On the Edge of the Seat
This month I draw your attention to a David versus Goliath tournament which is happening in the category of office task seating. According to Niels Diffrient, the internationally acclaimed designer, who is the David in this instance, not much major innovation has been happening in the chair business for some time. True there is the Herman Miller Aeron chair, which is the undisputed world bestseller right now, but this, according to Diffrient, is a result of aesthetics rather than technology. In other words, he feels it is more "high-tech" by reason of its looks on the outside rather than its inside engineering.
Diffrient has been sitting out the '90s in his studio in Connecticut with a glamorous history behind him. In 1979, for those of you old enough to remember, he designed the Diffrient chair for Knoll. It was the first of its kind to offer variations in sitting positions by using knobs and levers. A version of this highly successful seating is still being used by American Airlines as its standard in airport gate waiting areas. After that came the Helena chair for SunarHauserman, which was a very elegant swivel chair, and the Jefferson chair for the same firm, which was an attempt to make a reclining chair that served as a hub for office work, incorporating laptop computer, telephone and reading accessories. No one ever quite understood this innovation-it was way ahead of its time. Sadly SunarHauserman was an early casualties of the '90's recession and went out of business before any promotion was done to market the Jefferson chair. Diffrient went on to design a line of training tables for Howe, which demonstrated his usual invention, and although this company also succumbed and merged with Falcon, the product is still in production and doing quite well.
Fast forward to 1998. Like any inventor, Diffrient has been dabbling with ideas in his studio. A novel system called "The Flexible Workspace" for KI won Best of Show at NeoCon that year. He still felt there was a need for a truly comfortable, adjustable office task chair. "I have been designing chairs for 40 years, for planes, tractors, office use, you name it," he says. "I looked at the increasing use of the computer in the workplace and concluded there was still room to improve what was out there." For his own pleasure and satisfaction, Diffrient worked out a design to a prototype. Then came a surprise visit from Robert King, president of a computer accessory firm called Neutral by Design. King is one of those new entrepreneurs who do business successfully by breaking all the old rules. He sees a need in the marketplace, develops a product and then puts a dynamic sales force out in the world to sell it. A few years ago, he perceived a need for a computer keypad that adjusted up and down with minimal effort. He had it designed and put a lot of marketing effort behind it. The result: his product outsells the Steelcase version. Not a bad achievement by someone who is new to the office furniture market.
After looking at office seating, King chalked up another future goal: to outsell Steelcase in office task chairs. This was an especially daring ambition, since Steelcase (he did not know it then) was working on a new chair called Leap with an team of 27 scientists, three universities and countless staff experts in Grand Rapids, MI, not to mention financial resources of almost boundless limits. Does this sound Goliathan?
A fluke introduction took King to Diffrient's studio, where he explained his goal. When Diffrient inquired what he had in mind, King's description was such that Diffrient went backstage and wheeled forth his new prototype. The rest, as they say, is history. The amazing Freedom chair was launched this past NeoCon, with King's company now renamed Humanscale-a name he purchased from Diffrient's past colleagues, Dreyfuss Associates. The Humanscale showroom, elegantly designed by Eva Maddox Associates, was a stopping point for numerous industry personalities. One who shall be nameless even offered to buy all the rights. Diffrient courteously demonstrated all his innovative details for anyone who visited and cared to ask. First deliveries of the Freedom chair are being shipped later this year. King is so confident that he has a winner, he has built a factory in Mexico for the North American market and one in Ireland for the European market. So here is a fascinating David versus Goliath story. It's tournaments like these that keep me on the edge of my seat!
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