Are Expensive Office Chairs a Scam

I'm testing an expensive $1800 office chair and putting it head-to-head with a cheap $160 one. I've used a premium chair for the past few years, the Herman Miller Aeron. I liked it so much that I even got a second one for Jake. But considering the price, it's still painful to think about. So when I see budget chairs on Amazon for around $100, I can't help but wonder, have I just been wasting my money on these stupid expensive chairs? Or has it actually been worth the investment into saving my butt and my back? Because $1800 is a stupid amount to spend on a chair. So I picked up a highly rated and reviewed $160 office chair off Amazon, the Seehoo M18, what a name, to compare with my Herman Miller Aeron. It has over 15,000 reviews with a 4.4 star rating, with some reviews praising the value, ease of assembly, and comfort. And then other reviews saying, and I quote, And that it's the quickest way to make your legs and your cheeks go numb. So which is it? Is it great value or even greater discomfort? When the box first arrived, I was surprised by how compact they were actually able to make it. I was sort of expecting a second box to arrive with the rest of the parts, but nope, there's an entire chair inside this here box. It's also crazy to me that this thing was shipped from across the planet in a big heavy box and it only costs $160. Actually insane. After taking everything out of the box, let me say, I've never seen a chair arrived in so many different parts. For reference, the Herman Miller Aeron came entirely assembled, and you just open the box and you pull it out and you sit on it. That's it. The Seehoo one requires quite a bit of assembly. It's also crazy how much packaging and plastic there is too. But when you ship large items like this, I guess it makes sense. And also for some reason, they included a pair of cheap gloves in the box. I don't know if this was supposed to be some ironic joke about white glove service. Some of the parts in the box look pretty rough. You've got a lot of scratches on the metal base and you've got welds bulging everywhere and it has some pointy bits that could easily cut your fingers. I understand why they include gloves now. This chair is dangerous. When you only spend this much money, you flirt with tetanus. But the rest of the components, the ones that you'll actually see and touch with your body, are in great shape. The parts are shiny, they're clean, they look brand new. So it's not all bad. The seat cushion on this feels surprisingly squishy and bouncy. Bouncier than the Herman Miller. Although I do have concerns about airflow and ventilation. Texas summers can get swampy. If you know, you know. And the backrest also feels a bit looser than I expected. So I wonder how comfortable it will be to lean against and if it'll stretch over time. Unlike the Herman Miller, this one has a headrest. Pretty cool, I suppose. So let's put the thing together. The user manual looks pretty easy to follow and they give you all the tools and the screws you need to complete it. You start by assembling the starfish on the bottom. So attach the shiny legs to the bracket and then the wheels to the shiny leg. Boom! I gave it a little push test and it seems like it glides pretty easily. Then I followed the instructions for the rest of the build. And by me, I mean Jake. He's our expert on following instruction manuals. I'm not. I can't help but assemble things my own special way, so to say. It took about 20 minutes to assemble the entire chair. Some of the parts are a little awkward. Like when you need to hold up one piece and screw it in at the same time. It's quite the core workout, but I wouldn't know since I had my minion do it for me. I probably shouldn't call Jake a minion. I had my husband do it for me. And now that it's fully assembled, we can take a good look at it. And I gotta say, for a $160 chair, it looks pretty dang sexy. Is it weird to call a chair sexy? Maybe. I'm sure some people find chairs sexy. There's some weird people out there. The black mesh, the cushion, and the armrests all have a nice shiny sheen to them. Then when you look down at the shiny silver legs, it's hard to believe it's so cheap. Even the See Who branding on the back looks pretty good. But we can't judge a book by its cover and we can't forget we've been warned by the one-star reviews. This part of the video is sponsored by VeeAim. They sent me these earbuds to try. And honestly, I've been using them way more than I expected. These are the OpenNote earbuds. They're open ear and super comfortable. But what makes them really interesting is that they record and transcribe everything you hear. Meetings, interviews, even random thoughts while walking. You just tap to start recording and it turns everything into searchable text on your phone. I've used them in noisy coffee shops and somehow the recording still sounds clean. The AI filters out background noise and focuses on your voice. They also come in handy while traveling. I was at the airport testing them out and they picked up announcements in another language then translated them in real time. It's like subtitles for real life. I've worn them on walks, in the rain, even during workouts. They stay put, don't irritate my ears. And since they're open, I can still hear what's going on around me. The battery life is kind of ridiculous. 