You can purchase used Steelcase chairs from office liquidation companies for a reasonable price (although "reasonable" might be in the eye of the beholder). I purchased a V2 for around $400 and have been using it daily for 1.5 years. It's in great condition and it's easily the most comfortable office chair I've sat it.

If you can, find an office liquidation sale as it happens. Oct 2019 - prepandemic - 2 regional banks merged, and one office was put in to "sale" mode. A local company came in to manage selling everything (or.... they may have just bought it all themselves up front for a song then resold?)

I picked up 16 Steelcase Amia chairs (plus 2 others). Had them delivered to my office. They took away 10 old crappy chairs we had to the dump. Total price was $635. For 18 chairs.

It was a bargain, to be sure. I'm not sure what effect covid will have had on the whole 'office furniture liquidation' process, but there's likely bargains to be had before things get to the 'office liquidation company' warehouse.

Wow, that is an incredible deal. How did you hear about the sale?

IIRC it was listed on craigslist and a Facebook marketplace post.

yeah, it was an incredible deal. the delivery was just icing on the cake. I wish I'd had room to take a few more. That said, I missed the first day of the liquidation. There were around... 30 chairs left, and I think I got the best of what was left. Having them all match was an important part, as I was pimping out our coworking space and wanted things to match :)

This, 100%. My current company moved offices and bought new chairs that the interior designer thought looked better in the new space, so ~50 perfectly good aerons found their way to one of these liquidators.

Many of these liquidation companies with steam clean the chairs for you too, at least in my experience, so the chair will look almost new even if it's fairly old. And a high quality office chair is something that really lasts for quite a while. My used Leap that I got for $150 3 years ago from a liquidation company was manufactured in the mid 90s and I find it every bit as comfortable as the brand new aerons and other chairs that I've used in offices.

I have a Steelcase Leap V2 ($300 refurb) and it has two advantages over the Aeron in my opinion.

1. It’s much more adjustable so you don’t need to be carefully about buying the exact right size (unlike the Aeron which has sizes A, B and C)

2. It has a fabric seat with no protruding edges. If you sit cross legged on an Aeron, you’re going to grind against the seat’s edges. Aerons aren’t good for folks who sometimes sit cross legged.

A fabric seat Aeron would be ideal, too bad they don't make them. I'm just average height: 5'11" but I guess my leg to torso ratio is weird because the hard ridge that suspends the Aero's mesh seat puts my legs to sleep. I suppose sitting so low to the ground that my knees rise above the seat might help but at that point typing may be a chore based on the angle to the desk.

For return to the office we're going to new offices with only Aeron chairs, so I'm just planning to pack in a seat cushion every day unless I can find another solution.

I had the same problem with the Herman Miller Mira 2, which has the same mesh seat. There’s an optional adjustable front seat angle which seems like it would help with this. It’s disappointing that they don’t have adjustable seat depth though (which my current cheapish office chair does).

You might like the Embody if you like HM chairs but not the web designs.

3. it comes with a headrest (optionally?)

I've had a Steelcase Leap for more than a decade (maybe getting on 15 years?), still very happy with it. I was lucky enough to get it from a used office supply store for like $600 if I remember right. But I think it'd be worth it for even full price after all this time.

I have the Steelcase Leap as well for over 15 years at work and the Steelcase Gesture. Both are great chairs.

As another poster suggested, the most comfortable chair is the one you find comfortable. Definitely go and sit on a few, then see which one feels the best.

Same here. I've had one for around the same time and it's my favorite chair. I can sit in all day with no discomfort.

I'd been hearing about the Leap for years and always kind of mentally shrugged, until I started at my current employer, which used that as their standard chair.[1] In appearance, they're mostly just "standard office chair," but wow they're nice. I ended up buying a Gesture for home -- new, although on sale.

I definitely agree with the "everything else" part -- I know keyboard trays are kind of unfashionable these days, but unless you have a desk which is as low as a standard keyboard tray (or an adjustable desk, of course, which lets you get there!), it really makes a difference in posture. My current home desk is a little awkward for this -- it has a tray, but the desk height puts the 27" monitor (iMac) I have at too high a level unless I raise the chair enough that my knees are just about touching the tray. In retrospect, I wish I'd gotten a desk without a tray, and used my chair with a foot rest. (Which I just saw you mentioned.)

[1] I'm using past tense because at the end of 2020 we moved from "independent subsidiary of [LargeCo]" to "just part of [LargeCo]", and when we stop being remote we'll move to LargeCo's offices. I have no idea what they have there.

Got a used leap years ago. The fabric gets dirty and I can't seem to find a way to clean it that doesn't leave a moisture ring where I apply cleaner or even just water. It now looks like I've had several accidents in my chair just from cleaning attempts.

Any solutions?

I clean the entire fabric at a time so that you don't get that effect. One good thing is that it gets me away from my desk for a day while it dries.

My office stocks these in every room and no matter which one I sit in, the back support just is not there. After using for a few hours I get restless and after the first day I woke up with lower back pain every day until I replaced it with a Serta.

I’m on my second Steelcase Leap and don’t have enough good things to say about the chair. Only reason for the second one was having to leave it behind in a move otherwise I’m pretty sure these chairs can easily last 5-10+ years of everyday use

I got the steelcase leap but it doesn't seem to give enough lowerback support no matter how I adjust it. After a few hours of sitting I usually end up with a really sore back.

Did anyone have a similar experience and find a solution?

Totally. I tried so hard to get myself to keep it because occasionally it’s really comfortable but after about 3 weeks of worsening lower back pain, I went back to my cushioned kitchen table chair and it disappeared. I really really tried but my back didn’t feel just sore, it felt bad. I had no back pain before or after using it. Only while. I honestly didn’t like the lower back support. There was no support for the area around your tail bone. Maybe just me though.

Which model was it from Amazon?