Serious gamers are all too happy to boast about their tricked-out set-up specs — but you might be surprised to discover that many of them take their task seating just as seriously as their motherboards. Sure enough, gaming chairs have become key status symbols among the community, bolstered by the ergonomic benefits (and, in turn, the competitive advantage) that they can offer top players. Somewhat unexpectedly, Herman Miller has quickly positioned itself as an early leader of the high-end market. If gaming chairs are the electronic sports (or “esports”) world’s version of basketball shoes, then the Herman Miller Embody (shown above) is a pair of Air Jordans.

As a gamer himself, Jon Campbell, MillerKnoll’s vice president of seating and gaming, started to notice over the past decade that several top streamers were seated in Herman Miller designs during their gaming broadcasts (many of which are watched by millions of loyal fans). Back in 2018, he set out to pursue the market in earnest. Herman Miller Gaming launched in mid-2020 with re-engineered versions of chairs like Embody and Sayl offered in new colourways. Within seven weeks, Herman Miller’s gaming division had hit its first-year sales target — and it has experienced steady growth each year since. “We’re not just a COVID flash,” Campbell reports. “It also introduces the brand DNA to a much younger population. My average gaming chair customer is 24, and that could be someone who continues to invest in Herman Miller.” Here, Campbell shares his cheat codes for levelling up task seating.

1

Study Ergonomics

“The Embody is our pinnacle of performance, so that’s the chair that we launched Herman Miller Gaming with. But we’ve been spending the past 100 years understanding how office workers sit — and through our research, we learned that gamers sit differently. PC gamers stay very close to the screen. We adapted the default setting to support that unique forward posture, although you can still adjust it into work mode. We also ensured long-term comfort with materials that won’t condense over time and will stay thermal-neutral to not contribute to sweat during intense gameplay.”

2

Court the Community

“The average price of a gaming chair when we entered the market was $300, and we were coming in at $1,500. We approached the creator community as our front-line sales force. I personally trained 100 creators on our products — helping them understand how the chairs were designed, tested and assembled — and then we let those partners’ voices be more important than our own voice. The naysayers came at us with negative memes, but the creator community pointed out that the cheaper products aren’t as comfortable and need to be replaced more often. And what ultimately won out in that online conversation was the need to value and invest in your comfort and health.”

3

Adapt Your Design Language

“Colour trends evolve faster in premium tech than they do in the contract market. We draw insights through a strategic partnership with Logitech — another company that started off selling to office workers before growing a gaming business. Gamers might have their set-ups next to a living room, so we try to find on-trend colours that still allow for personal expression and will fit within an overall environment.”

4

Fight Stereotypes

“The diversity of the gaming community is something that we purposely think about. I want to see a 50–50 split of male and female customers. At the moment, the strong majority are male, but we’re building that goal into our products through research — because women do sit differently than men — and through what you see in our marketing images. It all stems from hiring people who truly believe in gender equality.”

5

Support Athletes

“Right now, most esports players are retiring in their early twenties because of injuries like carpal tunnel or back and neck pain. There is a ‘next person up’ mentality that is unhealthy, because experience does matter. As basket-ball shoes evolved, there have been fewer injuries, and people have been able to have longer careers. Esports athletes are also showing us muscular or skeletal problems that we may face as casual players in the next 20 years. So all that is driving our research.”