Herman Miller and Studio 7.5 Mirra 2 Task Chair Preview Event "Talking about comfort is like talking about chocolate: you must try it." - Carola Zwick of Studio 7.5 Straddling the hills of Baldwin Hills in an industrial corner of Los Angeles, I was amongst guests invited to the catalog-perfect Herman Miller Showroom Monday night to get a glimpse behind the process of designing a chair with ergonomic and engineering aspirations to eclipse an original from two of the designers themselves. The original Mirra for Herman Miller was amongst the first task chairs which attempted to address day-long comfort with adaptive flexibility using a combination of materials designed to yield to the body's shape in unison, harmonious to the body's positioning and comfort. Carola Zwick and Burkhard Schmitz of Berlin's Studio 7.5 (their name was born from an early escapade renting a 7.5 ton truck and driving it around project to project as a mobile design and modeling shop studio) described their first iteration as a "sneaker for sitting": casual, supportive, and instantly comfortable from a myriad of positions.
Close up, the chair even looks like an athletic piece of footwear turned vertical, with some of the same lateral support features engineered into footwear integrated into the chair's form factor. But the itch to improve and refine bothered the 4-person design team at Studio 7.5 enough to propose a sequel. Although initially rebuffed by Herman Miller ("why not design a new chair?"), Studio 7.5 was finally able to convince the company a sequel could be as inventive as a new model. And thus began the process of stripping down the original Mirra chair and building a new one from the frame up. Countless foam models, dismantled parts, engineered prototypes were shown during Monday's night's presentation, giving me a newfound appreciation for what goes into developing what is deceptively labeled as a sequel. At one point Schmitz asked Zwick to turn the audio off during playback of a video showing their team testing the comfort of early prototypes, remarking the German being uttered might offend those fluent in the language, but all the while revealing the hours of passionate back and forth which goes into fine tune an ergonomic experience.
Everything the team learned from the first Mirra was used to refine and reduce this second Mirra into something similar, but almost always better. In humorous fashion, the pair was able to communicate the sometimes onerous process of "fighting for the honor of perception" (this in reference to components not always viewable at first glance and sometimes considered negligible by non-designers), the push and pull between designing and engineering a complicated piece of furniture. The structural core of the Mirra 2 is its Butterfly Back, a combination of interwoven fabric and polymer veins. Unlike my previous experience with the original Mirra chair, the Mirra 2 wasn't plagued by any noticeable hotspots while shifting weight and repositioning against the back. Additional refinements include a significant materials and weight reduction, now 18lbs more svelte than the first Mirra. The chair was light enough for Studio 7.5's Carola Zwick to lift the Mirra 2 up to illustrate the chair's trimmer new body (the duo joked the first Mirra was unknowingly pregnant and had given birth to their previous project, the lightweight Setu).
The chair is now easier to move around and more eco-friendly to manufacture, thanks to all the use of aluminum and a reduced chassis underneath the chair. The Mirra 2 will be available in a wide range of colors (my personal favorite being the dark turquoise with white frame), at first with predetermined combinations, later with user-defined customization to expand the range of chairs to match any decor or setting. For further information about pricing and availability, check out the Herman Miller website. Remastered for today’s work and workers Lean, light and responsiveas your own shadow Fewer parts, less materials and stilleverything a good chair should be Support you can see and feel Mirra 2 is a leaner, lighter office chair so responsive it supports you wherever you go, person and chair together in motion. However you sit, for long periods or short, in your home office, loft space, or small business, Mirra 2 advances how you sit. A Herman Miller Company
This post was written by Daniel Mrdjenovich. Follow him on Twitter or Google Plus.The month of June proved quite exciting for the Priceonomics team. Over the course of three weeks our team doubled in size as we welcomed James, Daniel and Forrest. Although we couldn’t be happier with the growth, it meant that we now have a shortage of office chairs. This might have proven a non-issue at any large corporation, but as a startup we don’t exactly stockpile dozens of chairs in the hopes of one day entertaining visitors.In order to make sure that everyone had a productive first day, Michael researched the prices of new Herman Miller Aeron Chairs. As awesome as the interns might prove to be, Priceonomics was surely not going to pay $800+ per chair. Based on Priceonomics data, Michael determined used Size B Aeron chairs were valued at $450 on used markets. Fortunately, all of our new hires today sit comfortably on office chairs. Throughout the course of the process, Michael learned quite a bit about the craigslist market for office chairs.
