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Hey Everyone, Gaming Chairs appeared on Massdrop polls in 2014. These polls quickly gained traction and lead to many successful drops on a great variety of brands and models. In my opinion, these chairs became popular for the following reasons. 1. They're comfy. While most desirable office chairs are designed to maintain correct posture, they're not great for lounging. These racing chairs with thick foam, lay-flat reclining, and included cushions are the la-z-boys of the “office furniture” world.
2. They look pretty cool. While the colorways are usually loud and decidedly “gamer", the form of these chairs inspires a more cockpit-like experience. When you spend all day at an office, do you wanna go home and sit in another office chair at another desk? Or do you want to get into the cockpit of your battlestation? I'd take the latter, and that's what the design of these chairs inspires.
3. They're affordable. Where a top tier office (task) chair will run $800-$1200, a top tier Gaming Chair caps out around $400. These chairs make even more sense when you consider the generally unimpressive task chair options around $300 vs the gaming chair options at the same level. With gaming chairs, it usually feels like your money goes a lot further when it comes to comfort and immersion in your entertainment (cockpit point above).
These are the reasons gaming chairs became such a staple in our Tech community, but with every wave of popularity comes a wave of feedback. After selling thousands of Gaming Chairs, we've also seen thousands of discussion posts from community members detailing their experience with these products. These are the themes we extracted from thousands of discussion posts, hundreds of support tickets, and dozens of community reviews: 1. Build quality is generally an issue. Many brands seem to put aesthetics first and robust components second. Whether it's a cracked base because the alloy mixture was poorly toleranced, or a broken caster because they didn't test it against the weight rating of the gas spring, it's ultimately a lack of attention to detail that creates most of these problems.
2. Material quality is generally an issue. Low quality PU Leather (there's a huge spectrum), low quality plastics, and low quality foam are all things we regularly hear about. The tough thing about all of these problems is that you can't (or it's incredibly hard to) tell from pictures, and the related problems don't manifest in the first couple months of use. Because you can't tell from the pictures, buyers don't know, and it usually won't come up in reviews because they're generally not testing for multiple months before posting. For those reasons companies don't see an immediate impact on sales and the practices that produce these problems continue.
3. The colorways... nobody really likes them. They're tolerated, but nobody on Massdrop is posting about how excited they are for bright red, neon blue, and lime green furniture.
Understanding what our community likes about these chairs (comfort, form, affordability) and what they don't (poor build, cheap materials, loud colors), we approached AKRacing (the brand with the highest overall approval for gaming chairs on Massdrop) to create the Aero. A gaming chair built to the exacting standards our community demands, using top tier materials, and presented in a black on black colorway you won't regret when friends come over. Diving into the details, where the foam in most gaming chairs is formed in a generic block and later carved into chair shapes, the foam in the Aero is Cold Molded. This means each foam piece is poured into it’s own mold and cold cured, creating a much denser and structurally sound foam piece. Where carved foam will start to degrade after 12-18 months, cold molded foam will maintain it's structure for 5+ years without issue. Where most gaming chairs are upholstered in low quality PU leather, we decided to use top quality perforated Alcantara on the seat and back of the chair. This grade of Alcantara is traditionally used for the interior of exotic cars (Lambos, Porsches, etc). It feels and looks like suede, but with better wear characteristics and the perforations add breathability in areas that traditionally get the hottest (seat and back). In addition we’ve worked with AKRacing to source a high quality PU leather for the accents and trim that has a similar feel to protein leather (highest grade PU leather). The Aero has a solid aluminum base (no cheap alloys) with 3” casters spec’d to match the 350lb weight allowance from the Class 4 gas spring. Add the latest in adjustable arm tech and all of this creates a confidence inspiring product that we’re proud to provide warranty coverage for 5x the duration of competing products. The Aero is covered by a five year manufacturer's warranty for the chair (foam, upholstery, etc) and a ten year manufacturer's warranty for the base (metal parts, arms, etc). The Aero launches on November 21st at 6am PT. The Aero only ships to the contiguous United States so any international customers will have to work with a third party forwarder. Thanks for your interest in this product and let me know if there’s more info you’d like to see posted : )
BrainFlush
6860
Nov 17, 2017
WillThis is why I am here everyday. Because you guys take the best of what we want and put it with a brand we know. Thank you all for what you do. Sincerely.
WillThis post is a shining example of how a drop should be started. Thank you Will. :)
rhinocerosbladderHey, thanks man! I've gone through a lot of iterations for the format of these first posts and I think this flows pretty well. Let me know if you think of a way to make it better (same goes for everyone in this discussion).
MooTaters
382
Nov 18, 2017
WillI'd have to disagree with point #1 for desirable(assumed to mean "Task") office chairs. My Aeron is quite comfy to me, a fair bit more so at least than my old AK Designs Octane(the really old one that was cloth and could be found at best buy probably a decade ago maybe a little less). Honestly the Aeron leans back as far as I think I could ever want to in a chair, and if I recall correctly the first time I leaned back as far as it could it was uncomfortably far(thought I would tip over). The one "lounging" thing it does lack is a non-third-party option for a headrest. Though I've been considering a rather popular third-party option for that for the occasion that.
