It is well know the fact that Gamers and Office Workers have to sit on a chair for eight or more hours a day and very often are facing back pain and other related conditions. For such suffering people IKEA is working on launching a new product. A personalized ergonomic chair.
“Gamers are an extreme use case. They’re athletes, they’re competing with their minds and their bodies. I think bringing this type of personalization to fit unique ergonomic needs, body types and modes of play will give somebody a healthier life and a better competitive advantage.”
-Tommy Ingemarsson, an e-sport legend after testing the prototype chair at an IKEA event
In collaboration with UNIQ, a startup from San Francisco, is creating the perfect chair for "professional sitters" that are facing medical problems due to extended hours spent in front of a computer or simply at an office. According to the Swedish company the ones using such a chair will be able to spend up to 20 hours continuously at office or gaming without any pain or cramps.
The key to their success is personalization of the chairs. Thanks to the medical technology such as 3D printing and scanning each future customer will be scanned in IKEA's stores and an order will be placed on his name for his unique chair and insertions for it. After two weeks the happy gamer or office worker will happily be able to sit in his IKEA chair that promises to take the pain away allowing such persons to game and work even more.
To be able to personalize ergonomics for each and every person—that’s a gigantic possibility. To get the factories out to people, not bringing things from factories to people, that’s a completely different outlook in product development and design for the future.”
-Marcus Engman, the design division chief of IKEA at an annual IKEA Democratic Days press event
At the IKEA presentation the chair was unveiled without a backrest though and according to QUARTZ the 3D printed inserts that are manufactured using customer’s biometric data will be sent to each customer via mail. Analyzing lately how much time I'm spending on a chair in front of my laptop every day I shall consider also such a chair in the future.