4 ms·

Steelcase Leap is an amazing chair, but more than $500 (or at least it was when I bought mine). I tried a bunch when I finally decided to upgrade from the $200

Steelcase Leap is an amazing chair, but more than $500 (or at least it was when I bought mine). I tried a bunch when I finally decided to upgrade from the $200 Staples chairs that wear out in a year and found this one the most comfortable by far. Have used it for a few years now with absolutely no complaints.

dogma1138 7y ago
Steelcase furniture can be bought at pennies on the dollar at office space auctions. In fact in many places companies hold “clearing sales” to clear the office space from any furniture due to the high costs of disposing of the furnishings when their tenancy ends or when they sale the building. I bought a Steelcase workstation desk complex that costs around £3000 in the UK for £257 at an auction such as that.
- hermanschaaf 7y ago
  Out of interest, how do you find such auctions in the UK?
  - dogma1138 7y ago
    Honestly I used google e.g. https://www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bpi-associates/catalogue-id-bp10264 https://www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bpi-as... Just search for office auctions UK, I don't remember which of the sites I finally used to get the desk from I went through about 10 of those. P.S. Just be careful of the sites that charge you money for getting a collections of listings, these have their value for resellers but not for casual buyers.
- AJRF 7y ago
  How do you find those auctions? Is there a website with a schedule of them?
  - plttn 7y ago
    I've also had decent luck on Craigslist. (ymmv, my Craigslist is close enough to SV where the availability is there)
  - dogma1138 7y ago
    Google for your local area, there are like 100's of these sites in the UK in fact there are sites that charge you money just to send you a list of bankruptcy, police, customs seizures etc. auctions.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 7y ago
  In some places there are entire wholesale businesses that operate on this model. For instance, in Austin there is a place you can go that resells pretty much every office furniture that you can get from cannibalizing these auctions. http://www.topstexas.com/ http://www.topstexas.com/ They don’t always have the color you want, but I got a basically new condition Steelcase Leap there for less than half of what it retails for.
  - SeanBoocock 7y ago
    Hah yeah bought my Arron at Tops almost a decade ago. If anyone is in the Austin area, I would highly recommend checking them out if only to get a feel for the range of high-end inventory.
smacktoward 7y ago
I will second this. I used a cheap (<$200) Staples office chair when I started working from home. My reward for cheaping out on this was painful back problems. I eventually gave in and bought a Steelcase Leap, and the back problems quickly went away. So my advice is, there are lots of places where it makes sense to pinch pennies, but this ain't one of them. Plus, Steelcase customer support is excellent. A couple of years after I bought my Leap, the gas cylinder that controls the height of the chair broke and started dragging on the floor whenever I moved the chair. I contacted Steelcase to see if there was some way to fix it, or to get a replacement cylinder. Steelcase's response was to send me a completely new Leap, without me having to do anything other than show my proof of purchase to demonstrate the chair was still in warranty. That is some seriously above-and-beyond customer support.
garrybelka 7y ago
For a while I preferred Herman Millers. But after spending a year with Steelcase chairs I discovered that Leap is the most comfortable and least fatigue inducing chair for me. I even liked that its seat holds its angle - unlike swivelling seats of HM chairs. Fortunately, Madison Seating sells used Leaps for less than $300 in perfect condition so I got one for home too instead of a previous favourite from Herman Miller.
- rootusrootus 7y ago
  One caveat with Madison Seating (and similar shops) is that they refurbish the chairs and they typically do not use OE parts.
  - copperx 7y ago
    What is the practical significance of that fact? Will the chair fail earlier?
  - garrybelka 7y ago
    Interesting. Who designs and makes non-OE parts for Steelcase chairs? It doesn't seem that the market is that big...
Semaphor 7y ago
When I started studying lifehacker.com was still a good blog. Their roundups mentioned Herman Miller Aeron and Steelcase Leap. I had a normal 0815 office chair from my work at home. A PHD student I knew had the leap at home because of back problems. When he decided to move away from Germany, he sold his office Leap to his boss and asked around who wanted his home one. I paid 300€ ($336.8 currently) after trying it. Sitting on it just for a few minutes convinced me and I've never sat on a comparable chair anywhere else since then (still using it after over 5 years)
jonah 7y ago
After trying a number of chairs I settled on the first-gen Leap. It was far more comfortable for me than the Aeron or others I tested. I'm still using it today, almost 18 years later. It's held up incredibly well. The fabric shows only the faintest signs of wear. A few years ago, the gas height-adjusting strut failed, and the Steelcase tech drove an hour to my house and replaced it. He also replaced the armrest caps as well - all for free.

