Work Travel w/ Uke

I travel a decent amount for work, usually with a carryon and a backpack. I usually bring a soprano uke with me (a crappy $40 Mitchell I’ve had for years) but it has finally gotten beat up enough to sound quite horrible. I usually just stuff it in the backpack and leave the neck sticking out of the backpack a few inches. It gets beat up by things in the backpack and also the tuning pets get bumped quite often.

What are yalls travel uke set ups? I looked for an ultralight travel “case” like cloth just to go around it but can’t seem to find anything without straps or a zipper that I don’t need.

I can’t really sacrifice space within my backpack or carry on.