We hope this post offers tips buyers and sellers tips on how to assess the value of Aeron chairs.Don't Be Satisfied with "Excellent Condition"Even at the used price of $450 per Aeron chair, that's still a lot of money. We wanted to be sure they were of good quality, here's our five-step inspection checklist:1. Sizing: Turns out, Herman Miller actually offers three different sizes for Aeron chairs: A, B, and C. Here’s a breakdown of the appropriate size based on height and weight from the Aeron Chair Blog:Michael found that in most listings sellers don’t mention size. Since Aeron chairs look similar regardless of size, you can figure out a chair’s size by placing your hand under the back’s flap. You should feel one, two, or three bumps corresponding to sizes A, B, or C.2. Mesh Quality: Unlike other office chairs, the Aeron chair relies on mesh rather than cushion for support. Damaged, torn, or frayed mesh will likely require an expensive replacement in the near future.3. Working Levers: Let’s be honest, as ergonomic as this chair might seem, it’s useless if you can’t adjust it.4.
Armrest Damage: Aeron chairs are designed to fit underneath your desk. Unfortunately, many armrest are often scuffed or dislodged by rubbing up against the underside of the desk. If you don’t mind ugly armrests, you could still buy one of these and ask for a discount.5. Proper Lumbar Support: Unless you plan to suffer through nine hours of agony each day, inspect the lumbar support quality. Since it only costs around $60 for these replacement parts, damaged lumbar support could prove a bargaining tactic with the seller.When people refer to Craiglist as a “broken system”, they’re usually frustrated at the fact they can’t always buy or sell exactly what they want. Although you might not always land the item you wanted at your desired price, Michael discovered you can take some steps to ensure you find something as close as possible. In our case, we wanted a black Aeron Size B chair for under $450 delivered to our offices. Here's how we made it happen:1. Alerts: Timing is key in a market like Craigslist.
If an item in high demand appears on Craigslist at a good price, it probably won’t last long. In order to remedy this, Michael developed a quick hack using Craigslist RSS and Google Reader. Visit your local Craigslist site and enter a search similar to what’s shown below:Once you’re satisfied with your search, scroll and click the RSS button located at the bottom right of the page. You should see something like this:Copy the URL of the new page. Open Google Reader and subscribe to this URL. Boom, your own personalized Craigslist feed!2. Short and Direct Intros: Chances are that most sellers will quickly scan through your first email so it’s probably best not to load it with unnecessary information. Our messages read something like this:“Hey there, we are a company located in “X neighborhood” in need of office chairs. Are you willing to deliver? Short and to the point. In a market full of scams, it’s best to leave your name and number to prove you’re a real person.3. Delivery Request: Since we all live in the city, none of us had a car to transport our coveted new office chairs.
Michael found that in some cases sellers were more than willing to deliver to our offices to finalize the sale. In other cases, the seller could be coaxed into delivery by offering another $25. If you need something delivered, it doesn’t hurt to ask.4. Payment Process: Make sure to agree upon a final price (plus delivery or minus defects) and payment type. Although we intended to pay with a company check, most sellers would only accept cash. Would’ve been a bit awkward if we hadn’t fleshed out these details ahead of time.While this post won’t single handedly solve the Craigslist dilemma, we hope it provides some useful perspective for large and expensive items such as the Aeron chair. Throughout the process, Michael learned to make the used market work. At first, he restricted his search to listings below $375, well below the fair price indicated by our data. Within a few days only a few listings appeared and it seemed as if the new hires were destined to work from the floor. Once Michael moved his price range closer to the used market price, multiple options quickly popped up.