Looking for Office Chairs: Mirra Chair

Hello,
I have done several searches (amazon, froogle, mysimon) for the Mirra Chair and the cheapest I am able to find is [strong]$529.00[/strong] w/free shipping. I think that's too much.

#1. Does anyone know of a site with a cheaper price?

#2. Does anyone know of a comparable alternative chair?

#3. I need two of them. I like the Terra Cotta and Cappucino colors.

Thanks

Well, Herman Miller has recently released a new low-end chair called the Cella. I am not sure how new it actually is, so forgive me if you are familiar with it. It seems very comparable, but about $100 less, I think.

http://www.hermanmiller.com/CDA/SSA/Product/0,1592,a10-c440-p217,00.html

best
.h

Thanks for the reply. I am not familiar with the Cella chair, but I do appreciate you mentioning it and in terms of looks, I do like what I see. My next step will be to try and find a local area that I can actually see this chair in person and sit on it. I still expect some durability even though it's a $100 chair.

I hope there are some other posts regarding a cheaper Mirra Chair or another alternative.

I like the Cella though.

Mirra is 442 on clearance at www.sit4less.com

http://www.sit4less.com/superdeals2.htm

scroll down

Thanks lavardera,
It also looks like they have free shipping for one more day, but I'm still in research mode and don't want to prematurely pull the trigger on this yet. Plus, I want to see the Cella chair in person that hayden mentioned.

I really appreciate the link you posted though.

elusive, I think you miss-read the price information posted by hayden. My read is that the Cella will be about $100 less than the Mirra, not $100. That would put it at about $430. I doubt you will ever see H-M put out a $100 task chair.

Rous,
I know, i know :wacko:. I initially mis-read (with some wishful thinking in there, of course) hayden's post. I called around my area and the two dealers mentioned the Cella chair was just introduced by Herman Miller and they have not even placed orders yet, but would within a week or two. One of the guys at the deal said to me, A HM chair for $100? Yeah, sure.

We can dream, right?:grin:

I'm guessing over $400 is where I will have to settle on. I know you get what you pay for, but I just feel some modern furniture is priced so high that style over function tends to drive the market. I want durablility, but I figured I would not have to exceed $200 for that....I cannot believe that I would be the only person on these boards who feels this way. Surely someone is out there with a modern office chair, but maybe not. Maybe it's a really low priority for most people. I can understand that.

I don't have a home office.......yet, but I do spend plenty of time per week using the computer and the token fabric managers chair from OfficeMax lost its luster a few years ago.

I agree that a lot of modern furniture does have an inflated price tag--you're paying for the design, not just the manufacture.

But I have to disagree that that's the case with good-quality ergonomic work chairs. The Aeron chair, for example, is about ten years old, and still costs pretty much the same as it did when it first came out. Other manufacturers have tried to make knock-offs that sell for half the cost of the Aeron, but none of the ones I've seen even comes close. The Aeron chair costs as much as it does because it costs a lot to build.

-Steve

A well designed task chair is a good investment. I got my HM Equa chair in 1990, I changed the air piston last year, and its still going strong. 600 or 400 now won't matter in 15 to 20 years. Pick something you like.

i think you need to step back and think in terms of manufacturing for a bit... just do some quick searches on the price of the raw materials and i think you will start to see why quality modern furniture is priced the way it is. don’t get me wrong, some of the hot ticket items are more than over priced, but 200 bucks does not go far when you are talking durability. i face this same issue every time i hand out a quote. some people get it and the others are best left to price shop...

what does a good pair of shoes run you? how long do they last? i bet that $400 chair is a better deal if you add up the “miles”


i love to save money, but when i buy things that matter to me i will pay for items that are done well.


-ian



I know you get what you pay for, but I just feel some modern furniture is priced so high that style over function tends to drive the market. I want durablility, but I figured I would not have to exceed $200 for that....

Ian,
I completely agree with you. I also agree that I was not considering the whole picture (manufacturing) in terms of quality office furniture. I also was not considering my purchase habits or justification of the purchase for other items. You brought up the example of shoes. I have paid $200 for dress shoes. Did I think twice about doing it? Of course, but there is a major difference between those shoes and my $80 pair of dress shoes and I am glad I bought the $200 pair. I see your point.

I really appreciate the dialogue on these boards because I am someone who really appreciates modern design and do not work in the industry and sometimes suffer from a myopic view when it comes to purchasing a modern item. I also think of myself as an informed consumer and absolutely hate missing out on a justifiable deal.....oh, the quest for balance. :grin:

The Aeron chair costs as much as it does because it costs a lot to build.

Just a quick note on this line. In '03 I spent the morning with the head of product development at HM, and he spent a good amount of time talking about how cheap the Aeron was to build. Far less than its predecessors, and yet it sold for more. He cited this as an example of good design: it was cheap for HM to produce, and yet it was valuable to the consumer. Everybody wins.

For what it's worth, I own a Caper chair, and I don't find it comefortable for more than 2 hours or so.

Good luck with your purchase, whatever you decide.

I'm not surprised that the Aeron chair costs less to build than its predecessors; it was obviously designed for manufacturability. I find it hard to believe that it is inexpensive to build in an absolute sense, however. If it were, then why hasn't the competition come up with a decent low-priced knock-off (the furnishing equivalent of generic pharmaceuticals)? It could be that the incremental cost of producing one chair is low, but only after the up-front engineering costs have been amortized. The Aeron is clearly a highly-engineered, technology-rich chair.

I've been sitting in my Aeron chair for the last seven years (not continuously ). I can (and sometimes have) sit in it all day long. I've even fallen asleep in it on a few occasions, although I don't recommend that (not much in the way of neck support).

-Steve

The Caper chair was really inexpensive and not very good I'm afraid. The Aeron, Mirra, and Cella are all head and shoulders above a Caper. The Caper is essentially a plastic shell chair with a task base:



The Aeron started the trend towards suspension chairs, and the Mirra and Cella are developments of that using alternates to the stretch mesh that the Aeron uses.





And other manufacturers have picked up on this and run with it as well - not a knock off perhaps.

[url href=http://www.boomerangusa.com/inventory/images.php?id=124]aeron knock-off[/url]

It could be that the incremental cost of producing one chair is low, but only after the up-front engineering costs have been amortized.
Makes sense. High tooling costs could be a barrier to entry into the market. Especially considering low per-unit production costs mean that HM could lower its prices at will if somebody else threatened to do a copycat design.

I agree that the Caper is about 100 steps behind the Aeron, engineering- and comfort-wise, even though it was designed later. (Although it's still far more comfortable than the monster I use at my office.) For me the problem isn't the plastic seat or lack of suspension system, but the fact that the lumbar support is just too low (and not adjustable). My wife is more normal-sized than I am (and has much better posture): perhaps that's why she likes it.

I would have bought the Aeron if it just weren't so damn big.

I don't know if you mean the high back, but they make it in 3 different sizes to fit different folks.

I don't know if you mean the high back, but they make it in 3 different sizes to fit different folks.
Oops: I wasn't clear. I find it too visually bulky for my smallish condo. Part of that is the high back, but I think it's the underseat stuff that bugs me most.

Too bad it's also what makes it so comfy.

I see. Well its dark, and see through. It tends to drop out.