- You know the only reason I came on to do this
episode with you?
Charity.
- I already regret bringing you on.
Andrew Llnyckyj, no introduction needed.
- What's up?
I usually eat the food.
- We've brought him on because he is the only person
in the world I can think of who would appreciate
this episode as much as I do.
- This is the props department of Buzzfeed.
And as you can see we have a variety of chairs with us.
- If you remember last season,
I suggested Worth It chairs in the finale.
This is the one reason I wanted to do season four.
I wanna do chairs.
- What is it with you and chairs?
- We have sat together in more different chairs
than maybe me with anybody else in my life.
- What kind of chair is the right chair for you?
It's a far more complicated question than you would think.
- Mmmm.
We're doin' chairs!
Whew!
Today on Worth It: Lifestyle,
we're gonna be trying out three chairs
at three drastically different price points
to find out which chair is the most worth it at its price.
- How do you taste test a chair?
- Well the tasting will be done--
- By our backsides.
- Our backsides, yes.
We're starting off in California
because we're gonna start off
with a place called California Chair.
They make your classic office chair.
- Oh.
Arguably one the most important categories of chair.
- Sittin' down, eight hours a day.
You wanna find a chair that can actually make
that experience a little bit more tolerable.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- I'm Rick Henson, President of California Chair,
and today we'll be looking at the Universal Chair.
In fact, just introduced today.
- Today?
- This day, actually?
- I've been in the industry about 40 years
and one day I just felt like I could do this better.
A chair really is a tool.
- I've never heard a chair being described as a tool before.
- It's designed to support you
and reduce workplace injuries.
- This particular chair, the Universal Chair,
where does it lie in your range
and what is its design thesis?
- The Universal Chair is our entry-level chair.
It's made in the United States.
Starting at the floor is a full 60 millimeter,
heavy duty castor.
Standard chair is 275.
Our Universal is standard at 300 pounds.
We use a class four gas lift that's gonna last forever.
It's warranted forever.
We use seven ply, plywood.
High density molded foam.
- I think when I sit on an office chair,
my thighs, my butt will all start to hurt a little
over the day.
- Right.
- What does the design of your cushion and
how are you doing that to eliminate some of those pains?
- When you build that seat, you wanna make it in a
compound curve,
like a tractor seat.
Farmers would farm in the field on a big steal tractor
seat in the shape of their posterior.
(laughing)
- Is that the inspiration for the design of your seats?
- Yeah, you add that feature.
When you start going up in product line, we all have a
100, 200, and 300.
An entry level price point, in the middle, you get
the top of the line.
- It's just like customizing a car.
- Right.
- Most people sit eight hours a day
for five days a week.
And that chair is tested to last for 12 years.
I want that chair to last.
We're passionate about recycling.
I'm a sailor and I see the stuff that ends up in the ocean.
I see plastic out there floating around.
I don't want to be a contributor to that.
While, our product may be twice what you would pay at
a big box store.
You'll buy that chair, two, three, four times over
the life of what our chair would last.
(instrumental rock)
- Usually we just sit down and start eating.
- But today the sitting is the eating.
Chair cheers!
(laughing)
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- Three.
Two.
One.
- Oh!
- First of all, this is a little low for me.
- I kinda like being this low.
- Add a little bit on my arms.
Lumbar support.
If your butt is too far forward,
maybe you'll wanna slide your seat.
- Nice.
- Locked in.
- Wait.
I don't think I did this right.
- Look you don't know what's right with it until you
know what's wrong with it.
The most impressive thing to me?
The amount of force that this back applies.
It's very good.
It keeps me upright but if I wanna push back,
it let's me.
- Hmm.
This is very comfortable.
I'm very happy with it.
But, what I'm curious to try.
This is the 200 with the tractor seat.
This looks like a jelly donut.
Oh, yeah!
Oh!
- Bells and whistles.
- Here, my whole seat goes back.
So, I'm staying in that same--
- Whoa!
- Comfortable seating position.
I want you to try this chair.
- Are we posterior pals?
(laughing)
- Oh!
I would probably be distracted by how great
this chair is at work.
- Well, maybe just distracted for the first day.
Your butt will thank you for it later.
We've tried the Universal Chair.
Now, I think we should try.
- No!
- Yeah.
- It's not even on the market yet.
- Exciting--
- That's true yeah.
- Our newest chair,
that I worked on,
and that's our Sausalito Chair.
And one thing you notice right away is this back,
how it moves.
- Whoa!
(laughing)
- This is relieving pressure on the spine.
Suggested list price on this chair is, $1000.
This is not the top end of the market.
This will be 30% less than anything close to this level.
- Three.
- Two.
One.
- Interesting.
- Oh!
- Yeah.
(laughing)
Might as well be doing the salsa in this dance--
- Oh!
The salsa!
- This chair.
- Lito.
- This feels like nothing I've ever felt before.
- Yeah, and it's broken down so that you can actually
have more flexibility.
Cause usually it's just one back.
