For those of you familiar with the GoGCast or have watched me stream on Mixer, you have for sure heard my old chair. I purchased ol’ Betsy at least 10 years ago (not really sure the exact date) and it’s seen a lot of life. It’s been in 5 different homes and it moved from Montreal to Newfoundland and back again. It’s been chewed on by Bowie in his puppy phase, and I have to use an old pillow for arch support. But the biggest issue with ol’ Betsy is the squeak you hear every time I move. You can hear it on the podcast. You can hear it on stream. Mike can even hear it in his recording in the kitchen across the condo when they are in the middle of The Sneaker Podcast. After living through an ergonomics appointment at work, having a specialist set up my work desk to best serve my body, I knew it was time. Time to retire ol’ Betsy and find a new place to park my tush.
The Cry For Help From My Buttox
After hearing my cry for help (and by cry I mean the constant eeeeeee in the podcast recording), the fine folks at ClutchChairz sent over 2 of their gaming chairs for Catherine and I to test out. Their chairs are said to be designed for the ergonomics of everyday use and they looked pretty darn slick on their site. Catherine and I both went through the size guide to see which would best fit our body types. I ended up selecting the Gear Series Alpha Blue (matches my blue hair ;)) and Catherine chose the Crank Series Delta Black to complement her bright green office space. It wasn’t an easy decision as the CluchChairz website has tons of different models and colorways for you to choose from. There are also branded chairs from the WWE and other internet celebrity inspired seats. We also love the fact that this company is 100% Canadian owned and operated. It’s always nice to support a local business.
We be working on a little project 😉 @ClutchChairz pic.twitter.com/s0yrdIKMFB
— Girls on Games (@TheGirlsOnGames) October 21, 2017
The chairs showed up at our doors in a timely fashion. Catherine was lucky that Pascal was home at the time of delivery so that he could let the shippers cart the large box into her apartment. Since I was at work, I had to send Mike on a quest to get the large box from UPS. Oh man, it’s a very large box. Mike JUST got it in the trunk of our Mazda 3, and it takes 2 people to carry it. Once in the house, we immediately got to building.
The Build
Putting together a ClutchChairz is not hard and takes about 20 minutes, but it definitely requires 2 people. I mean, you could do it alone, but I am pretty well going to guarantee that you will damage the chair or your home in the process. Luckily, I had Mike and my brother-in-law in the house at the time to help me with mine and I helped Catherine and Pascal assemble Cat’s chair.
The chair is packed very well to protect all of the pieces inside the box. It comes with everything you need to assemble the chair, including an alan key for the few bolts. I had one snafu when assembling mine: two of the decorative bolts that go in the base would not fit. No worries. I will jerryrig them.
The Assembled Chair
The final product looks like ripping a racing seat right out of a high end sports car. The leather material is very smooth and comfortable to sit on. It resists fingerprints fairly well (not dog licks though). Catherine finds the leather a little warm and we will have to see in the summertime if that will make you sweat while sitting, but that note will have to wait a few months. The stitching is tight and even. The colors are almost dead on a replication of the images on the website and the color tone throughout is even and bright.
The chair has some serious weight to it, and I believe that’s why it is so well balanced when you angle the back to its almost flat position (yeah you could easily sleep in this chair). The wheels glide nicely on the floor. The top of the armrests feature a nice textured plastic and have buttons so that you can rotate and raise them to best suit your comfort. Catherine is uncertain as to the durability of these buttons as hers feel looser than mine. Maybe over time they will falter, but only time will tell. There is a handle on the right hand side by the back of the chair that lets you change the pitch of the back. You can sit super straight or like I mentioned before, set it to almost parallel with the floor.
Like most chairs of this nature, there are hydrolics that permit you to raise and lower the chair to suit your comfort and you can change the rigidness of the seat to permit a bit of rocking or none at all.
Then comes my favourite part, the lumbar support. I am a curvy girl and I need that little cushion to support my back. The support cushion that comes with the Gear Series Alpha is perfect for me, but can be removed easily (it has a strap and a clasp for easy removal) so that Mike can take it out when he uses the chair to record music. Catherine also mentioned that she is not a fan of the lumbar support either and removed it from her setup. The head pillow is also removable but I love it and don’t plan on taking it off ever.
Final Impressions
Holy cow, how have I lived before a proper gaming chair?! I have to say that it is like night and day upgrading from the old one to this awesome ClutchChairz. I have been sitting in this chair for two weeks now and I never want to leave. You do need to take the time and work with the settings, getting it to feel right for how YOU like to sit, but once you have everything just right, you will want to keep your butt in this chair forever. And Simon is going to be very happy that he never has to edit a chair squeak out of the podcast again 🙂
DISCLAIMER: review chairs were provided by ClutchChairz. The opinions expressed in the article above have not be affected by, dictated or edited in any way by the provider. For more information please see Girls on Games’ Code of Journalistic Ethics.