Short review: I last bought this chair here on Amazon in September of 2018. Now that it is showing wear, I figured something better must exist by now. After trying multiple options, going to box store after box store, I am replacing this chair with the same model in July 2024. Enough said.Long review: I sit at a desk. A LOT. It may actually be the thing I do most with my body these days, even beating sleeping. I work a desk job. I am a PC gamer. I like programming and researching and 3D modeling and editing videos and other desk tasks. Heck, I operate two desks in my home - one for work and one for play. All this to say, I can't own a trash chair. Mediocre chairs? Maybe. While we're on the topic of me: I am a 5'11" 175lbs male. I like to move around in my chair, from normal posture all the way to cross legged and everything in between.Anyways, back to the chair - I bought my first iteration while I was in college. It was on the cheaper side but looked to have a healthy amount of features. I liked a mesh back but wanted a proper cushioned seat. That alone limits things quite a bit. I liked other things about it but at the time didn't fully appreciate them like I do now - I'll come back to them later. I used this chair quite a bit during college and quite liked it. However, come end of 2019, I noticed the arms were splitting. Thankfully there are replacements available even here on Amazon (Search for "Office Chair Arm Rest Replacement Fits All Styles of Arms with Mounting Hole Patterns Screws Set Desk Armrest Cover"). This is the one thing I can knock this chair on, but I put quite a bit of weight on the armrests as I shift around, picking myself up by them. They break because of the material they are made of is relatively soft, which is desirable so that my elbows don't hurt. So, I call this a necessary wear item, like tires on my car. I would replace the arms one more time in 2022, and then again in 2024 when I replaced the whole chair.I started trying other chairs when COVID hit, ~2020. I went from full in-office work to full at-home work, and needed extra desk space. The first chair I tried was trash, I had to buy cushions and all kinds of stuff to make it comfortable. The second chair I tried was okay but quickly wore out. The third chair I tried I still own, it's okay. I've learned a few things through trying all these chairs, but this pattern showed me that I got really lucky when I bought my first chair in college. Office chairs are hard to return - while companies design the components to go into a relatively small box, they don't design all the components to easily come back apart.Fast forward to a couple months ago and back to this chair in question. I noticed that the fabric in the seat was starting to wear - that was happening for a while but now I had worn through it on one side where I sit semi-cross legged (as I'm sitting while typing this) and the side of my shoe digs into the chair. Fabric was gone and the foam inside was exposed, and I was starting to wear a small hole into it. I keep this chair in a room no one sees and so I can get away with some wear, but this was too much. I did a lot of research to find another chair. I watched all the youtube videos about the expensive chairs (which the youtubers obviously get paid to shill), I went to office supply stores and sat in every miserable chair with inflated price tags, I was dejected. However, I remembered that I had success before, so I figured I would try again. I found one here on Amazon with good reviews and ordered it. It was horrible and I was furious. "Why is it so hard to find a good office chair? Why do people have such trash expectations for their chairs? Chairs are not complicated, I should not have to spend half a grand to get a decent chair! If only I had the foresight back when I bought my original chair, I would have bought two and"... and then the thought hit me. Was my chair still available after all these years?Obviously it was. In my joyous fury I malicious-compliance style stuffed the horrible chair back into its box (which could not contain it but I did not care - that's the manufacturer's fault) and promptly returned it to order another one of these. Ladies and gentlemen, after assembling it today, I am happy to report that it has not changed one bit! Oh I cannot tell you how happy I am right now to be seated on this chair. It's such a nice chair, it's my old chair, but it feels brand new, because it is both of those things.Anyways, let me talk about a few other features - reclining options on this are great, you can recline both the back and the seat, independently. What's more is you can recline it and then lock it in at any position you want - so I recline the seat back a little bit and lock it in, and then let the back be on free-recline mode. This feature is wonderful and you won't find it on (m)any chairs at this price point. The arm rests and the back are height-adjustable. I leave the arm rests at their min setting, and the back just above min. As you bring the back up/down, it adjusts where your lumbar is positioned, and there is a very wide range. Also, the seat - its' quite thick, a good balance between firm/soft. The curved overlapping end helps your legs smoothly depart from it towards the floor. Finally, this seat has a wide range of height adjustability, able to get quite high if you need it.Anyways, I live in an apartment, so I don't have the space to store a spare, but if I did I would totally be ordering one. I'm half tempted to replace my "okay" office desk chair with another copy... We'll see.
