 life is too short to sit uncomfortably. Then again, whoever came up with that line probably didn't expect to spend 80,000 pesos or $1,865 for a single seater, especially one which doesn't look all that remarkable to the untrained eye. There is no cowhide leather, hardly any metal elements, a chick chair manufacturers usually use to project quality and prestige, no headdress, and its overall design, while beautiful, the chair nerds, isn't considered extremely distinctive to most people. But I'm a chair nerd and I'm here to tell you that I learned valuable life lessons from this grotesquely priced chair, the first of which started on the first day of me using it. I had so much back pain after using it for the first time for just six hours straight that I couldn't bear to not only not sit in it, but I couldn't sit at all that day without feeling pain everywhere from my lower to upper back. I actually took the day off and slept on my belly. Hi, I'm Rafael from Hargrove Sugar and this is our review of the Herman Miller Aeron after six months of use. I'm not joking about the initial back pain. I was all worried that I had made an extremely expensive mistake that I immediately went on the reddit and asked if this was normal. I received several responses which fell within two categories. One, it's possible I would never find it comfortable, thus I should make use of the return policy if I don't feel better after two weeks. A policy I don't believe I have here from CWCD, the official Philippine supplier of Herman Miller. And two, that yes, it's completely normal because it just goes to show that I've had horrible sitting posture throughout my whole life and the Aeron is essentially retraining my back. While using my own chair during the start of the pandemic, the small of my back hurt after sitting in it for hours on end. And so I bought a lumbar pillow for my original chair and while it felt comfortable at first, I realized on camera that I looked like a Neanderthal. I believe what happened was that the Aeron was doing its magic of correcting my back after years of improper posture. It only felt like an extremely strenuous day after workout. On the third day though, the soreness completely vanished and after six months of relatively consistent use, I am overall very happy with my experience, but still slightly disappointed considering the price I paid. Let's talk design first. The chair is called Aeron because it supposedly simulates sitting on, well, air. It attempts to do this through the pellicle mesh, the thread-like weave which your body will ultimately become intimate with, and Herman Miller's choice to assemble it so that there is a visual gap between the seat and the base of the chair. In a way, it looks like your ass is suspended in mid-air. Now, does it feel like you're sitting on air? Of course not. In fact, some might even say that the mesh is firmer than what they would prefer. However, I will agree that the chair's range of motion with respect to how far you can recline and even tilt forward makes the sitting experience extremely fluid, somewhat like air. The industrial design of the Aeron with its gull-wing curves, matted finish, and overall minimal design has aged gracefully considering the original model was released in 1994. The current chair is what Herman Miller calls the remastered version, and there are some slight differences to the original chair which I will get into in a separate video. But regardless of model, the Aeron really enhances the look of almost any desk setup. The way I see it, people spend 100,000-200,000 pesos on a gaming PC which they need to upgrade or replace after five years or more, and some even do it earlier. The Aeron is meant to be the last chair you will need to buy in your lifetime. Its durability is world-renowned. That's why people are still buying 10-12 year old second-hand Aeron to this day. While I can't vouch for it personally yet, I did enjoy my 8,000 peso chair for 8 years until I replaced it with my Aeron, and even that chair is still going strong. Then again, this could also just be me trying to justify such a ridiculous amount of money for a chair. The Aeron unlike most chairs comes in three sizes, A, B, and C. Most people fall within the B size which this specific chair is. In fact, Herman Miller has a size chart which I'll link in the video description to guide you on which chair they recommend for your own specific build. Why there is not always better when it comes to the chair ergonomics. The reason for this is that the Aeron is designed to be a bucket seat which curves and envelops your body. Thus the reason for the raised lips on the sides and the way the mesh sinks downward towards both the front and the end part of the seat. The model I have has adjustable arms which go up and down and move from side to side as well as adjustable lumbar support. Now I say that this is my model because Herman Miller allows you to choose cheaper models of the chair on their website which gives you the option to remove certain ergonomics. If you're from the Philippines, CWC seems to only sell this version of the chair which is almost completely decked out and not