Home Office: We Need To Talk About the Chairs
If you regularly follow Clever Dude, you know we recently posted an article talking about upgrading your home office and three chairs you need to check out. Well, you can mark one of those off the list.
The week before I wrote that article I’d gone to Costco and bought two True Innovations Mesh office chairs. The reason I chose them was that I had watched several YouTube videos made by computer programmers talking about how great the “Costco chair” was. I also read over 100 reviews where most consumers raved that this chair was cheap, comfortable, and pretty well made despite the price of just $120. What I have learned from this experience is that the internet and my definitions of “comfort” are vastly different.
Story Time
Before I get into the specifics of why I hate this True Innovations chair, I want to start by saying my perception may be a little skewed. I was an automotive mechanic for 15 years and, at one point in my career, I worked for a small chain of used car dealers in Tennessee. Part of my job was to go to car auctions to drop off cars we were selling and pick up ones we bought.
On one trip back from the auction I had to drop off a 2010ish Ford Edge at one of the several car dealerships owned by my boss. The woman that ran this store was a very sweet lady but you could tell she had spent a lot of time around rough-neck men that worked with their hands. When I handed her the key to the Ford she asked me “How did it ride?” and I said, “Like a truck.” With a puzzled look on her face, she said “Oh, well I have one of those, and it’s the best seat in the world.” to which I replied, “ You have obviously never been in a Bentley.”
Was I expecting the captain’s chair from a Bentley Bentyga for $120? Absolutely not. However, was I expecting to get a chair that gives you scoliosis? Not exactly.
Why I Will Be Returning The Costco Chairs
The short answer to why I’m returning the chairs is that they’re crippling. I am not sure what the people who reviewed this chair are using them for but it can not be for a place to sit for long periods of time.
The first week we loved the Costco chairs because before we got them we were using a couple of Amazon special “gaming chairs.” If you don’t know most chairs branded as gaming chairs have the uncanny ability to add several decades to the age of your back in just a couple of hours.
After three short weeks of using the Costco chairs at our work/gaming stations, my wife and my bodies are in shambles. Both of our shoulders and necks were so tight that we could barely turn our heads. After the third week, even picking up our beautiful 16-lb. baby girl was like competing in the suffering Olympics.
We have been discussing our grievances with one another and decided to swap back to our old chairs to see what happened. After a couple of days back in the old chairs and what felt like several hundred ibuprofens, our pain levels have returned to the post-Costco chair range.
At this point, I’m not sure what we’re going to do next. I will return the chairs and use that money to purchase a chair in the $200 range and go from there. We will continue to rotate office chairs until we find one worth any praise. Trust me, I’ll keep you all up to date on the journey.
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Drew Blankenship is a former Porsche technician who writes and develops content full-time. He lives in North Carolina, where he enjoys spending time with his wife and two children. While Drew no longer gets his hands dirty modifying Porsches, he still loves motorsport and avidly watches Formula 1.