Backpacks are great. Aesthetic wise and convenience wise. Swedish company Gaston Luga specializes in making backpacks. We recently got our hands on their Pråper bag, at $139/€125. Is it worth it?
Design
The Pråper backpack looks very cool at first glance. It’s minimal sleek, and has a Scandinavian aesthetic to it. But once you get down to the functionality, the design is very odd. It’s a medium-sized 18L backpack but doesn’t have much of a structure. It’s flat unless you put stuff inside.
Perhaps this is a personal preference, but I like a bag to be structured and maintain its form regardless of how much you put in, whether empty or full. The TYLT travel pack we once reviewed is an excellent example of maintaining structure. The Gaston Luga Pråper is the complete opposite of that.
Other questionable design choices would be the lack of zips and a shoulder strap that looks like a belt loop with no padding at all. We also noticed the fabric part of it picks up a lot of lint and dust; I found myself having to use a lint remover very often.
So now we know the strange design choices on the backpack, but with all this, is it functional?
Features/ functionality
The easiest way to talk about the features and functionality of this backpack is to think about what makes a typical backpack functional then strip bits of it away. But before we get into that, let’s talk about the positives that this Pråper by Gaston Luga has.
It has a padded laptop sleeve that fits 11-15inch laptops — a hidden back pocket for valuables and a roomy 18l interior.
On the flip side, though, it doesn’t have a water bottle pocket. As we mentioned before, it doesn’t have zips; instead, it features a double hook closure that is finicky and not convenient to use.
There aren’t many pockets in the Pråper backpack, and the “hidden back pocket” is small and doesn’t have any zips, which isn’t ideal size-wise or security-wise for the key, passport, phone, and cardholder you’re meant to put inside.
Comfort
With an 18L capacity, a lot can fit inside this Pråper backpack, but you really don’t want many things in it. With zero paddings on the straps and ergonomic padding on the back of the bag itself, this has the potential to be the most uncomfortable backpack if you load it up with a lot of stuff. You can get away with putting light things in for a quick errand around the city. But the moment you load it up with a laptop, books, and some other daily/work essentials, you will feel strain in the back and shoulders when it’s on your back for long enough of a time.
Conclusion
The Pråper by Gaston Lugaa is a cool-looking backpack on the surface level, but when you dive into some of the design elements, you’ll see it doesn’t work functionally. It covers what a backpack should be aesthetically but not conveniently. If the design leaned more towards comfort, convenience, and functionality, you would be left with a pretty solid product, but unfortunately, this Pråper backpack doesn’t live up to that.
Is The Gaston Luga Pråper Worth it?
For $139/€125, there are better options on the market, and Gaston Luga makes other backpacks too that you can check out, but this particular backpack is not one we can recommend.
Price: $139/€125
Where to buy: Gaston Luga
Gaston Luga Pråper
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Design - 8.8/108.8/10
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Functionality - 6/106/10
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Comfort - 6.5/106.5/10
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Durability - 7.5/107.5/10
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Quality - 7.5/107.5/10
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Value - 5.9/105.9/10