the cheaper models. This now leads me to the principal reason why the Aeron is the most sought after chair in major tech companies and why it has a cult following for YouTubers to review and chair aficionados. And that is due to the extreme customizability of its reclining function. It can actually be intimidating how many knobs and levers there are on this but they are there for a good reason and it only took me two days to understand and dial in what was comfortable for me. Let's start with the basic height adjustment lever which is present in all Aeron's. I love how it is designed to be this very minimal notch lever which blends seamlessly into the design background. They did this in order to declutter the chair as much as possible while retaining customizability. Usually we associate bringing a chair up and down with a rather imposing lever like this. It's strangely satisfying to use this with just a single finger rather than most of your whole hand like most other chairs. Next is the tension wheel. This controls how much force you need to in order to recline the Aeron in order to tilt it forward. As you can see from the notches there is a lot of adjustability with respect to the control of the force. Finally we get into the most important wheel of all which controls how far back you can recline and if you wish to activate the tilt forward mechanism. All in all there are two levels of recline. This is the first one and this is the second one. Lastly there's a second wheel on this lever which allows the tilt forward functionality. You can choose to lock the Aeron into this forward tilt position if you prefer but you cannot choose to lock a recline position in. The best you can do is restrict it from going to level one recline or level two recline altogether but you can't lock in a specific recline angle unlike a chair like the CUM 57 for instance. The lumbar support is adjustable through a tension knob. I like how it has this almost spider-man like industrial design in which it looks like it is latching onto the chair rather than the standard lumbar support you usually see in ergonomic chairs. What makes the lumbar support stand out as well is that instead of a single pillow being pushed forward and backwards it's a dual rubber pad which traces the delicate parts of your lower back. It seems like a much more elegant design as opposed to the block I usually see. Overall while the options seem intimidating at first you'll find that they will become second nature to you within the first week. I'll link Herman Miller's tutorial video on how to use all the features above. It's short and straight to the point unlike our video. Customizability in an expensive price tag is not enough to immediately say that a chair is comfortable, something I point out frequently in my other chair reviews. My biggest pet peeve is when the arms of a chair are not leveled without a desk. This is crucial to the support and comfort of your arms and your wrists when you are using the keyboard and mouse. My desk is higher than most and so I chalk this up to bad luck on my part but I seriously suggest you measure the height of your tabletop to see if it reaches a maximum of 31 inches so that you can achieve the optimal arm support. The arm rests are made of well padded vinyl and because my arms are slightly elevated when I type because of my desk I place a lot of unnecessary force on my elbows thus I rely heavily on it. Not all chairs get this right as I complain of pain here in the CY-57 and the charcoon gaming chair to which their arm pads are way too stiff and cause pain regularly. The air on offers a lot better padding and I can survive for a lot longer on this but I do occasionally feel pain in my elbow after sitting for more than four hours or so or straight. Again you won't have this problem if your chair is leveled because tension is redistributed into the other parts of the arm rather than just your elbow. I was very surprised however to find out that a much cheaper chair costing 8,000 pesos, the urban dynamic, has an almost identical vinyl pad, something I wish I never discovered because now I can't unsee how this pad is an 80,000 pesos worth of special. The height of the arm rest can be adjusted through the same minimal lever on each side however I find that this is much more difficult to use than let's say the CY-57 image adjustment is much more seamless. Here you really need to squirm and press down hard to change the height. The mesh is firm and extremely durable. Do not think that this is some fishing net which tears easily. The benefit of a mesh chair especially for tropical climates is the benefit of natural air circulation and the avoidance of degrading materials such as leatherette which peels after a year. I have an overhead ceiling fan and I can feel the air going through the seat and cooling my butt. It's really quite a satisfying experience especially when you are used to non breathable material making you sweat. The lack of a headdress is not as bad as one might think actually. Even with my older chairs I only used the headdress when I wanted to recline while watching a video or to ponder an article I was leisurely