19 hours from the earbuds themselves and over 50 with the case. I haven't charged them all week. And they're great for calls too. Voices sound clear and after the call, you can go back and read the transcripts like a written recap. So yeah, these kind of snuck their way into my daily routine. The OpenNote earbuds from VA. Worth checking out. So my Herman Miller also looks pretty dang good for getting up there in age. I've had it for about three years now, minus a few bumps and bruises and scuff marks here and there. It's still in perfect condition and it's been through a lot of moves. So how does the Sihoo M18 feel to sit on? If it gives you back pain, it's all a waste of money, right? So I sit down and surprisingly, it's not bad. Like actually, it's kind of nice. The seat cushion is squishy and soft, a lot bouncier than I expected. Honestly, bouncier than Herman Miller and for short bursts, it kind of feels great. But it's also dense, like a thick pillow dense. And I started to wonder if I sit in this for a few hours, is it going to trap heat and turn into a little swamp? Because Texas summers don't play around. Although this summer has been all right, but we're getting hotter and hotter through the year. The backrest has a decent amount of give, maybe even a bit too much. I noticed it flexing more than I expected when I leaned back. It doesn't feel like it's going to break, but it does make me wonder how much that mesh will stretch over time. In fact, I feel like the back support takes most of the load and the mesh doesn't offer that much support in the first place. Still overall, not bad. There's even a headrest, which my Aeron doesn't have. And I gotta say, it feels like a bonus. Whether it ends up being useful long-term, we'll see. I usually have my hair up and rest get in the way. But here's the thing, a chair can feel good for 15 minutes. But the real question is, what about five hours? That's what we're about to find out because I decided I wouldn't leave this chair until I finished writing this very video. Because sitting down is one thing, but sitting well takes a bit of work, especially if you're trying to avoid that classic shrimp pose. So I started with the basics. Adjusting the seat height. There's a lever underneath you have to use to adjust it. It took a little bit of finagling to figure out how to use it. I assume to raise a chair, you rotate it up and vice versa for going down. But instead, the secret technique is to rotate it downwards regardless if you go up or down and then you use your body weight to change the height. So you have to stand up a little to raise a chair or sit down to lower it. Feels a bit like a core workout again, but not the worst. The Herman Miller is a lot more intuitive with a lever on the side and it feels like you have more control over the movements. When you adjust the seat on the See Who, it feels like you're falling off a cliff. It's a little scary. But most people will just set and forget their seat height anyways, right? So it's not a massive deal unless you're in a shared workspace. Wait, this is gonna be in a shared workspace for Jake and me. This might actually be a problem. Well, hopefully Jake will be the only one working from home. So next, let's set the lumbar support. This is where things get interesting because if you can't support your spine properly, you're going down a scary path of herniated discs and pretty soon you'll be walking like the cockroach man from Men in Black. That one's weird. To adjust it, there's a little knob on the back that lets you push the support in or out and then you can slide the whole thing up or down to hit the right spot. The See Who surprised me. The lumbar support actually feels passable. It's not Herman Miller nice, but supportive enough that my lower back didn't instantly scream at me. I can see this being a good middle ground for most people. For Jake, on the other hand, he was a little too tall to get the lumbar support in the proper spot. It just couldn't go high enough. But coming in at 6'3", he's got tall people problems. The headrest adjusts too. It tilts and slides up and down. I didn't expect to use it much, but when I leaned back to think or stare dramatically at the ceiling, it was kind of a vibe. Also, Jake couldn't get this to reach high enough for his head either, so more tall people problems. The recline mechanism is also pretty generous. You can unlock it with a little lever on the side, pull out to recline, and push in to lock. It's a simple system, and it