dogma1138 7y ago

Steelcase furniture can be bought at pennies on the dollar at office space auctions. In fact in many places companies hold “clearing sales” to clear the office space from any furniture due to the high costs of disposing of the furnishings when their tenancy ends or when they sale the building. I bought a Steelcase workstation desk complex that costs around £3000 in the UK for £257 at an auction such as that.

hermanschaaf 7y ago
Out of interest, how do you find such auctions in the UK?
- dogma1138 7y ago
  Honestly I used google e.g. https://www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bpi-associates/catalogue-id-bp10264 https://www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bpi-as... Just search for office auctions UK, I don't remember which of the sites I finally used to get the desk from I went through about 10 of those. P.S. Just be careful of the sites that charge you money for getting a collections of listings, these have their value for resellers but not for casual buyers.
AJRF 7y ago
How do you find those auctions? Is there a website with a schedule of them?
- plttn 7y ago
  I've also had decent luck on Craigslist. (ymmv, my Craigslist is close enough to SV where the availability is there)
- dogma1138 7y ago
  Google for your local area, there are like 100's of these sites in the UK in fact there are sites that charge you money just to send you a list of bankruptcy, police, customs seizures etc. auctions.
SOLAR_FIELDS 7y ago
In some places there are entire wholesale businesses that operate on this model. For instance, in Austin there is a place you can go that resells pretty much every office furniture that you can get from cannibalizing these auctions. http://www.topstexas.com/ http://www.topstexas.com/ They don’t always have the color you want, but I got a basically new condition Steelcase Leap there for less than half of what it retails for.
- SeanBoocock 7y ago
  Hah yeah bought my Arron at Tops almost a decade ago. If anyone is in the Austin area, I would highly recommend checking them out if only to get a feel for the range of high-end inventory.

smacktoward 7y ago

I will second this. I used a cheap (<$200) Staples office chair when I started working from home. My reward for cheaping out on this was painful back problems. I eventually gave in and bought a Steelcase Leap, and the back problems quickly went away. So my advice is, there are lots of places where it makes sense to pinch pennies, but this ain't one of them. Plus, Steelcase customer support is excellent. A couple of years after I bought my Leap, the gas cylinder that controls the height of the chair broke and started dragging on the floor whenever I moved the chair. I contacted Steelcase to see if there was some way to fix it, or to get a replacement cylinder. Steelcase's response was to send me a completely new Leap, without me having to do anything other than show my proof of purchase to demonstrate the chair was still in warranty. That is some seriously above-and-beyond customer support.

garrybelka 7y ago

For a while I preferred Herman Millers. But after spending a year with Steelcase chairs I discovered that Leap is the most comfortable and least fatigue inducing chair for me. I even liked that its seat holds its angle - unlike swivelling seats of HM chairs. Fortunately, Madison Seating sells used Leaps for less than $300 in perfect condition so I got one for home too instead of a previous favourite from Herman Miller.

rootusrootus 7y ago
One caveat with Madison Seating (and similar shops) is that they refurbish the chairs and they typically do not use OE parts.
- copperx 7y ago
  What is the practical significance of that fact? Will the chair fail earlier?
- garrybelka 7y ago
  Interesting. Who designs and makes non-OE parts for Steelcase chairs? It doesn't seem that the market is that big...

Semaphor 7y ago

When I started studying lifehacker.com was still a good blog. Their roundups mentioned Herman Miller Aeron and Steelcase Leap. I had a normal 0815 office chair from my work at home. A PHD student I knew had the leap at home because of back problems. When he decided to move away from Germany, he sold his office Leap to his boss and asked around who wanted his home one. I paid 300€ ($336.8 currently) after trying it. Sitting on it just for a few minutes convinced me and I've never sat on a comparable chair anywhere else since then (still using it after over 5 years)

jonah 7y ago

After trying a number of chairs I settled on the first-gen Leap. It was far more comfortable for me than the Aeron or others I tested. I'm still using it today, almost 18 years later. It's held up incredibly well. The fabric shows only the faintest signs of wear. A few years ago, the gas height-adjusting strut failed, and the Steelcase tech drove an hour to my house and replaced it. He also replaced the armrest caps as well - all for free.