This review of the Slouch office chair contains gifted products.
I like to think of myself as something of a pioneer when it comes to home working.
Far before the events of 2020, when millions found themselves hunched over kitchen tables, or propped up on sofas, I was already working from home. Having decided to go freelance in 2017, I’d said goodbye to my ergonomic office chair long before the pandemic hit.
Given that I was three years into things, you might presume that I’d have set myself up with a comfortable and productive work space.
You’d be wrong.
Somehow, and even now three years post-pandemic, my work from home space is non-existent. Instead, I’m often found slumped on the sofa – neck craned over a precariously balanced laptop – or sat up at our kitchen counter, shoulders around my ears. If I’m not there, then I’m in a coffee shop, furiously typing over a tiny table.
The result has been that while I’ve enjoyed the last few years of home working, my back has not. Instead, it’s paid the ultimate price for my flexible working – it’s been left unsupported, strained and miserable.
Unsurprisingly, I’m now seeing a chiropractor almost weekly. My neck is always painful and I’ve been suffering with regular bouts of cervical vertigo.
Given these vaguely alarming symptoms, I’ve recently admitted defeat and have begun researching how best to kit out my new office – looking into the best office chair and the best standing desk for home.
The more ridiculously expensive models aside, there has been one brand whose name has come up again and again – Slouch: officially voted the best office chair (in 2023, at least).
Not only beautiful to look at, Slouch promise to have your back – a pun I could not resist.
A few days later, I ordered my Slouch office chair and with it, changed my working life.
Who Are Slouch?
Although part of the UK’s largest office furniture company – Slouch remain a small internal brand, led by British designers and creatives. Proudly manufactured in house, Slouch are not into mass-manufacturing, but focus on deliberately bespoke and well-crafted items.
With an emphasis on quality rather than quantity (all whilst staying affordable), Slouch remind me of those other innovative furniture start-ups, such as Snug (sofas-in-a-box).
For a long time, Slouch focused only on producing the perfect office chair – the Task One – before most recently bringing out their own range of standing desks; creating the perfect home working duo.
A work from home power couple, you might say.
Both of these products have been underpinned by innovative design, strenuous testing and beautiful aesthetics, creating the sort of office furniture you actually want in your house (rather than the usual monstrosities you’ll find at your 9-5).
Doing a little research, it’s clear that Slouch are already incredibly popular – receiving a litany of rave reviews on Trust Pilot.
‘The Apple of office chairs’, declares one review.
‘Best chair for WFH’, says another.
On paper, at least, Slouch seem the real deal – true disrupters in the field of office furniture producers.
Are Slouch Office Chairs Expensive?
Having decided that I urgently needed this chair in my life, I did brace myself when it came to looking at how much a Slouch office chair costs.
With its beautiful design and claims of being fully adjustable, I was expecting it to come with an eye-watering price tag; the sort seen with a Herman Miller.
I was, I must say, pleasantly surprised.
Slouch’s flagship office chair, the Task One, begins at £269 (without arms), and is £289 with arms. This also includes a two year warranty on the chair. Whilst this is not cheap, it’s important to remember that your bog-standard ergonomic office chair (the model with the blue top that haunts most office buildings) costs £181.
Given that the Slouch office chair has lots of features, is sustainably made and is beautiful to look at, I actually don’t believe that this price tag is unreasonable at all.
In fact, and given how much I rate my Slouch office chair (more on this below), I think its cost is pretty phenomenal.
A Review of the Slouch Office Chair
Is it Easy to Assemble a Slouch Office Chair?
Firstly, one thing I want to mention in this review of the Slouch office chair is just how incredible (I found) their customer service to be.
Within a day of making our order for a Task One Slouch office chair, I received an email updating me on my order – with a note to say that the chair would be with me in just a few days.
In fact, Slouch claim that their maximum delivery duration is 5 working days, which is pretty great.
As we weren’t going to be on the suggested delivery day, we let customer services know and they replied almost immediately, changing our slot for us.
The chair arrived on the day promised and within the expected time slot, and the entire process felt super seamless.
Now, one of Slouch’s selling points is the fact that this (fairly large) chair can be delivered in a surprisingly small box – a Pandora’s box of office furniture, if you will. This isn’t the sort of furniture delivery that requires a giant van, or a pallet, and – most importantly – it can be easily assembled on your own.
