Humanscale's Freedom Chair Vs. LIFEFORM Executive

A two-minute quick and dirty comparative demo of two high-end ergonomic chairs: The Humanscale Freedom Chair with headrest and the Lifeform Ultimate High back Executive, with Dreamweave fabric. (Sorry for the cropping but we just didn't have enough room :)

The Lifeform is padded with pressure-sensitive memory foam, which I show better in my other videos. The Freedom chair, of course, is pretty well known these days, having won many design awards. Humanscale's design philosophy has been to make an organic product that reveals its benefits with no manual effort from the user.

Lifeform, on the other hand, comes with several more paddles for adjustment. You can fix the chair in pretty much any angle of seat and backrest you can imagine. Now that's not to say that it doesn't have free-float recline, for instance, because it does. Plus a nice tension control knob too. Nor is the Freedom chair, on the other hand, a completely "hand-free" product. You do have to tweak the back-rest lever for a bit. While not on opposite extremes of this continuum, the Freedom and Lifeform chairs are likely to appeal to different styles of ergonomically-minded users. Maybe we can start a discussion here about this.

In any case keep in mind this demo has not meant to be exhaustive. Perhaps I will make another presentation that is much more in-depth and rigorous.

Oh, about prices. The Freedom chair as you see it (standard seat, advanced armrests, graphite base) retails for about $1.5. (Make sure if you buy online that many vendors will show a high-end configuration, alongside a price tag for the bare-bones version.) The Lifeform is a couple of hundred more. Either will exceed 2K if fully loaded with leather. And both models have tons of fabric and leather options.

You can get the Freedom from many vendors, while the Lifeform is only available at Relax the Back Stores in N. America. There's about a hundred of them in the US, and two in Canada.

Btw, if you really want to read an awesome book about chairs, and help you make a decision what seating product is best for you from a holistic perspective, pick up The Chair, by Galen Cranz. And remember, you don't NEED an expensive chair to maintain proper posture. In practice though, we all tend to slouch, put excessive load on the wrists, etc. A high-end ergonomic chair will encourage you to sit better longer, and so will make the difference. Just by making you aware how you sit, in fact, the investment in this chair is likely to be a good one. And certainly better than spending your money on a new set of tire rims... Again, let us know what you think by posting a comment.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Posture
• Ergonomics
• Freedom chair
• Humanscale
• chair
• Lifeform chairs
• Furniture
• executive
• seating
• high-back
• memory foam
• adjustable recline
• instructional video
• instructions

[Hertsman50]

They are both shit. If you have back problems then get a kneeling chair.

[alxivanov]

@Hertsman50 kneeling chairs are excellent, I know, but you can't use them for more than a couple of hours. first, you need to lean back once in a while, and second (even if you get a kneeling chair with a backrest), your knees will start to hurt. other than that, i'm a huge fan of kneeling chairs.

[mastergp4life]

one grand for this piece of shit!? i would totally buy it if i had that money =(

[alxivanov]

@mastergp4life some people pay double that for a set of rims.. why would you NOT want to pay a grand for something that supports you nine to five? not to mention you and other people will actually look at it all the time -- it's just there. so it makes sense that it looks good too. chairs are the most underrated objects in the universe.

[medeamelina]

how much?

[alxivanov]

@medeamelina fifteen hundred, give or take..

[classicdinner]

@Hertsman50 FAIL

[Eleetnessful]

When I get become a RED soon I'm going to be me one of those =D

My beautiful daughter didn't get me a father's day present so I got myself a pretty good one at a killer discount! ^^;;

[playerjake12]

Man, I checked out those variline chairs the other day. they are awesome and for fifteen hundred you can get some really nice stuff.