Written on October 6, 2008 – 6:30 pm | by Maria Mihale |

How many of you still remember the Aeron chair, the famous Herman Miller product, designed in 1994 by Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf? You must remember it, because Aeron wasn’t just any chair, Aeron was THE chair. It was regarded by many as very comfortable due to its wide range of adjustability. In addition, the Aeron brilliantly anticipated the Digital Age by allowing workaholics to spend endless hours in front of their computer screen without worrying about bedsores. Aeron had a mesh suspension system that conformed to a user’s body shape and generated more than $1.5 billion in revenue, looking so cool that it’s still being used by lots of people.

But if you thought that the Aeron chair gives you the chance to live the ultimate experience in sitting, then you should take a look at this. There are 14 years since that ultra-comfortable chair debuted and now it’s time for Herman Miller to top itself. It’s time for the new Embody.



Herman Miller is back with thins new ergonomic desk chair meant to enhance not only health, but also productivity of workers. Embody was designed by the late Bill Stumpf and Jeff Weber and comes as a response to involuntary human behavior. According to Jeff Jansma, director of new product commercialization, “sitting in this chair versus other chair you can actually reduce your heart rate, increase your blood flow and open up your chest cavity”.

Herman Miller speaks highly of the Embody’s ergonomics, but the appeal is really the technology. One significant feature of the chair is an exposed spine-like flexing structure for the backrest. The back moves with the help of 56 flexors which support the occupant, while the seat cushion is also specially designed, with 93 interconnected plastic discs, called pixels, to move as the sitter moves. The seat cover allows air to pass through, cooling the user’s body. As far as the materials are concerned, the company says the chair uses nothing that could pose a health or environmental risk during manufacturing, customer use or final disposal.



If you’re interested in this new Herman Miller chair, you might want to know that Embody will be available at retail stores in 13 colors and three finishes starting early in 2009. Too bad it’s a little expensive, no more, no less than $1595. Yes, you could get two Aeron chairs for the price of one Embody, but if this is better than its predecessor, than it might well worth it.

(Source Dvice)