Comparision of Steelcase Leap V2 Vs Gesture

It’s a great chair – but you knew that already. My review is for the refurbished one sold by Madison Seating. After spending 1000$+ on a new Aeron I wanted to get one for my wife who has to sit long hours for her job. This time around we decided to see if there were open box / refurbs available cheaper and that’s how I found this one sold by Madison Seating.

It was quite a bit cheaper than a new one so we decided to take a chance. I am glad to let you know it has worked out well. The chair was clean, well packed and almost new. It was also fully assembled for a bonus.

All the functions work as expected and the chair is quite comfortable for my 5’6″ wife after adjusting for height, lumbar support and arms. I will update this review if I find anything worthwhile to report on, but for now I am happy to have saved money and given the wife something comfortable and ergonomic to sit on!

I used to use the Steelcase Leap chair at my office job. Even though I worked 60 hours a week, my chair NEVER gave me pain. I never really thought anything about my chair until I started working from home. The Costco chair I bought seemed fine for the first few hours of the day. But by the end of the day, my neck, back and bum were so fatigued and sore. I investigated the chair at my office and found it on line for about $1,000. Sticker shocked, I could not believe the price. I suffered with the Costco chair for several years. I finally decided to see if the Leap chair was on Amazon, crossing my fingers the price would be better than I remember. I discovered this used LEAP chair from seller TE Seating for $499, shipping included. I debated for a few more weeks before pulling the trigger and treating myself. It took about a week to receive the chair. The shipping box was in shambles but to my delight, the chair was protected by loads and loads of air bubble packing stuff. The chair was also wrapped in protective plastic, wrap, the rollers casters were plastic wrapped in position to protect them, and the chair was in one piece. When I unwrapped all the protective stuff, my chair looked like brand spanking new! Truly! It had been steam sanitized too. Not a blemish to be found anywhere. I also found a hand written thank you note card from the seller taped to the chair. Wow! Now that I have been using the chair for nearly a week, I never think about my bum, back, or neck. I never think about my chair. I just think about my work. If anyone asked me if I would recommend this chair and this seller, I would say whole heartedly to GO FOR IT. You deserve to work in a comfortable, ergonomic chair! I also whole heartedly recommend the seller TE Seating. I would definitely buy from them again.

I am rating this product a 2 to try to attempt to balance the review rating because I feel a bit misled by other reviews. I’ll explain why!

I read stellar reviews on here about the comfort and design of this chair. I’m not sure if I just got a bad one, but from the first second I sat in it the chair felt cheaply made and like I was sitting on a hard flat surface. For the price of the chair, I expected the seat to be comfortable, but the lack of cushioning caused the chair to “bottom out” even though I am well under the max suggested weight limit. It felt very flat and hard to sit on. The seat pan also wobbles, and leads to it feeling cheaply made or unstable. I believe this to be a defect in the chair and was the main reason for my return as well as the lack of comfort.

The rest of the chairs features were great, I liked the amount of customization you could do, the fact that the chair moves with you as you recline and the arms can move slightly helped a lot, but every 10 mins or so I would think “it feels like I’m sitting on a hard bench” and it wasn’t worth the price to me. If anyone has any suggestions of an office chair that provides supportive yet soft cushion and adjustable ergonomic features please let me know!

Overall, the chair is very comfortable. This chair is replacing a Herman Miller Aeron classic chair and the Leap V2 is almost as comfortable as the Aeron. I also tried the Gesture chair but I felt like that chair was forcing me to readjust my posture while sitting. The recline option is great; the back reclines without the seat moving. The limited arm pad adjustment (compared to Gesture) was not an issue for me. The seat wobbles but that is expected (as explained by BTOD.com).
The reason why this doesn’t get a higher rating is because the chair smells on and after delivery. I bought this chair “Used – Like New” ship and sold from Amazon. The chair arrived in great condition (as advertised) but it had a strong chemical smell like some reviewers mentioned. The smell is similar to a hairspray product. It’s a pretty strong smell and was still present even after letting the chair sit in the garage for 7 days. I tried a few different methods (as mentioned on Steelcase’s website) to clean the chair and hopefully remove the smell but to no avail. I eventually gave up and started to just use the chair and hope that the smell would go away. 22 days after it was delivered, the smell is still there but not as strong as before.

I used to have a DX racer office boss series big and tall chair and after 5 years the seat cushion on it was destroyed so I wanted something that was better for my back and bottom. This chair fit the bill. I was very pleased to see it delivered fully assembled saving me so much time and effort. This chair compared to Embody chair is very similar. If you are 6’2″ or higher this will prolly be fine for u but not embody. My shoulders would poke the top corners of it at times where as here not. I ordered an aftermarket headrest and will update once I have tried it out here and will update this as well if any questionable issues occur but for now I love this chair and so does my body.

This is a great task chair. Spent hours reading reviews and it came down to this chair and the Herman Miller Aeron. Ultimately the decision was made to go with this because it appeared to be more versatile with the adjustments on the arms and because it was less ostentatious. Comfort and support are miles ahead of my previous chair. Only regret and reason for the 1 less star is that the arms, which are very adjustable, have no way to lock in the adjustment and end up moving frequently on their own when pressure is applied necessitating readjustment. Otherwise a very comfy chair for long bouts at the computer…

First off both are great chairs.

I’m 6’3″ 210lbs and have had the Leap for over a year. The Gesture is new and hasn’t been used much yet.

First impressions when I got the Leap was wow what a great chair. I have the same impression with the Gesture. They both have adjustments mostly on one side which is great. The Leap has the seat forward/back on the left. I’d say the biggest differences to me are the Leap v2 is better for a fixed position. The Gesture feels like it flexes better if you like to have dynamic reclining without swapping the adjustment knobs.

The arm rests on the Gesture move more freely vs the Leap. I prefer the Gesture on this point. The Leap arm rests are not a positive. They tried to make it overly fancy and missed the mark.

Back support is relative and they’re very similar.

Seat cushioning on the Gesture is a tad thicker.

The up / down lever which I don’t use much at all, but prefer the Leap control.

The forward / backward seat for most is set it and forget it. No preference between the two.

I’ll throw in the other vendor model Embody. I think it’s a well built chair and the back flex is interesting. I put that chair below these two for comfort and price points. Again personal preference.

Just make sure you don’t get a refurb when expecting “new”. Good sign is when the chair comes fully assembled and doesn’t have “Seating Mind” or some other label on it. Thankfully this did not happen on this order. Good seller and arrived ahead of schedule.

The chair looks great, but when I sat on it, there is a palpable bump/ crease under my left thigh. No amount of adjusting would make it go away, and there’s no way to get into the seat to try to straighten it out. I requested a new chair but was told it couldn’t be done. I then tried to return it, but shipping alone was $350 out of my pocket. So now I have a $1000+ defective chair I can’t use but can’t send back.

I really enjoyed this chair when I first received it. Unfortunately, after a few months use, I noticed it was not moving as easily on the floor. I discovered that the center cylinder on the chair had lowered or something else in the base structure of the chair allowed it to lower. This now drags on the carpet and I am sure if I move it to a wood floor, it would be damaging the floor every time I sit down. I reached out to Steelcase customer support with little response. I didn’t ask for a refund or return, just how can I fix it? …. nothing.

For the amount of money I spent on this chair, I would expect a better quality product. I would not recommend buying this chair until they fix this issue.