Herman Miller Chair – Comfort at a Price
The Aeron Chair
Whenever you find yourself looking for ergonomic chair you are bound to run into the Herman Miller chair. You might ask yourself who is Herman Miller? The answer is, Herman Miller was the father-in-law of the founder of the Herman Miller Company, and he had never even heard of the word ergonomics.
Actually the Herman Miller company originally manufactured household furniture and experienced some very rough times during the depression. In fact it wasn’t until the 1960s that the company branched off and started making office furniture. However, once they started they really took off. The Herman Miller company actually invented the office cubicle.
The Herman Miller chair is actually a wide selection of chairs that have been ergonomically designed for the human body. They are actually only some of the many products that the company produces. Today Herman Miller chairs include the Aeron chair, the Mirra chair, and the Embody chair. These Herman Miller chairs rank among the most popular of high-end ergonomic office chairs, and often sell for well over $1000.
In fact during the .com boom the Aeron chair was practically a symbol of online affluence and after the crash they became a reminder to some of what they’d lost. EBay was flooded with them for short time. Still today, Herman Miller chairs are among the most popular ergonomic office chairs on the market.
An interesting note, is that the chairs are environmentally friendly. The company has been very careful in selecting the materials that go into making the chairs and those materials are supposed to all be biodegradable or at least not have a negative impact on the environment. The Herman Miller company is noted for
The Embody Chair
being very responsible to their customers and the environment in their product designs.
It is reported that the owner of the company after reading various customer reviews regarding the office cubicle concept which they had developed, said about to find ways to make the cubicles less confining, and more user-friendly. While this may have been done out of a guilty conscience for creating them in the first place, it still does show some responsibility.
The embody chair has mixed reviews. Everyone however seems to agree that it is strange looking, some would even say ugly. A majority of people seem to feel that it’s one of the most comfortable chairs they have ever owned. A small number of people feel that it is too hard and not comfortable at all. For this reason I would highly recommend sitting in one to see how it feels to you. They do come in a variety of colors so you are not limited to orange.
I advise taking a look and see what other chair-owners have had to say about the product and finding one that you can sit in. They list for about $1700, but you can find them cheaper in many places, for example there just over $1100 at Amazon. The Aeron chair lists for over $1300, but is under $900 at Amazon.
As with any ergonomic chair, you need to sit in it and see how it feels to you. All bodies at different and one chair doesn’t necessarily fit all. Of course there are many lower-priced ergonomic chairs, so before you spend this much money you need to make sure that the chair is right for you.
Below you’ll find a comparison between the embodied chair and the Steelcase chair. It is not very definitive but it is entertaining.
If you would like to shop for a Herman Miller chair click here.
Tagged with: herman miller chairs short • most comfortable chair
Filed under: Chairs for Bad Backs • Herman Miller Chair
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I have heard a lot about the ergonomics of Herman Miller chairs. I have been wanting to find the most comfortable chair out there. I really like the chair which shows the ribs (which look more like a mechanical spine). Both chairs look like they adjust, but I like the additional feature of the yellow chair because its arms also adjust. The only thing I don’t like is the price. For that kind of money, the chair should be able to recline and have a foot rest.
Besides these really comfortable looking chairs (especially the one with the mesh backing), I really like the Word Press plugin that the webmaster is using for affiliate marketing. It uses designated key words from anywhere on the web page (including the reader’s comments) and automatically creates links to your affiliate store. This site does a great job of linking keywords to their amazon store. This is a find example of how to properly do affiliate marketing.
Thank you so much for streaming these videos. I especially liked the video demonstration of the embody chair. I am impressed with the versatility of the adjustable settings of this chair. When you look at how the spine of the chair back curves with the arch of the user’s back, you can tell it is ergonomic. The only thing I am unsure about is how the spine moves and curves. How do you mold it to curve the way you want?
When I first heard the mention of the name, Herman Miller, I really thought he was a fashion designer. Maybe I had his name confused with a designer name brand that sounds similar to it. But now that I have seen just two of the featured chairs in this line of office equipment, I have to admit, I am impressed with the adjustability of these office chairs. I don’t think I have ever seen other chairs like the embody.
I couldn’t get enough of the videos which demonstrated these Herman Miller office chairs. One tested the embody chair in viral video style – with some clever narration and an unconventional approach to product testing, to say the least. The other video demonstration was the kind of no frills style product review that Cnet would have approved. Bother were amusing and informative and made me want to buy an ebody chair. I just wish I had $600 to spare.