I managed to put my Slouch office chair together in 5 minutes (and I even had flu at the time), and the instructions were really easy to follow.
I opted for hard floor castors (these do cost an additional £19), and so the chair was then very easy to just push into my office.
What I Love About My Slouch Office Chair
The most important part of this review of the Slouch office chair – what I love about this product.
Beautiful Design and Colours
Finding a beautiful office chair – one that is also supportive and adaptive – is surprisingly difficult. Unless you’re willing to pay an arm and a leg for a sleek, mid-century sort of affair, the more reasonably priced chairs tend to be – well, ugly.
Really ugly.
You know the sort of chair I mean – it’s the one that will greet you when you walk into most offices. The one with the garish blue seat, black castors and assortment of sticking out levers.
Thankfully, Slouch are bucking this trend, offering gorgeous office chairs, with subtle and attractive colour ways.
Like many, I opted for the Task One office chair in grey, with a beautiful pink seat. The grey is a very soft colour, so blends in beautifully with my surroundings, and the pink adds just a hint of colour.
I honestly think that it would work with any colour scheme or wallpaper.
With the mesh back, the chair looks far from bulky (despite being fully adjustable). Instead, it appears sleek, streamline and stylish – the jackpot when it comes to finding the best work from home office chair.
A Fully Adjustable Office Chair
Now, lots of office chairs claim to be fully adjustable. Often, this actually just means that you can adjust the height and pull the seat forwards, if necessary.
Although helpful, this still leaves a lot of your body unsupported, including your arms, lumbar spine and legs.
Surpassing these models is the Slouch office chair, which is genuinely the most ‘adjustable’ office chair I’ve come across. As such, I’ve been able to adapt it to fit my body and height; fine tuning it to the most precise of positions.
Lumbar Support
When I first sat on the chair, my lower back practically sang with joy. The lumbar support on the Slouch office chair is fantastic, and you can move the support up and down, to reach your lower back perfectly.
I am 5’5 so not exactly tall, but as I have a long torso and short legs, I often need the lumbar support to sit a little higher than most chairs offer. Thankfully, this hasn’t been a problem with my Slouch – and I’ve been able to set it up so it perfectly presses against my lower back; providing instant relief and preventing me from slouching.
As a result I sit much taller, and the tension and pressure on my lower back has hugely improved.
Phenomenal Back Tilt Tension
We’ve all been there, you sit on an office chair and lean back – and immediately feel as though you’re falling backwards. You panic, scramble forward and the entire office turns to stare at you.
Thankfully, while the back of the Slouch chair does flex back (significantly so, in fact), this backwards motion is masterfully offset by the chair’s back tilt tension.
This ensures your body weight is evenly distributed across the chair, even when leaning backwards. As a result, reclining in this office chair is relaxing, rather than terrifying.
I love being able to lean right back when having a think, knowing I’m not about to topple over, and it’s a great way to stretch your back.
If you don’t want your Slouch office chair to keep flexing back, then you can apply the tilt lock, which locks your chair into four different positions.
Adjustable Seat Depth
When researching the best office chairs, I never used to pay attention to seat depth.
As long as my back felt supported, what else mattered?
Having now fully reviewed the Slouch office chair, however, I can confirm that the ability to adjust your seat depth really is a game changer.
One of my own toxic traits is not being able to sit with my feet flat on the ground (something I know any work place assessment demands that you must). Instead, I cross my legs, kick my legs back (resting on the castors), or try and lift them up to rest on a skirting board.
This not only twists my lower body, but normally means I then slump forward, to compensate for my knotted legs.
The Slouch office chair’s seat depth adjuster has changed all this. By being able to slide my seat forwards (allowing for the optimal 1.5 inches between the front of the seat and the back of my knees), my legs feel so much more comfortable. Any pressure on my pelvis is released and there’s not all that tension running through my knees.
As such, I can sit with my feet firmly planted on the ground and it actually feels OK.
Paying Attention to My Arm Position
When it comes to working at a computer, I’ll admit that I give zero thought to my arms.
However, after developing carpal syndrome tunnel from typing like a T-Rex for nearly 7 years, I knew it was time to give them a little attention.
