A FOX ON MY BACK

If you are new to Sweden and ride public transport, one thing that will strike you is the fox on every other person’s back. No, they don’t drape a fox on their back. They carry a Fjallraven Kanken bag that has the logo of a fox, (it is actually an arctic fox, since that is what Fjallraven means in Swedish). The bus I ride to work, stops at a school on its way to the main University. Most people on it carry a backpack and the Kanken one seems to be the most popular. You see it in different colors and sizes and different states of fraying. Girls seem to prefer purple, yellow and pink and boys, olive green and blue. Adults normally carry bigger bags in maroon or black.

The main retailer for the bag is a store called Nature Companiet. As the name suggests, it is a store that sells everything for the outdoors, like REI or Patagonia. One wall is draped with Kanken bags in different colors. It also sells bags that are most stylish than Kanken, and has an entire selection of outdoor wear. As I started moving around more, I found it being carried by people on trains, on flights and also riding bikes with the bag on their backs.

Kanken bags are simply designed and made using sturdy recycled plastic. They are meant to ease the burden on the back of Swedish school children. The have a large main container, an outside zipped pocket and a pocket to hold a water bottle. The laptop version comes with a removable pad. You can carry it on your back using the simple straps or hold it, using the two small handles.

I knew about Kanken bags before I moved to Sweden, I read about them in the Financial Times in 2015 and had planned to buy one for A when she went to college. A year later, she wanted a new backpack for college and we decided to buy this one. At 110 dollars a piece, it was four times more expensive than any of her earlier backpacks. The first trip the bag took was to Istanbul. Istanbul is almost Europe and we found most teenagers with a Kanken bag. When we left A at Austin, I noticed a wall filled with Kanken bags in the local Urban Outfitters, and that too in the Longhorn burnt orange! It wasn’t so exclusive after all! When A got home after freshman year, her black Kanken was grey. A quick wash in the washer restored it to its original black.

I have been seeking opinions on various things Swedish from the locals, the long winter, the amazing range of bakeries and cafes, the fantastic public transport and of course Kanken bags. My friend, Annica tells me that their popularity is cyclical and the reason I think they are ubiquitous is because they are enjoying a revival, given their environmentally friendly credentials. Another colleague in his 50s shuddered at the thought of carrying one of them as a child. Those days the only color they came in was olive green. A younger colleague in his 30s told me that his young daughter had been gifted one by his cool older niece. However, when he was a kid, they only family that used the bags were the crazy ornithologist next door, who recycled everything and ate muesli and spent lot of time in the forest! Maybe more Swedes are behaving like the ornithologist family these days.

As I head back home, I was thinking of getting myself something very Swedish. To me, nothing says it better than a Kanken bag. Yet, another informal survey revealed that the bags last for over 25 years. So, I will wait for another two years for A to transition completely to her new expensive bankers bag and pass her Kanken to me. I am already composting and eating muesli, and a fox on my back will complete the nature loving persona.

Two pictures of A with a fox on her back, going down the long and steep escalator at Helsinki airport.