I suppose Herman Miller chairs have quite a reputation because even I have heard about the name before – and I don’t consider myself to be a connoisseur or office equipment (even though I do have a computer job that requires me to put in many hours in front of my lap top computer). What I dislike most about working in an office and sharing a chair with others is sitting on older cushion chairs, which is why I like the mesh chairs.
I love the innovative idea behind the concept of the flexible spine of the embody chair. I just wish it wasn’t so dog on expensive. I just cannot afford five hundred to six hundred dollars. Are there perhaps any Herman Miller chairs available at clearance sale? I sure would love to own one of these – even though I work the majority of the time on a reclining floor chair with my notebook on my laptop table.
I have seen chairs that look a lot like these in other offices and homes that aren’t nearly as expensive and I am sure do the same things this one does. From what I understand though more and more offices are letting their employees use stability balls as their office chair because of the benefits in the abs and the core strength. Which do you prefer.
You put together a great blog here and the use of the videos was a great idea, not only did they teach me about the durability of the chair but they were entertaining as well. I also like all the different ways they show you how to adjust it. I am going to keep looking because I know there is something else that looks like this chair but is cheaper.
Are there any used chair like the embody Herman Miller office chair that might cost less than half of the retail price? I sure hope so. It is the only hope me and my spine have at long term health. There is no way I can afford to pay seventeen hundred dollars or even a thousand dollars is too much. These chair may well be intended for executive level persons and well above my pay grade.
Even though I found a lounge chair that is really quite comfortable when I am in a relaxed mood and on my notebook computer, I still would like to own the embody Herman Miller chair for times when I am energetic and I feel like sitting in an erect position at my desk. Believe it or not, you can only work for so long in a semi reclined and relaxed position before you want to sit up.
Don’t get me wrong, I love these chairs. I think they are pieces of great innovation in the area of ergonomics. But I never thought it would be a luxury to be able to maintain good posture and a healthy back and posture while you work. I say this because so many of the affordable office chairs, the ones that sell at Office Depot or Staples, are made poorly and can get quite uncomfortable and even painful.
What great pieces of furniture. I guess this site provides some of the cheapest prices on Herman Miller chairs. It certainly has many options in the form of the banner ad links on the right side panel of the page. I have only just started to navigate to these in order to do some price comparing. I want one of these chairs, particularly, the embody chair. I wonder if there is a showroom where I can go and sit on one.
Needing to replace my old desk chair — and acknowledging my advancing years — I decided to find out what was the least expensive chair to offer blissful, sit-all-day comfort. After plopping down on every name ergonomic chair you’ve ever heard of (Leap, Freedom, etc.), I pronounced the Mirra the clear winner. (The Aeron is remarkably comfortable too, but more expensive.) I bought a loaded Mirra and have been very satisfied, with only one little quibble.
We built a new office for our help desk and had the luxury to test out several of the top office chairs in the world. My personal favorite was the Mirra. It scored well against the Aeron and was a bit more comfortable to my behind and back. The style is good – a clean take on a functional product. It has all of the adjustments and it was a bit less expensive than the Aeron.
I’ve had this chair for about a year now and I use it at home in my home office. I think it looks great. If I’m paying this much for a chair, When you sit in it, it really does support your back. I can feel the support from the base of my spine all the way through my shoulders. So at the end of the day, my upper back isn’t sore like when I go into the office.
The adjustment of the embody chair is crucial, for the first month that you own it. I had a friend coming from HM to help me adjust it right. O man, it jumped from “normal” into “wonderful”. The whole back curve is adjustable, and it fit my back perfectly. After I sit on my old dinning chair for like a whole afternoon I returned to my embody, I can feel the sore and stressed muscle on my back being hugged by the chair.
I agree with Lonnie on the comfort of the Mirra. I invested a lot of money in getting Mirra’s for all the office personnel and they couldn’t be happier. What is really interesting is there are people of all different shapes and sizes sitting in these chairs and not one of them have found it to be uncomfortable. They have told me they get the support they need in the places they need it.
I have heard from some people who bought the embody office chair had to learn how to adjust the spine. At first try, they thought that it was not worth the money they paid because the spine did not seem to adjust the way it is advertised. But in fact it does move and aligns to the arch of your back. This makes me understand that it stays in its set alignment, making it custom to one person.
All the office personnel where I work have a Mira chair and they couldn’t be happier. What is really interesting is there are people of all different shapes and sizes sitting in these chairs and not one of them have found it to be uncomfortable. They have told me they get the support they need in the places they need it. This is a great chair.