Fjällräven has launched its range of sustainable wool Kånken backpacks in Australia and New Zealand.
Usually using wool to create baselayers and jumpers, Fjällräven has reimagined the Kånken – one of the highest-selling backpacks in the world – using recycled wool (Re-Wool).
Re-Wool is made from a combination of G-1000 HeavyDuty Eco S – Fjällräven's recycled polyester and organic cotton material – and a wool mix fabric that consists of 80% pre consumer recycled wool from Prato, Italy and 20% recycled nylon for enhanced strength.
The pre-consumer wool leftovers are colour sorted, shredded and re-spun, meaning that the material saves water and energy because there’s no need for re-dyeing while also making use of materials that would otherwise go to waste.
Fjällräven head of sustainability Christiane Dolva said that the business has shifted the way it begins its wool sourcing process.
"We used to focus on the end functionality and sourced wool based on that.
"Now, instead of taking the product as a starting point, we take the raw material as the starting point and see what we can do with it.
"We’re realising that wool can be a lot more than baselayers and knitted sweaters," she said.
Dolva added that the business uses a range of wools to ensure resilience in its supply chains to ensure long-term sustainability.
"Instead of focusing on one type of wool, we’ve gone in multiple directions to serve different purposes.
"For long-term sustainability, I think it’s important to have this approach. You can tailor it to what you need and make the system even more resilient.
"In the future, I think we will work even more with virgin wool that has a positive impact through regenerative agriculture and land management.
"And because traceability is important, as it encompasses animal welfare and environmental sustainability, we want to use more recovered wool and stimulate the market for this kind of wool in countries where it’s still thrown away," she says
The Re-Wool Kånken comes after the brand experimented with using wool in new ways such as for jacket padding and to create a moulded backpack backplate.
Following the pleasing results from those experiments, the brand rolled wool out to its most popular product, the Kånken.
The Re-Wool Kanken is available now in Australia and New Zealand and retails for between $189.95 to $294.95 across three styles: sling, backpack and laptop.