Herman Miller

Getting a quality office chair is one of those things your later self will thank you for. A lot of us spend at least 8 hours a day sitting at a desk, so a quality chair is probably a good investment. Herman Miller chairs are regarded as very ergonomic, fully adjustable to your body and generally the best office chairs out there. However, any chair is personal so you should try it for yourself. We can however vouch for the amazing build quality. Also, their own test lab tests these chairs for very heavy use. One of the tests they perform is dropping 125 lbs (55 kg) 100,000 times on a single chair.

The main downside of these chairs, you guessed it, they are very expensive (over $1000). However, you can often find these used or refurbished for a more reasonable price. As the chairs will likely not fail you, this is certainly an option. If you don't want to buy used or you cannot find one used, all chairs also come with a 12 year warranty which makes the price a bit less painful.

Herman Miller is one of the fouding members of NextWave Plastics. This organisation recycles ocean plastics to reuse it. Some of Herman Miller's chairs are made using such recycled plastics. This ethical engagement is good, but it is just marketing. When diving a bit deeper into the business, they are under fire for a leaked zoom fragement of the CEO telling workers to stop thinking about their bonus possibly getting refused (read more here). Also, they advertise as being made in the US, but have factories in China too (but don't often deliver from there to the US).

Ratings

Overall: 7.0

Durability: 9.0

Ethics: 4.0