Thankfully, and something I wanted to mention in this review of the Slouch office chair was its really versatile arm rests. These can not only be moved up and down (50mm heigh adjustment), but can also be moved backwards and forwards, and inwards and outwards.
This ability to move the armrest inwards has been oddly life-changing. Prior to getting my Slouch office chair, I hadn’t realise that my arms and hands naturally turned inwards when typing – creating a triangle between my body, my arms and my laptop.
As such, my forearms were often hovering off the arm rest, rather than on it.
This ability to inch the armrests inwards means that my arms are now fully supported, and I can type in a way that feels comfortable and intuitive.
What I Didn’t Like About My Slouch Office Chair
The second part of this review of the Slouch office chair – what I didn’t like about this product.
Hard Seat (at the start)
One thing I wanted to mention in this honest review of the Slouch office chair was my initial disappointment regarding the softness, or bounciness, of the seat itself.
Once I’d assembled the chair, I quickly sat down on it with gusto – falling backwards onto it. It was much harder than I’d anticipated and it was all a bit jarring.
After heading back to the online reviews of Slouch, I found that this is a common (initial) complaint. ‘The chair just wasn’t as soft as I was expecting’, complained one reviewer.
However, I discovered that Slouch explain that your chair will need some ‘breaking in’ – and over time it will become increasingly more comfortable.
Made from moulded seat foam, this is an intentionally firm chair, purely so that it can fully support your pelvis. As such, it can be initially a bit tough.
However, over time, and as the seat gets to know the contours of your, well, bottom, it’ll soften and become super comfy (something that’s definitely been my experience).
No Headrest
One thing I was surprised by was the fact that the Slouch office chair has no headrest.
Given Slouch’s emphasis on supporting every joint in your body, it seemed strange that there was no headrest to ease tired necks.
I must admit that I’m quite partial to a headrest, even if it’s just for a quick 5 minute nap -a head back, catching flies sort of affair.
However, having now sat in the Slouch office chair, I realise why the headrest has been omitted – it really isn’t needed, at all.
Given the chair’s supportive back and the fact you can easily lean back thanks to the tilt system, your head and neck feel supported at all times.
A headrest would just add bulkiness to the design and not a lot of value.
More Colour Variations
Lastly, and while I love the colour of my chair, one thing I wanted to cover in this review of the Slouch Task One chair is the fact that it (currently) comes in limited colour ways.
The frame itself comes in two colours – black or grey (a very subtle, light grey colour). Once you’ve decided on which you want, you can then choose from five different seat colours – all in the same fabric. These are fairly muted and stylish colours, including the powdery pink I have and a ‘fog’ colour that I also liked.
While I think all the colurways are lovely – and deliberately understated and stylish – I recognise that some might want a wider choice of colour, or some more bolder palettes.
However, and given Slouch’s focus on quality products, rather than quantity, I think this more exclusive and limited range is actually quite fitting – and reflects the brand’s overall ethos.
Verdict: Is the Slouch Chair Worth the Money?
I’ll admit, given that I usually write about travel, dedicating an entire blog post to the merits of a desk chair seemed (initially) a bit dry.
What would I have to say about an inanimate piece of furniture? How enthusiastic could I be about office chairs?
Well, and some 2,800 words later – it turns out I have quite a bit to say.
Welcoming a Slouch office chair into my home has easily been one of the best investments I’ve made in a long time. Yes, buying office furniture is not hugely exciting, but the effects on your life will be surprising wide-ranging.
Firstly, this chair looks fantastic in my office. It’s built to an incredibly high standard, it’s slick and it’s modest – not taking up too much room.
Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, it feels incredible to sit in. It would not be hyperbole to say that this humble chair has completely changed how I work – and how well I work. I no longer drift around coffee shops, or my house, crouching and hunching over my laptop for hours on end.
Instead, I’m motivated to sit at my desk – sitting up straight and feeling fully supported. Because I’m in this comfortable workspace, I’m also in a new headspace – one that feels focused and productive.
Lastly, I know that my Slouch office chair will last. Sustainably made, with an emphasis on durability, this is a fantastically made piece of kit.
In fact, and to steal Slouch’s own play on words, this chair should have your back for years to come.