Gesture Vs Leap: Key Differences

I’ve been in excruciating pain for a few months, never having been able to find a comfortable sitting position since WFH started full time in March 2020. I’ve switched out my chairs, installed height adjustment gadgets to the monitors, tried ergonomic pillows, doing stretches & weights throughout the day when taking calls not requiring me to speak. My upper arms started to experience sharp pain, also my hands & fingers feeling tingling, numb, etc. as well as losing hand/grip strength over time. It even continued into a 3 week vacation where I spent all my time away from any work desk.

This chair was my last ditch effort out of desperation right before Christmas (especially seeing it seemed to be an easy return process if I didn’t like the chair). My husband thought I was wasting a huge amount of $$ on yet another ergonomic solution. To be fair, my home office now has several chairs after all this ordeal.

Let’s just say I instantly felt relief the first day of use. I was ecstatic to be finally not be in constant pain! Then the next couple of days, some of the pain came back, but not nearly as much. I realized part of it was my learning the chair functions and how to adjust it to my sitting positions throughout the day. After a month of use, I am not in constant pain, and I seem to be slowly gaining strength back in my hands. No more sharp pains in my upper arms which is amazing!

Pros:

• The chair can be raised very high, I’ve not had one going this high which is perfect for my desk.
• The chair leans very far back. This is awesome as I am the type of person to sit in different positions throughout the day including leaning very far back (nearly horizontal) away from the desk.
• The arm rest is highly adjustable. I can raise them high for good arm support if I wanted to. I can also fold them in lower if I want to sit very close to the table (this is my biggest gripe with all office chairs where I can’t sit as close to the desk due to the chair arms not going low enough to get under the desk). The arms also fold out far away where I can sit up with my legs crossed on the chair without bumping into the arm rests.
• Headrest is highly adjustable in varying angles.
• The bottom cushion can be adjusted, so it extends farther out. This is perfect for someone like me who likes to lean back low. In a typical chair, my butt would be halfway on the edge of the seat.

Cons: (I’m being very picky with these to be fair)

• The cushions could have a bit more padding. They feel a bit thin after sitting in it for days on end, but I probably shouldn’t also be working 12+ hour days regularly.
• My back muscle feels a bit sore after leaning back on the chair on a regular basis as it takes a bit of force to recline it back far as often as I do everyday. Maybe more padding would help here, too.
• The chair at first feels like you are sliding out of it due to the angle of the bottom cushion. Once I got my chair adjusted, this has not been a problem one bit.
• The material is a bit of lint/cat hair magnet. I wish I could have chosen a different color so it wouldn’t show as much, but black was the only option from Amazon directly (there were other sellers with more color options, but their return policy was not as generous, hence I went with this one as it’s directly from Amazon Fulfillment with Amazon’s amazing return policy). I have 2 cats, their hair most definitely sticks very easily. Not a deal breaker whatsoever, but it’s just a little annoying.

Overall, I’m happy to have taken a chance at this pricy chair. Sitting in front of my desk no longer feels like sitting in a torture chamber.

There is no doubt that this chair is expensive, however, considering the price of the 3 chairs I have purchased in the past year and the fact that they have all fallen apart, the Gesture is an investment and I’ll end up saving money by not buying $150-$300 chairs every few months. Also, in the unlikely event the Gesture is broken, it is covered by a 12-year warranty. You won’t find anything remotely similar with chairs like those I have purchased in the last year.

You’re not simply buying a chair. You’re investing in a piece of equipment. Write it off as a business expense if you have to, but you need to invest in this chair if you have to spend more than a couple hours at your desk every day. You are unlikely to find a better product on the market. I had seriously considered Herman Miller chairs, but I always found something that really bothered me about each model they make. The Gesture provides perfect support and is designed to suit a variety of positions that differ depending on the task you’re doing or the device you’re using. The headrest and armrests were what sold me. You can adjust the chair for anything from gaming to reading to completing work assignments. In terms of function, the Gesture has replaced my desk chair, gaming chair, and reading chair. In terms of form, this is a beautiful piece that complements any number of personal decorative styles. Did the chair cost a lot? Yes, of course it did. Has it replaced several other pieces of furniture that collectively cost much more? Absolutely, yes. This is not a cheap chair, but you definitely get what you pay for. You will never hear me express buyer’s remorse about the Steelcase Gesture. It is one of the best purchases I have ever made.

Received a chair with a faulty castor. Contacted customer support at Steelcase and nothing happened. They said it needed to be approved before they could send a replacement I heard nothing. I called again and nothing was done and I am looking at another 2 weeks before I can get it approved, replaced and sent. $1300 chair and I cannot get any support. Do not buy

6 ft 3 280 Computer Programer so I sit all day. Back Still hurt, headrest pushed heck foward so it didn’t help so I had the headrest flipped over most of the time. Lumbar hurt. Chair did feel premium but I ended up returning it for a haworth fern and that feels a lot better!

My boss bought this model for my team five years ago, and it still looks/feels as good as new; nothing rattles around or feels like it needs to be tightened, and that has never been the case for me in all my years being chained to a desk 40 hours a week.

When I began to work half the day from home, I noticed that I always had body aches by the end of the day. I decided to invest in the Leap chair for my home office, and I don’t regret it a bit. My body feels so much better at the end of the day now!

I bought the Amazon Prime model, which only comes in black (unfortunately) but with Prime I could pay in installments. That made it a little easier to spend a thousand dollars on a desk chair. I was super pleased when it arrived in an enormous box, and was already fully assembled.

I work on a computer that sits on a desk, and I finally decided to spend the money for a quality desk chair. I read many online reviews and visited various company websites to compare my options, and finally settled on the Steelcase Leap; so I ordered this one from Amazon. The chair arrived brand new, sealed in a Steelcase box with instructions on how to open the box to allow the chair to be pulled out more easily. Original protective material was easy to remove, and the Steelcase hang-tag explained how to use the various settings to achieve the greatest comfort and ergonomic support. Plus: No construction required! It was a relief to not have to put the chair together, and you can see why it ships pre-assembled: The chair is quality crafted and solidly built, with strong components that would not be easy to assemble at home. And, plus, it’s just easier. I would not hesitate to buy this chair again, but I don’t expect I’ll need to any time soon!

New item shipped from and sold by Amazon. Unacceptable quality for a $899 MSRP chair. Back was warped. See pic.

Update:
The chair wasn’t new. It had someone else’s paperwork on the box. They probably packed it wrong when it was returned. Amazon lists this as new, but states open box refurb in the very end of the product description. 100% a scam.

Note: I bought from the marketplace seller, “Madison Seating Outlet”.

I never leave 1-star reviews, but many users including myself have been scammed for a cheaper chair. I chose the “black/black” chair, which in the picture, is the exact soft chair that I have at work. What came in the mail is a chair that’s so rock hard, there’s no way anyone could sit on this all day.

What’s worse is you cannot just return the chair. For some reason, the return for this product is at the seller’s discretion, and I am submitting my 3rd request return in 2 weeks now (it says they’ll respond within 48 hours).