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Comment by JonathonW | Hacker News Reader

Comparative literature? Meh.

I wish there were someplace where I could go and actually try high-end office chairs. Chair preference is going to vary from person to person (which makes written reviews and comparisons kind of useless), but office supply stores like Staples or Office Depot only stock the low end (which may work for some, but don't have the adjustability or durability of higher-end chairs). I'd like someplace I can go to actually try out and compare a few models of, say, Steelcase, Herman Miller, and Humanscale chairs before I commit to spending the $800+ on one.

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If you are in the Texas area , humansolution (https://www.thehumansolution.com) in Austin has a good selection of chairs. Not affiliated with them. I actually drove a few hours just to try out chairs before placing an order for my Leap. It was delivered without issue (well, except Steelcase mixed up the shipping labels with someone else in CO. lol).

The way to find such a place is to use the Steelcase authorized dealer finder, under the assumption that if a place sells Steelcase, they will probably also sell Herman Millers. I did exactly this after striking out at Office Max, and bought a Steelcase Leap with headrest two hours ago for $999.

Protip: ask for the right wheels; one is designed for carpets, one for wood floors

I've been wanting a shop like that in Paris for years.

If you want to try and buy a Steelcase here you have to make an appointment with a sales rep outside the city. I get that basically they don't want to deal with general population but it's kind of infuriating.

Same here.

Herman Miller dealers are everywhere, but I hate their chairs. The closest Steelcase dealer is an hour away, but it is worth the trip.

I'd see if you have any office supply liquidators in the area. It'll definitely depend on your location, but a good one will have a decent selection of high-quality chairs.

If you're in the DC area, the Healthy Back Store (https://www.healthyback.com/) is the place you're looking for.

If there's a Design within Reach in your area, they have all the high-end chairs to try there. I personally really liked the Humanscale line for their back support.

> I wish there were someplace where I could go and actually try high-end office chairs.

This doesn't make as much sense as you might think. It takes several days for the benefits or drawbacks of a chair to become apparent.

I can second the Steelcase Leap recommendations; Leaps (actually, Leap 2s) more or less fixed the problems I was experiencing with my back. But, again, that only became apparent after many days of use. (I didn't choose the chair; I was contracting at VMware.)

As a contrast to the "find a local store" comments, I'll note that madisonseating.com sells used office chairs.

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