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“When they say this baby can withstand water - they...”

written by LabretKitty on 29/04/2012

I'll admit, it was not love at first sight when I received this oddly shaped, slightly small looking, strange feeling bag in the mail. I had ordered a black 15" laptop Kanken to replace my former Eastpak rucksack, and I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this was not it.


Having spent a week's holiday abroad carting this baby around however, I can certainly say I've fallen completely in love with it. The square shape is actually very practical for squeezing a LOT in, the 2 handles make it very easy to carry when its not on my back, and I really adore the 2 side pockets for a bottle of water and umbrella, freeing up space inside. The back laptop pocket is perfect, and very discreet.
However, the front pocket is a wee bit small for my tastes, and I would have maybe preferred more of an zipped inner pocket than the back one that carries the foam mat, its very hard to fit anything in that isn't quite small or also a similar shape.


When they say it can withstand rain, they mean it - my Kanken took some seriously heavy downpours, and although the outside was a bit soggy for a while, the inside was always bone dry. I found I never had to fear my camera or sketchbooks getting wet.
More importantly, on my last day, a bottle of water inside was not closed properly and leaked all over the inside, and mainly the inner pocket! I was devastated, my passport and other documents were in there, and I had to check out of my room in 10 minutes!
But the Kanken soaked it all up, providing minimal damage to the contents, and when I rubbed a towel over the inside, it dried near enough instantly. Unlike traditional backpacks, which would need a good 24hrs drying time from such an incident, my Kanken was ready to go in literally 5 minutes!


Overall, I'm very glad I chose to upgrade my rucksack to my Kanken, I'm sure after putting it through its paces on holiday, it will continue to serve me well through my uni course.