Knack Series 2 Medium Expandable Knack Pack

I recently got one of these packs (limited edition pinecone color, no longer available), and I timed the order to take advantage of their 30 day trial policy, while giving it a serious run around the Earth, with travel planned from Portland to:

Seattle (overnight)
Seattle (day trip)
One week to India

As the bag is much more expensive than typical bags, I wanted to be really sure that it is a good bag. My March has has even more travel (add overnight to Manhattan and Singapore to the list above), so I’ve been taking notes while things are fresh in my mind. Of note, while I travel a lot (120k miles in 2024) and get great status benefits, my company is ridiculously cheap and my status does not get me upgrades on foreign carriers for free. My flights back and forth to India were in regular economy (so my comments below about seat space relate to economy rather than business or first).

tl;dr - this is a great bag, and worth the money

The Good

So…pretty much everything was good. The backpack is clearly very thoughtfully made, and I’m sure I haven’t even noticed 100 things I really like about the bag. Here is a short list of the things that have surprised me.

The whole backpack gets used: This is a bit weird, but one of my first thoughts was “wow, I’m just in and out of this backpack all the freaking time”. That sounds annoying, but I quickly realized, I was actually using the backpack. Every single thing I put in the backpack was getting used. My old bag was much bigger, and I had a bunch of stuff in there that just sat, unused, for the “just in case” scenario, which never came. Switching backpacks, I pulled stuff I hadn’t touched for a year or more.

The backpack is light: This is objectively true, but also, because I’m not putting extra stuff in the backpack, approximately half the time I pick up the bag, I’m worried I’ve left something behind because it’s so damn light.

The backpack strap pocket: OMG…this seemed so frivolous. Who needs, and who is actually going to use, that backpack strap pocket? Apparently - this guy! To be fair, it wasn’t until the trip to India where I realized its value. Day trip and overnight (even two nights) I didn’t need any other bag, so it was just me and this bag packed with clothes/toiletries in the luggage area of this bag, and it was permanently “a backpack”. When I went to India, it remained so until after the first leg of my flight, when I had it over the handles of my luggage and it occurred to me “I don’t need these straps…I can tuck them in!”. I thought I was so cool, and it looked nice. Then I got on the plane, and I realized, this isn’t just a gimmick. By tucking them in, sliding the bag under the seat in front of me was objectively easier - as it just slides underneath. Also, the straps weren’t spilling out into the aisle or my seatmate or the area under me at all. Afterwards, converting it back to a backpack was super easy.

Passport pocket: I didn’t even know this existed until I watched a video on how to pack the bag. Then I thought it was a bit gimmicky. But once I traveled internationally, that pocket is in the exact correct place to give access when you have it looped over luggage and are wheeling through airport security and customs and immigration and the thousand other times you need to show some officer or lounge person or hotel employee at checkin your passport.

The main compartment/computer sleeve: This was surprisingly large. I was worried about this, as overall the bag was much smaller than my old backpack. How would I put my stuff in there? Then I remembered…my computer does not go in that compartment! Having the computer in its dedicated place means a) I don’t need a sleeve, b) the bag doesn’t have to integrate a sleeve in the main compartment, and c) the computer is against an area almost guaranteed to be flat. It gave me a lot of confidence that I can stuff the bag pretty full and not worry about stressing the computer.

Overall size: I was really concerned about the size of the bag since I was ordering over the Internet. Would it always fit under the seat in front of me on planes? Would my computer fit? Would all my stuff fit? What about it being expanded? Nothing to worry about…I didn’t even need to expand the bag for my overnight trip, but later I did expand it just as an experiment. Even expanded, there was absolutely no problem having it in the seat in front of me. For the computer size, if I had a giant desktop replacement, this would be an issue, but my advice here is simply to follow the advice on the web site. My 14" was perfectly fine.

The Bad

None of my issues with the bag are minor. I had to think long and hard to come up with anything at all. This is all nitpicking.

Usage: So, a bit embarrassing, but I struggled with “where do I put my stuff”. Eventually I watched a video, but I can’t seem to find it. It might have been this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44ovrl04tmE

Internal pockets: For my usage, the interior pocket layout is not 100% ideal. However, I can’t tell you exactly what I would change generally. Sometimes I feel like I want less pockets…sometimes it’s a feeling that I want more zippered pockets. It would be nice to have easier access to some pockets when in a horizontal configuration, as I do use it slipped over handles quite a bit. This is mostly non-specific feelings, but I do have 4 specific items though that I can pin down.

