The LeanChair:
Working while standing is great… in theory.
Working while standing up is a lot easier said than done. You can force yourself to do it, and fight through the physical pain, but that’s just part of the problem.
Prolonged standing is not normal, and your brain dedicates a lot of resources to a background process called “trying to get comfortable.” And that constantly diverts focus and attention away from your work.
And that’s before you get to the fact that standing up all day isn’t that good for you either.
Introducing LeanChair!
So if sitting down kills you, and standing up sucks… what are we supposed to do?
I began experimenting with the idea of leaning. Why not? It’s natural and comfortable and gives you all the benefits of standing, but without the pain and suffering.
So after 2 years and many prototypes later, the LeanChair was born!
My original idea was just to make LeanChair a leaning platform that I could use with my standing desk.
And I gradually made improvements. But only for myself. I wasn’t thinking “Man, that’d be a good product.” I was just trying to solve my own problem of trying to get work done comfortably.
Leaning backwards is inherently more comfortable than standing up.
LeanChair uses a reclining angle that takes about 25% of your bodyweight off your legs, which makes standing a lot easier and less painful.
So when I’m in the LeanChair, my legs feel like I’ve lost 61 pounds:
But as more and more people tried out my LeanChair, everybody was amazed at how comfortable it was and started to ask if I would make them one.
But one thing I couldn’t figure out was how to seamlessly integrate LeanChair into all the different varieties of standing desks out there.
But then I thought, “why not have a standing desk built right in?”
So by simply adding an adjustable swing-arm work surface, now I had a standing desk I could drag wherever I wanted it… into meetings, the conference room, for a presentation, whatever.
Now, 6 prototypes later, LeanChair is strong, stable and comfortable… and ready for primetime.
The top of the work surface is coated in a black grippy-rubber material to hold your keyboard, laptop, etc. in place, and there’s also a smooth area (in white) for your mouse.
LeanChair is strong and simple.
I gave LeanChair an industrial-strength frame because to truly relax, you can’t be worrying about whether it’s going to support you. And it’s super-sturdy. The largest person to use it so far was 320 pounds, and LeanChair handled that easily.
The back support is adjustable and is available in 4 standard colors: black, brown, tan and white.
When the Kickstarter is over, we’ll contact successful pledgers for their color preference. (Please note: we also have a limited edition reward where you can pick any sort of upholstery, colors, logo, etc. you want.)
LeanChair’s progress
As you can see in the videos, LeanChair has progressed from a simple wooden board to a portable standing desk platform that, frankly, renders existing standing desks obsolete.
But there’s still a lot to do, and we need your help.
Rewards
Once LeanChair is available through retail channels, I suspect it’ll be considerably more expensive. But for this Kickstarter, I’ve decided to price it less than a decent office chair.
When I built my first LeanChair, I built it just for myself. And I never imagined that I’d be trying to convince the world how awesome leaning is. But here we are!
Whether or not you get a LeanChair, I hope you’ll try leaning for yourself.
You must get out of your chair! Sitting 6 hours a day takes 5 years off your life. And for those who sit more than 6 hours a day (and yeah, you know who you are) it’s even worse.
So please get a LeanChair for yourself. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how comfortable it is, and how much more productive you are when your legs aren’t killing you.
Thank you.
