Fjallraven Vardag Backpack 17 Review

Whether you need a new personal item bag for an upcoming trip or a great school backpack, you might be looking for something classically styled and comfortable to carry with some organization. We’re talking about something more the size of a travel daypack since you don’t want to carry something large enough to hold a week’s worth of clothing and gear around campus, a new city, or an amusement park.

At 17 liters, the Fjallraven Vardag Backpack 17 might be just right. So, how do its open design and recycled materials hold up to daily use? And what’s with those loops on the front? Let’s dive in and find out.

External Components

The Fjallraven Vardag Backpack 17 is made with recycled polyamide, which is water-resistant and free of PFAS forever chemicals. It looks and feels like the backpack you carried to school as a child, but with a slightly more grown-up aesthetic and no characters printed on the front.

Well, except for the fact that there is an adorable Fjallraven arctic fox on the logo patch affixed to the bottom right corner of the bag’s front. It’s the one nod to whimsy on the backpack if you go for the Coal Black or Green/Clay colorways, which are more minimalist options. However, we opted for Violette/Coal Black, and the bright purple face and teal accents add fun to the bag.

Those teal accents are courtesy of two lash tabs on the front, which fasten with Woojin buckles. You could use them for a hiking pole or to hang your hat with a carabiner, but we didn’t find much use for them during our month of testing the bag during our daily commute. Whether or not you use them, they bring their own aesthetic to the bag, and you’ll have to decide if you’re vibing with it since you can’t remove the webbing loops from the front of the bag.

The Vardag Backpack has YKK zippers, and each metal pull has a cord running through it for easy grabbing. None of the zippers are water-resistant models, but they are tucked under small fabric welts on each side to keep moisture out. The welts are small enough not to get stuck in the zippers as you open and close each section, which we appreciate.

The harness system is simple, as expected on a 17L backpack. The straps are broad at the top and taper at the bottom, with minimal mesh padding on the undersides. It doesn’t do much to cushion the feeling of the straps on your shoulders, but the wide straps distribute the weight pretty well, so you won’t feel too bogged down if you’re simply walking from the commuter lot to class or to the bus stop, though things might start to get heavy if you have a 15-minute walk across campus.

The straps have Duraflex adjusters, which stay in place as you wear the bag, put it on, and take it off. There aren’t any strap keepers to contain the dangling, nor does the Vardag Backpack have a sternum strap or hip belt to help carry the load.

The back panel lacks any breathable mesh or air channels to keep things cool, and the darker colorways might cause a sweaty back, depending on how hot it is where you’re carrying it. There’s padding back here, but it’s quite stiff. We don’t worry about the safety of our laptop, since it rests up against here, but you almost feel like the computer is pressing up against your back while you’re wearing the bag, whereas it’s really just the super stiff padding bumping against you.

Fit Notes

Depending on your chosen colorway, the Fjallraven Vardag Backpack 17 can stand out or blend in with the crowd. Except for the two loops on the front, it looks like a traditional backpack, and its casual style looks at home at more casual workplaces, school, museums, airplanes … you get the drift. It’s not fancy enough for a nicer restaurant or more professional setting, but you’re not buying a Fjallraven for that, are you?

It’s comfortable enough for short-term use, whether on one or two shoulders, though you’ll definitely feel it if you load it up with a few textbooks and a computer. Most daypacks of this size have that issue, though, since they lack super cushy harness systems and features you’d find on larger travel backpacks because of their smaller size; it’s not enough to turn us off the Vardag.

Inside The Backpack

There are a few different spots to stow your gear inside the Fjallraven Vardag Backpack 17.

The zipper running diagonally across the front opens to a quick-stash pocket for whatever bits and bobs you want to stow inside. We’ve been using it for AirPods, a small toiletry pouch of makeup, and tissues, but you could also stash a small notebook, your wallet, and your phone inside. It’s the only small pocket accessible from the outside of the bag, so you’ll want to use it for what you need to get at most. The pocket doesn’t extend above the zipper, though, so nothing tall will fit inside.

On either side of the bag are pockets for your water bottle, travel umbrella, or whatever else you want to stash inside that’s a similar size. There is one drainage hole at the bottom of each to help things dry out if your bottle leaks or your umbrella is wet, though the material will still stay damp for some time. The pockets stick out a bit from either side of the bag, so it’s pretty easy to stick a standard-size bottle inside, even with the interior packed. That’s not something that happens with every bag, so we appreciate it. On the other hand, that means the pockets don’t lie flat against the bag when you’re not using them, so you win some, you lose some.

A zipper along the back panel opens to reveal the laptop compartment. It’s a nicely-padded space for up to a 15-inch laptop, with an elevated bottom to keep your device from slamming to the ground if you set the bag down too hard. The padding is sturdy, but stiff, though your laptop won’t mind its rigidity as much as your back will. The padding on the front is more flexible, though, so the main compartment can slightly spread into the laptop compartment if you leave your computer at home.

Now it’s time to check out the main compartment, which you access with a large horseshoe-style zipper that runs from the top of one bottle pocket to the top of the other.

There are two large mesh slip pockets along the back panel that you can use to organize some gear, whether that’s your glasses case and tech pouch like our tester or your passport, a small notebook, or some gloves. The pockets are quite deep, so you can fit larger and bulkier gear in here, and they lay flat against the back panel when empty.

That’s it for organization, though. The remaining space is open to hold books, packing cubes, extra layers, or whatever else you need for the day. Since the compartment opens so widely, it’s easy to fill with larger and bulkier gear, but you don’t have to open it all the way if you don’t want to. We find its simple design works well for our everyday life, especially since we have pouches and kits to fill the space, but you might miss additional pockets if you don’t DIY your own organization.