo, which I also have a review
and I'll put a link on below.
But I thought I was gonna use that as an EDC bag.
But then I got this pretty much the same time as my Wandrd Duo.
I'm much happier using this bag as a year and then having that
separate bag all set out as a camera travel pack.
And so to talk about FjallRaven as a company on its own,
they have a whole thing about sustainability on their website.
I will say for a company that like talks about quality and stuff,
they were horrible when it came to customer service,
which is a quality that I seek out with companies.
I want to know that the company will back their product,
that if something goes wrong, that I can count on them to answer.
I had this issue where I put my hundred dollar
sonic toothbrush without the travel case because it was broken in my Carry-On
for just a few hours.
This part transferred on to my toothbrush.
So I had this hundred dollar toothbrush with is like pattern and only half of it.
I wrote both companies the I wrote Sonic Phillips and I wrote them.
They took forever to answer and they just simply said, well,
we don't know anything about dye transfer issues.
The bag didn't come with a tag with that, but I feel like
I've seen something about their bags.
Other models saying
be careful, there could be a dye transfer at the beginning or something.
But this one didn't have the.
So don't go if it's made a bit different than the other ones.
It did make me worry that it might transfer dye on to some of my lighter
clothes if I wore it, especially if I got caught in the rain.
It hasn't happened so far, but I don't know.
Like I don't know how comfortable I feel with that.
So far, it's been OK, but I wouldn't be surprised
if after a while I might notice a white T-shirt get dark.
I guess I'll have to deal with it then.
They took two weeks to answer.
They didn't really help me out.
Whereas Phillips, we're going to send you a new toothbrush.
And they didn't I didn't even need to send the old one back.
So their customer service was impeccable.
They even gave me an upgrade because they just didn't have any left.
Whereas: meh, not our problem, we don't know anything about that.
Didn't care to see my photo, that factor alone.
I'm not sure I would buy other products from them also.
Other than this, I don't really see myself gravitating towards that company.
I think they're cute.
But other than that, loyalty and and quality and brands and customer
service is so important for me that, they lost a lot of points.
And then I went online and a lot of other people complained about that.
I know it wasn't a one off. Ya, that's it for the Fjallraven.
I'm just going to
I hope you enjoyed that review.
And if you haven't subscribe to my channel already, you may do so.
It's free. It's awesome.
Playing around with my channel.
But I do like doing reviews and blogs, so I think I'm going in that direction.
Leave a comment.
Let me know if this has helped you,
if you have any questions, if you agree with any of the things I said.
I haven't seen an extensive review on this bag because everyone just obsessed
with the Kanken I am really passionate about products, as you can tell.
I talked to my friend for like ten minutes about wool socks that she
wanted to kick me in the face, all the really cool bags
that I haven't reviewed because I don't have ,
but that I was considering for an EDC-er would be the Aer tech pack,
the Aer day pack, the Bellroy classic, but it's a bit too big for me.
But I love the organization and Qwstion bags.
I love the esthetic and the way that you could wear it two to three ways.
And I have an old question weekender that has been around for a while.
It's on the heavy side, but it's just so pretty that I don't care.
The bag itself is like four or five pounds, so that if I was traveling
a lot and having to carry this, it's not about I would bring with me.
All right. I'm off topic. I got to go. I hope this helps you.
And now I'm just doing
aerobics, so OK, peace.
See you next video.