A conversation with Neža, the Slovenian maker behind What Happened, a one-woman brand dedicated to building custom mountaineering backpacks. Her path into the craft is anything but straightforward. After nearly a decade in Budapest running an urban cycling brand, she walked away when she realized the business model was built on creating needs instead of answering them. Searching for a new direction, she landed a rare apprenticeship in Munich, learning the intricacies of outdoor gear repair, before joining Patagonia’s Worn Wear program and traveling across Europe in a rolling workshop that fixed gear for free.
When the pandemic shut that down, Neža returned to Slovenia and set up a sewing machine in a cabin in the woods. What began as small runs of bikepacking bags slowly evolved into the highly technical, hand-built alpine packs she makes today. Each order starts with a conversation, a trust-building exchange that allows her to translate a customer’s vision into a durable tool made to last years in the harshest environments.
Her packs are already traveling the world—on expeditions in Antarctica, to high peaks in Nepal, and on the backs of mountain guides who spend more than two hundred days a year outside. The name What Happened reflects both her repair roots and her belief that every piece of gear carries a story. She talks about why durability matters more than chasing recycled buzzwords, the challenges of working with Dyneema, and how true sustainability comes from building things that last and can be repaired.
This conversation dives into what it means to create slowly in an outdoor industry obsessed with speed and saturation. For Neža, craftsmanship is not a trend but a practice—one that connects maker and user through trust, intention, and use. “This business can last a very long time,” she says. “Because it was never in fashion.”
