A sports shop in KSL, JB was having a sale and I spotted this knapsack which turned out to be one of the best and neatest knapsacks I’ve ever bought. It was going for only RM99 then.
As you can see, the exterior of the knapsack looks really cool. The design makes the bag stand upright even when it’s empty. The bottom of the bag is a tough layer of waterproof plastic.
Perhaps the coolest part of this knapsack is the mobile phone pocket. Of course, I wouldn’t advise you to keep your mobile phone in there while you’re in crowded places as the pocket can easily be unzipped from behind without you knowing it. However, when you’re hiking and want to listen to some music played on your phone, this pocket should suit you just fine. You can also place your mobile phone in there (with the knapsack on your lap) and listen to recordings while waiting for the bus, train or plane. I use it for my stationery as you can see below.
This is the wide main compartment of the knapsack and instead of going from side to side, it opens like a lid over the top. There is a “secret” pocket inside. I keep my wallet, medicines and mobile phone. The rest of the space can pretty much hold the bulk of what you can carry.
There is actually an auxillary compartment below the main one. It opens like a semicircular lid as you can see above. It’s doesn’t hold very much, but I can keep my Kindle and a few other stuff inside like cables and chargers inside.
Going down from the auxillary compartment, the netted pocket in the centre is good for things like tissue paper, small towels etc.
This being a small knapsack the side pockets are not large. You can put almost anything that fits inside. I have my cheque book and calculator inside, but it’s probably better to keep these things in the secret pocket in the main compartment.
Note that the netted pocket will not hold any water bottle larger than 150ml securely, especially if you’ve got things in the side pocket.
There are loops at the top and bottom of the knapsack. The top loop is useful for hanging your bag on some wall or door hook in the bathroom. For the bottom loop, I guess you can hook a carabiner and have a water bottle dangling from there.
You can probably use this as a running bag. The designers took pains to make sure the chest straps are adjustable, but I doubt they can stabilise the bag that much during running.
Of course overall, this is still a very cool knapsack and I will definitely use it a lot as a day bag on future trips.