Like these.
It's just goes back and forth.
But this one--
- It's like I'm wearing a chair.
The concept of the chair as a tool,
is very cool.
So Steven, this chair is three or more times more
expensive than the Universal.
- Yeah.
- Do you see yourself getting Universal or one of these?
- This is the CEO chair.
- That's a good way of putting it.
- Yeah.
Posterior pals.
- You gotta stop saying that.
(laughing)
- Boom!
Office chairs, we did it.
You know what time it is.
- Chair fact.
- So, in England, in Westminster Abbey,
they have the coronation chair.
Which is, a chair that is more than 700 years old.
Whenever you deliver important news to someone,
you always wanna--
(laughing)
- Ask them to sit down first, right?
- Yes.
You might wanna sit down for this.
- Would you mind taking a seat for a second?
You're gonna be Queen now.
(laughing)
- You think that's how it went?
- Yeah.
- Now, we're off to another place in Los Angeles
called, Bend.
Where they are bending the rules about how to make a chair.
(dance music)
- Hi, my name is Gaurav Nanda,
and I am the creator and founder of Bend Goods.
And we are called Bend Goods and it's
from the bending of wire.
I was always interested in mid-century wire furniture.
Reinvented and make it something new.
We're gonna be looking at the Lucy chair.
It's one of our most well known chairs.
The Lucy Chair is one of the first chairs
that we created.
People are really kind of drawn to that geometric
pattern that's on the back of the chair.
I think it was something different.
Wire furniture wasn't really out there
the way it is today.
- What can you tell us about the color selection?
- I wanted something bright and fun.
And I wasn't really seeing it out there.
We believe that like your home should be fun.
- When I look at chairs, I wanna like,
it to invite me into sitting into it.
And when I look at a wire chair,
that's not the first thing that come in mind.
- What we've done is really taking a lot of care
in the way we are placing the wires.
We weld the wires really close to each other.
Kind of hug your body
in a way that would be comfortable.
So, we do offer a variety of different seat pads
for that extra added comfort.
And we can also do custom fabrics.
So, if a customer wants a flower pattern or something,
we can do that.
- How much does the Lucy chair cost?
- The Lucy Chair starts at $450.
- The first word that comes to mind is--
- Fun.
- It's like a chair I would look at.
Not sit in.
- It looks like a race car.
Oh yeah and of course you're in the gold chair!
- No, no, no, it wasn't my choice!
- He even immediately went over.
He was like,
gold.
Gold!
(laughing)
- Remove the wallet to get the full.
- Already did.
(laughing)
- I'm definitely going to forget that.
Three.
Two.
One.
Oh!
- Oh!
- That is very comfortable.
- Ah!
- Oh!
(laughing)
- Yeah, I'm actually really surprised that I don't
feel the wires.
- It has this pleasant springy-ness to the back.
- I like chairs where I can like,
put all my entire body on it.
You know, like this?
- I'll try that.
You know what?
- Yeah.
- Oh!
God!
- Oh.
You look like an old man.
- No, this is horrible.
- Something about sitting like,
on a chair, the way you're not supposed to sit on the chair,
is something I like to do.
- Cause nobody can tell you what's comfortable.
- That's right!
- Only you can.
Pretend like you're eating at a dining room table.
- Okay,
Numnumnumnum.
- And then reset your.
- Oh, okay.
Gotcha.
- You know what's a good test of a chair to me?
If I was having dinner and I got to desert,
I kind of stretch like this a little bit.
And it works in this chair.
- This is,
the chair,
that will impress your guests.
- It's a pop of color for your apartment.
Pow!
- It's like mesmerizing but not to a point
where you have a headache.
- That's a good way of putting it.
- Look at that.
Very visually satisfying.
- I can be a very sweaty man,
(laughing)
- And sometimes if I'm sitting in a chair,
I will leave a dewy mark--
- Can you please finish this?
- On the seat.
But this, clearly that would not be a problem.
Plenty of ventilation.
- It's still warm actually.
- Ew, ew.
(laughing)
- That was a great sit.
You know, you're a real sit down kind of guy.
- If you lie on these chairs.
Alright, I gotta say that place actually
changed my perspective on chairs.
- You can think of purchasing a chair as both
getting a sculpture for your home,
and a thing to use.
- Uhuh, uhuh.
Is that going somewhere?
Or is that was the point?
- That is a full statement.
- Oh!
(laughing)
- I also really love a chair that you
could hose off, you know?
- That's it for Bend.
But before we go to the next place.
- Chair fact?
- Do you have a chair fact?
- Chair fact?
- Chair fact!
According to architect Witold Rybczynski,
oldest chair on historical record,
dates back to between 2800
and 2700 BCE.
The chair in question is part of a sculpture featuring
a musician playing a harp while seated
on a four legged chair.
- Whoa!
- So, all of the things that humans can do
for entertainment.
When I think of the oldest things, music.
Okay.
But also, sitting.
- Yeah.
- I would argue is kind of a form of entertainment.
