Unsolicited Product Endorsement: The Steelcase Leap Chair.
One recurring symbol of the dot-com era was the Aeron chair. It was in nearly every office, torturing employees under the guise of “ergonomics.” I loathed mine. Its worst failing (and there were many) was that the front edge of it cut off the circulation in my legs. I guess in ergonomic terms it forced you to get up and walk around periodically, so it wasn’t all bad, but it was painful to sit in all day if you couldn’t get away.
When I started working from home, I tried every task chair I could find a dealer for, no small feat when most of the dealers are unequipped to deal with a single customer trying to buy only a single chair. Oddly the manufacturer whose products seemed best aligned with my own needs was one that often seems particularly unexciting: Steelcase. During my stint at AOL if you had an ergonomic consultation you could get upgraded to a Steelcase Criterion, which in my case had the distinct advantage of having its seat go an inch higher than the one on the standard AOL chair.
So when it came time to put my own money where my ass is, I ordered a Leap chair. I had to special order it to get the extra-height cylinder, so a few weeks later a surprisingly heavy box came from Michigan (ironically without the extra-height cylinder installed, necessitating a visit from the local dealer’s repairman so he could install one).
It’s been a few years, and this chair is still fantastic. I just found myself twiddling knobs simply because I could, but it’s easy to adjust and it perfectly matches the way I need a task chair to work. AOL’s ergonomic consultant noticed how much I move around, and the “live back” of the Leap is right there with me. The way the seat pan slides when you lean back seems obvious once you experience it, but it’s definitely not the way most task chairs work. And the balance of the back is a thing to behold. Adjust the tension to match the way you sit, and if you lean back a little it’ll stay there — lean back a lot and it’ll stay there too. Mine’s purple fabric and not leather, so it doesn’t have the Whoopie Cushion sound effects mentioned in the Slate review. For that matter, I never could find the Let’s B to try it — and those armrests are hideous — and I like the Leap better than either Humanscale chair: the Liberty that topped the review isn’t supportive enough for my back, and the Freedom’s awesome armrests weren’t awesome enough for me.
Working from home I tend to slump on the couch far more often than I should, but having a good chair is a wondrous thing. The Leap was well worth my money.