works pretty well. Although it makes a ton of noise for some reason, like racking a shotgun. Now, compared to the Herman Miller, the See Who is obviously not as good. But that's not really the question we have. No one expects it to be as good. Of course it won't be as good. But is it good enough to consider over the Aeron is the real question, considering it's only a tenth of the price. And that's looking more and more compelling every day. So let's talk about the armrests, because if your arms aren't comfy, you'll start doing weird stuff like crossing them, or pushing them on your desk, or letting your shoulders rise up to your ears until you look like a little turtle. The See Whos armrests are height adjustable, and it uses this little button on the side. It works pretty well, and it's intuitive. I don't mind it, but I still prefer the Herman Miller's levers. They feel more precise, and they give you that satisfying mechanical click when you lock them back in. That said, there's actually one issue I run into more often on the Herman Miller than the See Whos. And that's the armrests just slowly sink over time. It's subtle, but after a while, you notice your arms are hanging way lower than you remember. On the See Whos, I didn't notice that happening, at least not yet. The shape of the armrest is also worth mentioning. The See Whos has a slight dip or divot to it, so your arms kind of nestle into place. It's actually pretty comfortable at first, but the material itself is a hard plastic-y surface that feels slippery. It's not exactly cozy. The Herman Miller, on the other hand, uses a pleather material. It's grippy and lightly cushioned, and your elbows sink in just a tiny bit. And it makes a noticeable difference if you're sitting for long periods. Also, you can't just slide the See Whos armrests forward or backwards. They're fixed in place, and I definitely missed that from my air run. So yeah, the armrests are functional, but they aren't anything fancy either. I went to hit the brides, by the way. The wheels on the See Whos technically work, but moving around on it is a little bit of a pain. It'll actually jerk around, like, when you try to move. Like, each caster has a different idea of where you're going. Sometimes I try to scoot sideways, and the chair just says, nah, you don't have to do that. And you end up having to do something more like scooting instead of gliding. The Airon, on the other hand, slides around so much easier. You can shift directions midway, and it just floats. You don't even think about it. It just works. Not a deal breaker, but definitely something you'll notice if you move around a lot at your desk. So let's talk about what you don't get when you go with a chair that's about one-tenth of the price. Because up until now, the See Whos been putting up a pretty solid fight. But there are some things that the Airon does that this chair simply can't compete with. First, micro adjustments. On the Airon, you can tweak everything. You can do tilt tension, forward tilt, recline lock with multiple steps, the seat angle, even the height of the arm pads with extra precision. It's the kind of chair that lets you dial in your posture like you're tuning a race car. Not that I would know. I don't have a race car. The See Who has like three knobs. When it comes to your posture, a lot of it is individualized. So it makes sense that you'd want a lot of customizability. But the See Who isn't trying to be an Airon, and that's okay. Not everyone needs a chair with a 12-year warranty and insane adjustability. If you're setting up a home office or you're on a budget or you're just furnishing a shared space like a guest room or a second workstation, the See Who makes a lot of sense. It looks good. It feels decent. And you won't cry if a cat scratches it or throws up on it or if someone spills coffee on the seat. It's also a pretty solid pick for students, renters, or anyone who's not sitting eight plus hours a day. Honestly, no one should be sitting that much a day. If you need something better than a dining chair, but you're not ready to commit to that long-term ergonomic relationship, the See Who is actually pretty perfect. If you've already invested in a great monitor, desk, keyboard, mouse, and you're still dealing with posture issues or back pain, that's when an Airon starts to feel like a better long-term move, like a temper-beating mattress. The See Who is your starter chair and your Airon could be your endgame chair. And for a lot of people, the See Who might actually be all they ever need. And after sitting in it all day to write this video and throughout the rest of the week, the See Who didn't destroy my back. And for $160, that's kind of a win. Although I do miss my Airon, so I'm going back to it. So if you want to see how this compares to other cheap versus expensive upgrades, check out this video where I tested a $65 light bar against the $180 one everyone talks about right here.