My Aeron has bit the bullet after more than 10 years for mostly faithful service (I bought mine before it was the "in" thing to do
). I somehow managed to rip a hole in the Pellicle material in the back over a year ago and a month ago I started to rip the bottom (not sure why the back ripped before the bottom). The comfort factor the Pellicle material on my fatass is extremely high. I sit in it for hours on end (or used to before I ripped it) without getting up without it ever getting "hot spots" or getting sore.
Unfortunately there are a bunch of other things that bother me about the chair so I went looking for something else to replace it. I thought the Steelcase Think was going to be a suitable replacement but that turned out
to be incorrect. I checked out the Steelcase Leap at the same thing as I did the Think but I didn't find it nearly as comfortable and I really doubt the conventional padded bottom would keep my butt from getting sore.
I also looked at the Humanscale Liberty and Freedom (with head rest). The Freedom was ridiculously comfy with the head rest but only when I was in the reclining position. The Liberty felt more like the Aeron. Both unfortunately have the fundamental flaw that you can't lock the seat back in an upright position. I "slouch" back when I sit even with the seat back upright which means on the Humanscale chairs I would always be in a reclining position, which is fine some of the time but not all the time, especially on the Humanscale chairs which go way back (the Steelcase are better in that regard).
Anybody have other suggestions for chairs I should look at? Obviously I'm looking for something high-end (up to around $1000) and for my butt I need something a lot better than your typical Office Depot/Max/Fry's ergo chair. I don't have back issues so I don't need fancy lumbar support or other exotic designs expressly for supporting the back. I do slouch back in my chair as I mentioned above so no go on the "pogo" seats or the ones where you rest on your knees.
The Aeron has a couple of new Pellicle material styles, one of which looks potential more durable than the "classic" version (the weight looks to be more evenly distributed among the various strands), so if I can't find anything else I'll probably just go with that and put up with its other flaws.
Author
