Filson Journeyman Review
Bag to the Future: When Rugged Romance Met Reality
TLDR
It is not a good backpack. It is not a good laptop bag. It is not a good travel bag. It is not a good bag.
While time moves forward, granting us stronger, sleeker materials, this bag clings to the past.
Dreaming of cowboy days? Perhaps you'd fare better with a horse.
To begin with
In the beginning, I had just started my first job, and with that, I had money. Not enough to buy a Filson Journeyman backpack, but enough to look around. A man can dream!
I settled with something worse, something functional yet soulless. A Samsonite backpack, that my company provided with my work laptop. Bleh. I was a cog in the machine.
But in my heart, I was not yet reduced to my economic capacity. I had capacity for freedom and life, and ruggedness, and waxed canvas. Deep down I knew I was the journeyman.
The dream
Once I got the money I got the Filson Journeyman. I wanted something soft and nice and simple, so I saved up my pennies and bought it.
After a while, I realized it was not what I wanted. I wanted the open praire and the freedom of self sufficiency. The allure that was given to me by the marketing department of Filson.
The same allure that the Youtube channels reviewing the bag reinforced: ruggedness, timelessness, organic materials, waxed canvas, leather, brass, and the smell of the outdoors.
But the bag was not that. It was a bag that was not good at being a bag. Not good as an every day bag, not as a laptop bag, not as a travel bag.
The bag
I will now list the prozaic and mundane reasons why the bag is not good:
in the summer everything will sweat: your shoulders and your back. The bag is not breathable.
the bag is not waterproof, it is barely water resistant: a medium rain will get through the waxed canvas and the front flap
the cotton materials pick up the smell: sure the rough and dirty look is nice, but the smell is not
laptops suffer from poor padding and abrasive zippers
for travel, the bag is not well organized, it is not easy to get things in and out of it
the front pocket is no good: you might put things there to access easily, but beware: it is not secure: things fall out. It’s also a pickpockets dream.
once it's full, the zipper will eat everything
it's not so well built: you will find loose threads. The top handle is flimsy to say the least, and uncomfortable to hold when the bag is full (too thin)
no quick access place for keys, phone, wallet. You will have to dig for them, or risk it in the front pocket
not only you will not open this with one hand, you will have to pick it up, put it on a table, and then open it, moving the flap out of the way, and then you can access the main compartment. Have a coat in there, say goodbye to your laptop access.
I used this bag for a year. And the style was alright, but let's be clear: you have to dress for it. It will look like a generic military-like bag (for anyone outside the Filson subreddit).
The affair
Once I got home from a weekend travel, and instead of unpacking my stuff, I just picked up my wife's Kanken. And that's a piece of overprized plastic. Designed for sweedish school children.
It was just so much more convenient. It was lighter, it had zippers you can open with one hand, it’s front pocket was safe for my keys, it had a side pocket for a water bottle or sunglasses. It was just so much more convenient.
However, I was still not letting the cowboy dream go. In my heart, I was still to explore the wastness of Alaska with that bag (lol). But even when Journeyman was ready for use, I still choose the Kanken with some excuse. It's not that Kanken is a great bag. But it's usable. After 2 weeks I had to admit defeat, this cowboy will hang is boots. I sold the bag on ebay to some poor guy, who was happy that: “this was still made in the US”.
On the longterm, I will get myself a patagonia, or osprey or eastpak or something, maybe even a fjallraven.
The end
Material science has advanced since the 1800s to lighter, stronger, more durable materials. These new materials are indeed often plastic, mixed and woven in a different ways. But they are created and optimized for their purpose, some waterproof, some very strong, some are simply nice to touch.
Backpacks are tools, and just as you wouldn't mix your egg whites with a fork, you would use a mixer, the same way: Why hang onto this imaginary past of ruggedness and waxed canvas, that costs an eye dropping 500 Euros?