The first time I saw the Singi 28 backpack in person, it was hanging on the wall in a Fjallraven store. I was immediately drawn to it. The proportions are very nice, as are the aesthetics. Hitting a mark somewhere between traditional outdoor packs, and a more modern pack.
I made a mental note to check it out sometime. Then, months later, Fjallraven put the grey color on sale, and I snatched it up for a killer price.
Since then, I’ve taken it on one trip, and many hikes. I’ve found that it is quite good, and that’s before I consider the value proposition it offers.
Materials & Specs
The body materials on this are two materials:
- The majority is G-1000® HeavyDuty S: 65% polyester (recycled), 35% cotton (organic). As the name suggests, this is Fjallraven’s heaviest of the G-1000 material, while the S I beleive denotes that it’s silent (for hunting). That doesn’t matter a lot for a backpack like this, but it does mean you won’t have a lot of noise when opening and closing the bag like you would from Plastic (like X-pac).
- The base of the bag is a bucketed approach made from 100% polyamide 500D (recycled). This feels a bit stiffer than 500D Cordura, but just as durable.
The bag measures: 22.4” x 10.6” x 7.87”. While a little long for fitting this as a personal item, if you remove the framesheet and hipbelt you can easily cheat the bag in most personal item slots on a plane. With the hipbelt, Fjallraven notes this is just over 3lbs — but without the hipbelt you lose a lot of weight.
The bag is 28L and I have no reason to doubt the stated capacity here. Everything is finished nicely, and the materials feel very nice in hand. The foam padding feels high quality, the webbing is nice feeling, and the spacer mesh used on the back panel and inside of the shoulder straps is soft but nice. The zippers are smooth and well sized.
In Use
Fjallraven’s opening statement about the bag sums it up best:
Versatile and hardwearing trekking backpack with a robust carrying system that can handle the weight of everything you need for a long day out.
I’ve been very surprised with this bag in every aspect. It punches well above its price tag suggests, and I could see this being a primary bag for a lot of people.
The highlight reel for this bag:
- At 28L it holds a lot, but because of how it is designed, it doesn’t look massive on your back.
- The framesheet is incredibly rigid, so it can carry a lot of gear weight comfortably.
- The harness is fuss-free, while being plenty comfortable.
- The shell material is thick, but soft, so the bag can compress easily, and lay pretty flat when empty.
- There’s a lot of great storage and expansion on this bag, but nothing beats an opening like this where you can use it as a top loader when out and about, and pull it all the way open when packing/unpacking.
All of my testing with this bag was done in the winter months, where cold, snow, ice, rain, and all of that was part of the mix. It was dropped in mud, in slush and in snow. It had snow shoes strapped to it, it had barely any gear in it, and it was packed out for a road trip.
Not only did I carried this bag, but so did my wife — which is rare.
I am not sure how many other bags could have handled the tasks I set this one about on — at least bags I own. And not only that, but handle them this well.
Before I dive into my usage, I’ll point out the singular flaw with this bag: lack of water bottle pockets on the exterior of the bag. You can add them via accessories (third party or Fjallraven sells some), but the way they attach is a little funky, very annoying, and looks shit.
That’s the only downside I’ve found.
One of my first hikes out with the bag, as we were getting ready to hit the trail head, my wife asked if she should bring her jacket. I suggested she might want it, but I wasn’t sure, so maybe toss it in her pack. Then she mentioned that she didn’t bring a pack — a slight communication error between the two of us. I was glad to have the 28L capacity, and stuffed her jacket in the bag along with mine, micro spikes, water, and a bevy of other random items.
The bag then spent days rolling around in snow, ice, and muck. It was the only hiking bag we had, and we both used it to store our gear in. I would guess the weight was around 15lbs depending on the day, but I barely felt or noticed it with the stout framesheet in the bag. There was no digging, no adjusting straps constantly — it was one of the few bags I could toss on and get to hiking without further thought.
It wasn’t until I injured my knee on a bad fall, when I came to really appreciate this bag. I was powering through the pain on another hike, when I let my wife know I needed to stop for a moment and let my knee take a break. She said she was carrying the pack for a while (which turned out to be the remainder of the hike). I was reluctant out of pride, but my knee hurt and so she took the bag.
About 1/4 mile into her carrying the bag she said “this is actually a really comfortable backpack, I like it”. So here I found the bag comfortable on my 6’-3” long torso (for my height), while she also found it comfortable on her 5’-10” short torso (for her height). I was quite shocked that she liked carrying it.
Two people, to different torso lengths, one overly long backpack — we both love the comfort.
The bag itself is rather simple in design. There’s a removable hip belt (I only used it with this removed), and two exterior pockets (a water bladder / laptop sleeve, and two more zipper pockets inside the main area). Down the face and sides of the bag is a row of daisy-chain-adjacent cordage. These small little loops provide areas to attach accessories and gear to the bag. I used shock cord with this for most of my testing, but I do have one accessory pouch I added later to try.
The key with this bag is in how well it does simple.
A third of the way up the bag is a set of compression straps, these really can compress the bag, and come nicely equipped with webbing control. The top lid is easy to get to, and has loads of space inside the pocket.
You can get at your gear in the main compartment without undoing the compression straps, by using the bag as a top loader. It’s quick and easy to do this, and allows you to compress your gear down into the bag if you are carrying a lot of winter layers (as we were).
When you need to get further into the bag to find something, releasing the compression buckles will let you all the way into the bag, and you’ll quickly find what you need.
Fjallraven ships this with a rain cover, but I was not in enough consistent wet weather to worry about that. The light rain and snow I used the bag in was no issue for keeping the contents of the bag dry.
The overall look and feel of this bag is fantastic. I’ve been a big fan since the day I first saw it, and remain a fan still. The only thing I would put on the wish list for this bag is a second set of compression straps near the base.
The shock cord on the face of the bag was great for attaching my snow shoes to the bag and carrying them over dry spots like that. I added additional cordage to the bag so that I could strap trekking poles to it, and other odds ends. The little loops work well for this cordage, and the accessory pouch attaches securely, but not quickly to the same loops.
Overall
At $180 MSRP, this bag represents a fantastic value — if you’re able to snag this on discount, the value becomes amazing. It’s well made, well designed, comfortable, and durable. All of that, for under $200 is a killer offering.
This also helped me to realize how ideal 28L is as a general backpack size for a one-size-fits-all-things approach. This is all to say: this bag is a great size to accommodate travel, winter hiking, and really any day hiking you’ll find yourself doing. There is essentially no fuss with this bag, and while it won’t overwhelm anyone with outlandish marketing and features, it will quietly get the job done.
Very big thumbs up from me.