Comfort - The Aeron, in my opinion, is a very comfortable chair. I have sat in one for most of the last 15 years. I remember when they were designing the Aeron. All we were told was that it would have no fabric or foam. Aeron's pellicle (mesh) cradles you like a hammock. The airflow keeps heat from building up. The chair rocks back easily.
On the negative, it has a clunky lumbar system, the arms are usually set too wide, and the front edge of the seat digs into your hamstrings. There are definitely more comfortable chairs. A very funny article published right after the dot.com bust on dack.com, outlines the perceived failings of the Aeron.
Status - Dr. House sits in an Aeron. Why don't you? The Aeron is in ads, TV shows, movies. All the big guys in Silicon Valley sit in them. "This chair has a cult following." Says Darryl Denny, President of BetterSource.
During the dot.com days Aerons were standard equipment. I thought that maybe the Enron bust and the dumping of hundreds of Aerons on the used market might take the bloom off the rose. But it actually made them available to a wider audience as used chairs.
There was even a notorious deal where a warehouse store talked a Herman Miller dealer into faking the special pricing reserved for another large company and selling them the chairs at a huge discount. When the chairs appeared in the stores, the dealer reportedly lost their Herman Miller dealership. Anyone could buy the Aeron at a steep discount and Herman Miller was not amused.
Function- The Aeron's mechanism is simple to use. You can lock it forward or lock it back. The chair goes up and down, but there is no complicated seat angle or back angle adjustments. The synchronized, knee-tilt is very comfortable. Since the Aeron's introduction, other chairs have been designed with better tilt mechanisms, but they are just as expensive or more.
Style - It is a cool looking chair; very understated and elegant. Usually in black or charcoal colors, it is the classic, little black dress of the industry. It follows on the heals of Herman Miller's other classic chairs, like the Eames chairs, the Equa Chair and the Ergon.
Lack of Alternatives - There is some juice to this argument. There are very few chairs, with a mesh seat. Every knock-off has a mesh back, but only a few have a mesh seat. And they cost just as much. So why not get an Aeron? Even Herman Miller has tried and failed with several chairs since the Aeron. None have caught on. About the only way to beat them is by under pricing the Aeron. And Aeron's high price, like a Mercedes, just adds to the mystique.
SRK