That all said of course this chair is significantly less in cost, a bit less than half a new base model Aeron if I'm not mistaken....and even cheaper than probably most used Aerons. I also like that the Aeron has a real nice and long warranty, though I don't know how difficult it is to get warranty service, though I imagine I could do it through the shop that I ordered it at. Honestly though my back has thanked me enough for the proper sitting position it enables, I had an airplane pillow as a lumbar cushion and it hardly did much for me...I also think there's something to be said for proper support of the sacrum. I have no proof for it, but I imagine it could be the fix for some who would assume their lumbar is the problem.
Anyways I've gone on for plenty long enough, just saying task chairs can be quite comfy thanks to that proper back support. And that said to each their own and there's nothing wrong with getting one of these if it's what you want or even better than what you have(my old octane was better than the folding chair i was previously using).
565Hunter
12
Nov 18, 2017
MooTatersI love my Aeron chairs. Yeah, they cost a bit but not in the long run. The Aeron that I'm sitting in (4-6 hours a day) is 13 years old and still going strong. All that being said, this drop looks pretty good. Wish I could butt test it...
Turquoiseland
28
Nov 18, 2017
WillHi Will,
Yes couple of more questions.
Does the chair recline (in a rocking position)? Also why did you guys decide to keep the foam amount relatively low? Thanks.
haejuk
34
Nov 19, 2017
WillWill there be an option for locking casters? If not, do you know of anyplace we could order similarly spec'd casters that lock? I find this to be a must-have so I can use a racing wheel and pedals.
Princef_Taaanxs
2
Nov 20, 2017
WillThe specs on this chair sound great, but I'm hurtin for a pink colorway. I get that pink color schemes usually come off as cheap and gimmicky, but gaming is just so male dominated and always has these edgy accented monochromatic colorways. Ick.
WillHey will, I noticed in your intro you say " The Aero has a solid aluminum base (no cheap alloys) with 3” casters spec’d to match the 400lb weight allowance from the Class 4 gas spring "
But the product page says the weight allowance is 350, just curious which it really is.
Shark50521 Hey Shark50521, that inconsistency is my fault. In our discussions with AK Racing, it was explained that the base we're using could support 400, 450 or even 500 lb, but the testing is done for 350lb, thus why the official spec (and warranty guarantee) is 350lb. Updated my post to be consistent with the official spec.
WillThanks Will!
MooTatersHey MooTaters,
Thanks for your post and sorry for the slow response, busy week at Massdrop! Glad you dig the Aeron, I've been using one at home for ~3 years, huge step up from the staples brand look-a-like I had beforehand.
When I said "comfy", I was trying to convey something more specific. IMO, my Aeron is comfortable, the Aero is comfy. The Aeron is mesh stretched over a rigid frame that keeps me in an ergonomic position over hours of use, so it's definitely comfortable. Want to fold one leg under you while sitting though? Not gunna work, the frame of the of the Aeron will dig into your leg. Want to rock backward? No problem. Want to lay flat while web browsing or gaming on your mobile device? Not gonna happen.
To me, "comfy" means you can engage with the chair in a flexible fashion (crosslegged, normal seating position, laying down, etc) and enjoy yourself. "Comfortable" means this allows for seating positions that are good for a specific use (long hours at the office in the case of the Aeron).
To draw an analogy, the seats in my 1992 Chrysler LeBaron were comfy (huge bench seat covered in red velour, three seatbelts across the front) and the seats in a Porsche 911 are comfortable (bucket seats designed to keep you optimally positioned for control and crash safety).
Overall, they're different classes of chair in terms of price and use-case, but both have unique benefits that are worth appreciating.
MooTaters
382
Nov 22, 2017
WillYeah, I definitely noticed that problem with the frame if you want to sit one leg crossed or something. And boy it has been such a long time since I've seen a triple seater in the front of a car(the car analogy reminded me of them).
fredrikb
0
Nov 30, 2017
WillHello Will,
I love the chair and it's exactly what I've been looking for, but would you recommend this chair for someone that is 6'7 or will this chair be too small for me?
Thanks, Fredrik
fredrikbYep, should fit you just fine.
Misguided
1
Dec 1, 2017
WillWill, I apologize for asking this here, but I wasn’t sure of a better place to do so. If you have an idea for a custom product you’d like to see from Massdrop, how does one go about getting the idea for it out there?
MisguidedHey, if it's a product you designed, head over here: https://www.massdrop.com/collaborators
If it's an idea for changes to an existing product, make a poll for it to see if others are interested in the same idea.
sfjs
6
Dec 6, 2017
WillHi Will. A few questions about this chair. - Is the seat tilt adjustable? - How does the back tilt lock work? Can it be locked (maximum recline) at multiple positions? How many? Is the tilt back tension adjustable? I find the combination of tension adjustment + fine-grained maximum recline locks usually works best. - What kind of casters are used? Usually hardwood-safe casters don't work well on carpets and vice versa. - Is this appropriate for someone ~5'10" and ~155 lbs? - Is the minimum/maximum seat height measurement to the bottom of the seat cushion or the top side of the seat cushion? Thanks!
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