In my advanced age (mid 30s) its become apparent that I need to start looking after my back and posture. Long days of sitting on a fold out chair at a plant (or worse a old spool of wire) are taking more of a toll than they used to.
I finally splurged on an expensive ergonomic chair and while I do think its comfortable its not overwhelmingly so. Im not underwhelmed either. I suppose I am only whelmed.
Im curious what this likeminded community chooses for tush and back comfort. Embody? Leap? Aeron?
Has anyone found a budget chair thats able to compete with these expensive brands?
I have an old Steelcase Leap I bought from one of those office liquidator refurb places a long time ago, via Craigs List. It's fine.
At one point I had ordered a Herman Miller Embody, but it was post-pandemic while the supply chain was still a mess, and I eventually cancelled because I didn't want to wait 6 weeks or whatever it was. I still want it...
Find a used office furniture store and test them yourself. Unless you're in a small town, you would be shocked how much inventory of high end chairs these places carry. Easiest way to find them is to search FB Marketplace and notice the people having multiple listings for chairs.
I went on a huge youtube binge for chair reviews. "Ahnestly" is one of the best (no affiliation or relation), but I ended up with a chair not too talked about these days on YT reviews....really proving that there's an @$$ for every seat. Love my Steelcase Gesture.
My youtube research had me thinking I should see if I could find a used Herman Miller Embody or Haworth Fern, and then the store I ended up buying from had multiple huge conference rooms and tables all completely surrounded by Haworth Ferns!!! It blew my mind just how much money in chairs was just sitting waiting for a new home. And this was just one business out of probably tons more in my city (Houston). I'm over here scrutinizing how to spend a few hundred/thousand on a quality chair and yet there are tons of businesses out there that threw away Haworth Ferns/Steelcase/HM out on liquidation like they were worth nothing to them.
My chairs in various places are typical midrange ergonomic office chairs. Nothing too exciting.
The thing I have that I would recommend is a glass chair mat. It's hard and smooth so you don't sink in so it is always easy to move your chair. It takes a little to get used to but I love it.
They got us glass chair mats at the office. I liked it so much that I got one for home too.
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(I wish it was as easy as asking AI... Haha)