The Brad Hole

Herman Miller Aeron.

They don't just look stylish, they're super-comfortable and, as an added bonus, well-ventilated.

OK, so they're over 15x as expensive as your Wal-Mart special (out of my price range too). But as you say, this is the chair that cradles your ass at least 8 hours a day; if I could afford one, I'd get one without a second thought.

I suspected someone might mention ol' Herman when I typed up this entry. As you say, if perhaps money were no object, I'd be seriously looking into it. However, I've sat my ass in one of these chairs before and I have to say that I didn't feel like it was worth $800.

While I can appreciate paying a premium for something that's well-designed and has good aesthetics, I think there's a line between appropriately overpriced and inappropriately overpriced, and the Aeron is well on the far side of that line. It's almost like it's taken on life as a status symbol rather than what it is - a really nice chair.

Putting that aside for the moment, there is another problem with getting an Aeron. I find that when I've left my office chair, my cat tends to find his way into it and enjoys sleeping there, so I tend to get a fur buildup despite my best efforts. I'm not sure I want to spend my time policing a really expensive chair as off-limits. This problem isn't limited to the Aeron - I saw a very nice chair candidate at Office Depot the other day, but it was leather. I'm not sure if that'd be better or worse with cats around.

I got to admit Brad, reading your blog is always entertaining.

But back to these chairs. I found it interesting that you actually like high armrests. Maybe I just like inching myself to close to the desk, but I have always found that armrests get in the way. They are always to high, and bumping into the plane of the desk, or they are placed somewhere were I can never get comfortable. It got to the point that if I can take the armrests off of a chair I do. They just drive me nuts.

Maybe I just need a lesson in technique. Do you actually rest your forearms on the armrests while typing? Is your keyboard on your desk, or on one of those underslung thingies? Any pointers?

Good look with the chair hunting. I'm with you, go for another cheap one.

I think my preference for high armrests came about with my current chair. If you look at the link on the Wal-Mart site, you'll see that the armrests are high in the back and slope down towards the front. When I type, it usually happens that my elbows rest on the high part and my forearms and hands tend to angle down towards the keyboard. The end result is that I'm forced into a form that isn't dissimilar to the "preferred" ergonomic way to type, and I've grown used to this. However, I wouldn't take this as any indicator of The Way To Do Things - it's evolved more out of necessity for me than anything else. It could be that I'm doing harm to some other part of my body. ;)

When my chair broke down last summer, and my grandmother offered to get me a new one, I found a nice leather executive chair on clearance at OfficeMax(a former employer). Only about $80, burgundy, with a high enough back for proper head support.(I'm 6'1") Only problem so far is that one of the screws is slowly working its way out of the side, and I've misplaced the special Allen wrench to screw it back in..

T&A in Brad's blog?! Must be sweeps week.

B-

Costco has some pretty good chairs (Brand: Lane), plus they won't break the bank. I just got one for Xmas. Give it a shot.

Just make sure your chair is ergonomic. Nothing worse than sitting for 8+ hours a day in a chair that slowly puts your back out of joint, your spine out of alignment, and ends up costing you thousands (or even hundreds) in medical/chiro/massage bills.