This is my first Fjallraven Kanken ever and overall I'm pretty pleased with what I received. My review is mostly a first impressions-type. I can confirm that what I purchased from the seller, "BestMarketDealz" was in fact an authentic piece. Amazon doesn't encourage you to point out the seller through reviews like this, but since Amazon has already had several fakes slip through, I thought I'd mention it because there's nothing worse than paying for something at the authentic price and receiving a subpar fake. I could've ordered from eBay instead for a bit less (around the $55 range including shipping from reputable sellers) but I wanted this to have Guaranteed Prime shipping so I went with Amazon/BestMarketDealz for a cool $63.89; still a bit less than $70 retail and I didn't have to pay tax through this seller.

Marks of authenticity include YKK on the sides of the zippers, along with "WASA 6" under the snap button closures. The "ART" number on the sticker of the kraft paper tab matches the interior fabric tab number (23561 for the Sky Blue color) and the inside label also has the Swedish flag present and sewn in the correct place. I'm sure there are other ways to verify authenticity but these were the ones right off the bat that I noticed based on other reviews I've read on here.

The fabric feels sort of like a heavily starched fabric which leads me to believe why the waterproofing could be damaged/reduced effectively by throwing it in the washing machine which I've read you should NOT do if you want to preserve the Kanken's water resistance and also it's color, which would likely dramatically fade in the wash as I've seen one YouTuber do.

I deducted a star because for a highly priced backpack such as this, I would've expected much cleaner sewing, especially on the front circle patch where it's most noticeable. Mine is a bit off-center and has a fabric notch at one of the ends. Not a big deal after I saw some other reviewers with patches sewn in similar fashion, but a bit disappointing for the price. It's not like these are the Herms of backpacks or anything, but I've seen some  $10 Dickies with better sewing at Ross. The fact that these bags are also outsourced, Vietnam for the Mini Kankens and China for the other sizes, gives an heir of degradation in quality that does not quite live up to the asking price. Now I'm well aware factories, no matter the location or the people that run it, can produce well under the right leadership and quality checks, this was not just up to par when you consider cheaper backpacks that have better quality sewing elsewhere. Other than that, the Sky Blue color is beautiful.

At first I couldn't decide with which blue to go with: Air Blue, Blue Ridge or Sky Blue, because if you look up some of the colors and the corresponding product photos they vary a LOT to the point that it's difficult to pin down what exactly is the true color IRL. The same Sky Blue featured on Amazon could look completely different than the Sky Blue Kanken product photo offered on Urban Outfitters, ASOS, Nordstrom, or even the main Fjallraven Kanken website itself! Combine those discrepancies with Urban Outfitters even renaming "Sky Blue" to "Teal" just adds to the confusion.

The Sky Blue color is a bit of chameleon as I imagine some other Kanken colors are as well. It morphs like mad depending on lighting and atmospheric conditions. In my photos, the camera really only picks up the true blue tones but my eyes pick up the hints of green/teal more easily IRL. This subtlety is lost with my camera despite me taking photos of it in a neutral white room. The nylon strap parts are also a slightly different tone of blue than the overall bag, but that makes sense because the straps are a different material and would take dye differently than Vinylon F. It adds character and I think it's cool Fjallraven tries to match the zipper paint coating, thread and straps to the main bag color. I sort of wish the zipper material was of better quality, perhaps a metal zipper instead of plastic. Something about plastic makes me think it won't last nearly as long. I've seen some people be rough with the zippers on YouTube and have been fine, but others were not as lucky with zippers coming off the tracks/teeth.

The side pocket fits my OnePlus 3 (152.7mm/6.01in height x 74.7mm/2.94in wide x 7.35mm/0.289in diameter) which is great for being on the go and needing quick access but I would say it's not safe when traveling to do this obviously. I'll update the review once I've worn it out for a bit.

Without ordering the other blue colors I considered and just based on observation, I'm guessing Air Blue is more of a vibrant pool blue, Blue Ridge a sort of greyed mid-tone denim blue and Sky Blue being a greyed light blue with hints of teal and green added in while being dramatically less green next to Frost Green. If you're having a hard time deciding, I did consider buying from sellers that offered Free Returns to try them all and send back the ones I didn't want but after watching some YouTube videos and comparing Google Image searches of each color on different tabs in Chrome, I concluded Sky Blue would've been my favorite anyway.

Also a word of caution, if you aren't in a hurry and want to find better prices on eBay or elsewhere, be extremely careful of fakes. Only buy from sellers that have a few hundred or thousands of reviews/ratings. I've seen some sellers with 0 ratings sell Mini Kankens for $25 and some people actually bought them as eBay will show how many have been sold. If the price is too good to be true, it probably is. But $40-50 seems pretty realistic. And if you buy in person, you know what marks to look for.