The bag has a “hidden pocket” that is really, really useful for passports. Transiting through foreign airports, you need access to your passport a lot, and it’s the perfect place and orientation for the job. However, this pocket should be maybe 1/4" wider (at least). Why? Because with just that much more width, it would be possible to put a paper boarding pass in there with the passport and zip it up. Going through international airports, I ended up with paper boarding passes a lot, and even paper lounge passes of the same size. I left the pocket unzipped and placed the boarding/lounge passes vertically so both they and my passport were available to various security checkpoints, lounge and boarding agents. Being able to put it in horizontally and zip it occasionally would have been nice.
I think they call this the “sunglasses pocket”. This should be a little bigger (more depth, maybe a touch wider) for my usage. In that pocket, I have a “hockey puck” wifi hotspot, earbud headphones, and my work badge. It’s a tight fit.
The laptop pocket. I struggled with this pocket for a while…my 14" laptop fits just fine in the pocket, but I really struggled to get the laptop in and out for a while until I realized I was doing it wrong. Seriously. It turns out that my hand was bumping into the attachment point for the backpack strap, and I was assuming the zipper stopped there, which meant that the opening I was trying to use is about an inch shorter than what it was designed for. Once I realized what I was doing, there’s plenty of room. Like I said, these are nits…I’m not sure what they could do about this, but it was a thing that happened.
The suitcase area hold down strap. I would like this to be more secure somehow, like maybe a zippered area around the whole thing similar to the other side. I suspect that particular suggestion won’t work due to expandability needs, but coming into the bag from the side there is a tendency to ruffle clothes with the current setup.

Slipping it over suitcase handles: I find while this works great, it tends to “hang up” a bit about half way down on the mechanism that allows my suitcase (an ebags Mother Lode roller board similar to this) handles to telescope. This could be as much of a problem with my suitcase as the bag (I have had similar, but less severe problems with other bags), but I add it here because I think I know what Knack can do to make this excellent bag better. My suggestion - on the edge of the back of the backpack furthest away from the side handle (the part that first goes over the handles when slipping it down), put some hard plastic such that it is the hard plastic that hits the handle joint rather than the softer edge of the backpack itself. This hard plastic could be along the entire edge, or maybe it is two pieces of hard plastic that users can attach and slide around, similar to the way the chest straps are designed.

The still unknown

Headphones + neck pillow: This combination proves a bit much for the bag. First, I tried attaching headphones to the loops at the bottom, but they would swing around when on my back, which felt weird, and it didn’t really work well when the bag was over the handles either. Then I realized that the ridiculously large main compartment (that doesn’t seem that large, but it is) happily handles the big over the ear headphones, while in their case, just fine. That left me with the neck pillow, which I strapped to the carry handle. It worked fine, and the pillow might have fit inside the main compartment if I hadn’t used the headphone case, or if I had put it into the suitcase area. I just don’t know.

Water bottle pocket: This is really cool, but I’m right handed, and would like it on the right side of the bag so I can more easily reach back while I have it on and grab stuff from that pocket. Also, it would be accessible when slipped over luggage handles. This would be in the bad category, but putting an engineer hat on for a second, I don’t see how it’s physically feasible while maintaining a) integrity of the bag, and b) allowing for the horizontal handle to remain. The horizontal handle is way more important in general usage. In my mind, I imagine that inside Knack, there were 4 hours of meetings over this very topic. One thing I learned about that pocket…if you don’t have a water bottle there, it’s a great quick place to throw wallet and cell phone when you’re going through security.

It seems to get flagged more by security?: However, I’m not sure if this is because I’ve been going through all kinds of different airports with varying security regulations (India literally wanted everything with a wire or microprocessor out of the bag), or if there’s something about the bag. It could very well be me, or my imagination. Domestically I think it’s only been pulled twice, but one of those times was coming through customs when the rules were normal (not PreCheck), and I left my computer in the bag.

The little loops at the bottom of the bag: I still literally have no idea what that’s for. I tried hanging my headphones off them, but it feels weird when something is swinging off them as you’re walking. I look forward to figuring that out.