- Highly underrated form of entertainment.
- Hey, let's all sit down and just talk to one another.
- Human nature, actually.
It's instinctual, it's like breathing.
- So, where are we heading to now?
- So, we're going to Stockton, California.
Up to see a super duper awesome, rocking chair.
- Oh.
- Isn't the rocking chair really
the ultimate chair though?
- Mmm.
And what is the approximate price point of this?
- It's $9800.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
That is one year of rent.
- There's pretty much no limit to how expensive a
chair can be.
- Some may even say the earth is the most expensive chair.
(laughing)
(guitar strumming)
- I'm Jared Rusten and we're in
the J.Rusten Furniture Studio.
And today, I'm gonna be showing you guys
the modern rocking chair.
Which, is my take on this American classic.
- What drew you to working with wood?
- There was something about using this natural material
to create a functional object,
that becomes part of the family.
The wood and the design aren't fighting too much
for attention.
It's like more of a harmony.
I wanted to build something that you could develop a
relationship,
kind of from cradle to grave.
- From start to finish,
how do you make a rocking chair?
- The first step is obviously wood selection.
I'm looking specifically for grain patterns that match
the shape of the elements.
If you've got this curved piece and the grain is following
that curve,
it's gonna wanna stay,
in that curve.
I've been developing this slated seat design since 2002.
And trying to get you know,
the lumbar just right.
Tweaking the heights and trying to make it as
universally comfortable for as many people as possible.
You've got this seat projecting out and it gives this
weightless quality.
I thought a lot about how the slats would be fastened.
Ultimately, I decided I wanted the piece to seem classic.
So, I decided to use traditional slotted screws.
There is an insert nut embeded in the frame.
So, I can use a machine screw with a finer thread pitch.
And one fussy detail when using slotted screws is
to clock them.
You're lining up the slots so they all line up in a
similar way.
- How much is the rocking chair?
- $9800
That is purely reflective of the time it takes.
Trust me, I'm not getting rich on this chair.
It's just priced so that I can keep doing this.
- Are you ready to sit in it?
- No.
You have a player like Lebron.
All star.
You can put him on any team and he just,
you build the team around Lebron.
You get an apartment,
you put the chair down,
that is the center piece of the room.
I'm gonna build my room around the idea of
this rocking chair.
- Not gonna lie, I thought that analogy was going nowhere
but that's a great point.
- Thank you.
This is the Lebron of chairs.
- It's smoother than you think it'll be.
- Oh!
- Well because it looks like a.
Oh hi, buddy.
- New cohost.
- Okay, bye.
(laughing)
- Three.
Two.
One.
(instrumental music)
(laughing)
- It's giving me the giggles.
When we ate that hot chicken.
The same kinda high,
that I got from eating hot chicken,
I just got from sitting in this chair.
- For a new chair,
to actually make you stop and chuckle and say like,
what the heck?
- One thing I just realized,
that I wasn't realizing.
The pressure on my buttocks.
- Right.
- In you back, lower back, butt.
- Yeah.
- I don't feel that.
- All of the seems are perfect.
Like you touch the ones down here,
touch the ones up here,
along here.
It's just like uniformly great.
Around the whole thing.
- I know that these screws are straight behind me.
That's apart of it.
- Yeah, and you can't see that while you're sitting
in the chair.
Unless you bought two of them.
- Which--
- Would you buy two of these?
So, that you could rock out with a friend?
- You kind of have to get two.
- You kind of have to.
Just all of my tension drips off my body.
- You're facial expression,
it's like you're achieving nirvana slowly.
I've never seen you this satisfied.
And we've eaten a lot of things that were very good.
I really like the idea of cradle to grave.
And then,
a legacy piece you can then hand to your kid.
- This is delightful experience.
- I don't want to get up.
That's, that's when you know.
This is us in 40 years.
Or us now.
(laughing)
- I just want to say thank you, Andrew.
You have done a better job than any of us expected.
- Well, all I had to do was sit.
- True.
But you've been nothing but an angelic cherub.
You carried the torch well.
- I was the cherry on top?
- With not a chair in the world and so,
Andrew,
which chair was the most worth it to you at it's price?
- Believe it or not but I think I have to go with
Jared Rusten's rocking chair.
You know, it's expensive but
he puts a lot of hours into it.
And I could
also put a lot of hours into it.
By sitting in it.
(laughing)
- I was gonna choose Jared Rusten,
then I asked myself the question,
am I going to buy one?
And the answer is,
too me,
right now in my life,
no.
So, how can that be my Worth It winner?
I do aspire to buy one,
but I am unable.
Now, Bend.
To come into the world and try to change the chair game?
I admire him for it.
But my Worth It winner goes to
California Chair.
It's every kind of chair you want it to be.
And I can afford it right now.
- It's the right tool for the job.
- That's right.
Annie, Worth It winner?
- Wow!
- Thanks for watching!
We'll see you next week.
Tiny houses.
(upbeat music)