reading. But if I'm doing serious work like editing or writing I never really looked for it. It is however when I use the recline function that I begin to feel that my head becomes top heavy thus causing more pressure on my neck. When a person reclines the body is naturally being pushed backwards and by keeping our head up while working forces the neck to work more than it should because of gravity. Nevertheless I can sit for hours on envy the air on because I do most of my work in the upright position while enjoying switching it up with a recline or tilt forward so that I receive a variety of positions. Nothing is more strenuous than being in a static position for hours on end. Reclining even for a short period gives me a little boost of productivity and makes me exhale with relief. For the most part the air on is meant to reward you for sitting properly and that means making sure you don't slouch and that you have the small of your back safely tucked into the further most back of the seat. If you don't do this then the air on won't be providing the optimal support you just spent a thousand eight hundred dollars or eighty thousand pesos for. Essentially the air on is occasionally like your homeroom teacher in high school telling you what you can and cannot do in class. Unfortunately if you like the Indian seat you'll quickly notice that this chair will punish you for it because the design which although elegant is also meant to chastise you by acting as a hard barrier which will dig into your legs for prolonged periods. I am however quite comfortable reclining back and resting one leg on top of the other. It is important to note that some reviewers complain about the chair digging into their hamstring over time. If this is happening then it's probably one of three reasons. The first reason is that you chose the wrong air on size. If you are seated properly and your feet barely touch the floor then gravity will undoubtedly cause strain here. Remember there are three chair sizes for a reason just don't get whichever is available. Second reason is that you lack a footrest to compensate for your feet hovering off the floor. And lastly you might have the correct height and seat but if you are sitting incorrectly so just leaning forward like a five-year-old then you are essentially just treating it as an ordinary stool and not taking advantage of its full support system. In short people might get turned off by the glaring fact that they just paid a lot of money just to be told what they can and cannot do on their new expensive toy. Nevertheless the way the air on seamlessly leans back at will without a single creak or sound is design and nature at its best. While my back may have suffered for the first day I genuinely now wake up excited to get to work because of the comfortable and good-looking throne that awaits me. Again this is the chair to end all chairs not because it's comfortable which it is but rather because this chair is known to last for years thus the healthy second hand market and because Herman Miller also offers a 12-year warranty on parts and labor. If you're buying the chair locally from CWC they offer the same policy and I have heard from a friend who recently had his mirror chair fixed up that they do so free of charge as well and the process was very painless. If you're from Europe or the States and are interested in getting a second hand air on chair for cheap you can check out Honestly's video above. If you live in the Philippines it's a lot more difficult but I advise interested viewers to monitor Facebook Marketplace and the mid-century Manila IG page which usually sells refurbished Herman Miller chairs if you are lucky enough to catch them. In conclusion I have no regrets about buying the air on because it looks and feels extremely premium and durable thus I'm confident that while everything else on my table may change in the next five years the air on will remain a constant. In terms of comfort I wouldn't say that it changed my life but rather that it achieves above average levels of comfort more consistently than any other chair I've had. In other words it achieves everything a chair should do correctly but doesn't make the experience of sitting feel like a new era in your life. Would we recommend it? For most people we wouldn't because there are a lot of affordable and comfortable chairs out there within the $200 to $10,000 mark which would keep people happy for many years to come and the pandemic has really tightened our wallets for the most part and that money is best invested in other gears such as a reliable PC and an ergonomic desk but for those who have saved up for their dream chair for years then yes you shouldn't feel bad in cashing in what you already probably know will be of value to you. We want to give a special thank you to our top fans who helped make all of our effort here in hardware sugar possible. Raphael James, ITX Addict, Ian Meru, Liam Magnaje, John Rubinoccia and Christian Espinoza. Thank you so much we don't take your continued support lightly and please let us know any feedback you may have for us on the direction our channel should go. Stay safe everyone.