- Feb 14, 2004
- 48,902
- 5,543
- 136
Just got a new gaming chair, the Champion from E-WIN:
https://www.ewinracing.com/champion...ter-gaming-office-chair-with-pillows-bbf.html
Quick review:
1. Pricing: With current coupon codes, it worked out to about $260 shipped. I'm pretty sure that's by far the most amount of money I've ever spent on a chair, but as I'm wrapping up a lot of my traveling freelance IT work, I'll be working from home a lot more & wanted a dedicated (and quality) chair, instead of stealing a chair from the kitchen, lol. What I really wanted was a Herman Miller Embody chair, but I didn't really want to spend $1,200 on just a chair. I'm also very interested in the Backstrong chair on Kickstarter, which still has a $249 early-bird perk available, but still no ETA for shipment, and I wanted something now.
2. Selection: There are a lot of good chairs on the market, especially cool gaming chairs. I don't game much (other than VR, which doesn't really require a chair for most games), but after watching a bunch of Youtube videos, I came across the E-WIN brand & they seemed pretty decent for the price. tbh I got the Champion just because it looked cool, lol.
3. Assembly: Having worked at Staples in the past, I've built my fair share of office chairs, and this was surprisingly easy to put together. All tools required (i.e. 2 hex tools) are included. The back comes with 4 bolts already screwed in, so you remove those, attach it to the base seat, and bolt it back together. Then there are 2 plastic side covers for the metal to make it look nicer & protect your fingers, so that's another bolt each (note: one sticks out more than the other to accommodate for the lever on the right side. Then unscrew 4 bolts from the bottom & clamp the metal base under the seat with them. Push the 5 casters into the starfish base (requires some pushing), put the hydraulic lift on, put the 3 plastic lift covers on, and lift the chair onto it. That's it! Only takes a few minutes to assemble, and unboxing wasn't a pain either.
4. Features: Key features include:
1) Highly adjustable armrests (up/down, slide forward/backwards, slide left/right, spin left/right). I think this is the only chair I've ever had where I've actually used the armrests & also been comfortable using them because I can put them exactly where I need them (i.e. to support my arms). Nice.
2) Height adjustment for the entire chair, up & down. As usual, sit on the chair & pull the lever to drop, or stand up & pull the lever to raise.
3) Tilt & lock. Lock it upright by pushing the height adjustment lever under the seat in to the left, or pull it out to allow for the chair to tilt back. It takes some effort to tilt back, and you have to keep pressure on your legs to hold it tilted back by default. I adjusted the screw-knob under the chair for tilt-tension to the max, and while it did get easier, you can't just lean back & stay leaned back, you'll have to prop your legs up on something like an under-desk foot rest to stay leaned back. I would say that's my only complaint, however, see #4 below.
4) The back of the chair also angles back via a lever on the right side. So you can basically lay out almost flat if you want to, so if you have a couch or something nearby to prop your legs up on, you can basically put the chair into "nap mode", which is pretty cool. So you don't necessarily need the regular tilt in #3 above because the entire back drops back. Also, the more you tilt the back of the chair back via the locking mechanism, the easier the tilt & lock feature in #3 works. So if you want to prop it back at a 45-degree angle & then lean back, you can almost do like a rocking-chair kind of thing, which is nice if you're on a boring call or want to close your eyes for a minute & zone out with your headphones or just stare at the ceiling for awhile to collect your thoughts.
5) Comes with a lumber pillow & head (or neck, it's slightly adjustable location-wise) pillow. I find most lumber stuff pushes too much into my back & makes me feel like I just ate a huge Thanksgiving dinner, so I took that off right away, but I actually ended up liking the neck pillow.
5. Comfort & Ergonomics: Even though this is made of leather (supposedly), it's not squishy or soft. It's borderline hard; in fact, I'd call it "firm". However, that's not a bad thing, because the way the seat is designed feels fairly conformed to your body (a bit slouchy on the back, kind of a groove for each leg, etc.), so it's oddly comfortable, despite the firmness. Kind of like a glove, but it doesn't squish you with lateral support like say a Recaro seat would (hey, watch the love handles!). My Jeep has similar seats - firm, but surprisingly they work on long rides because you're not just sitting on fluff the whole time, you actually get some good support - this chair is the same way.
I mentioned the armrests earlier - they are great & I actually use them, which is a first! I actually like to have the back of the chair straight up & down instead of leaning back a bit, like usual; usually I slouch big-time or sit funny (do a google image search to see how Carrie Fischer used to sit), but the ergonomics of the chair actually kind of encourage you to sit down into the "mold" it makes for your body. Kind of feels like you're in a captain's chair, ready for action. Comfortable & conforming, but not overly grippy. For me at 6' 0", that's nice. The only slightly odd thing is that I have to lower the chair's hydraulic lift all the way down to put my feet on the floor, which is weird because I have kind of long frog legs, and usually I have to lift up chairs so that my knees aren't angled up.
Here's a fairly detailed review on Youtube. Note that a lot of people who review chairs on Youtube get a small commission for each chair sold, so you'll see a lot of coupon codes floating around for 15% or whatever. Check sites like Retailmenot & use your burner email account to sign up on the E-WIN site & you can usually find something a bit better (the Memorial Day coupon was $49 off, plus free shipping, so it was a few bucks extra over the 15%).
https://www.ewinracing.com/champion...ter-gaming-office-chair-with-pillows-bbf.html
Quick review:
1. Pricing: With current coupon codes, it worked out to about $260 shipped. I'm pretty sure that's by far the most amount of money I've ever spent on a chair, but as I'm wrapping up a lot of my traveling freelance IT work, I'll be working from home a lot more & wanted a dedicated (and quality) chair, instead of stealing a chair from the kitchen, lol. What I really wanted was a Herman Miller Embody chair, but I didn't really want to spend $1,200 on just a chair. I'm also very interested in the Backstrong chair on Kickstarter, which still has a $249 early-bird perk available, but still no ETA for shipment, and I wanted something now.
2. Selection: There are a lot of good chairs on the market, especially cool gaming chairs. I don't game much (other than VR, which doesn't really require a chair for most games), but after watching a bunch of Youtube videos, I came across the E-WIN brand & they seemed pretty decent for the price. tbh I got the Champion just because it looked cool, lol.
3. Assembly: Having worked at Staples in the past, I've built my fair share of office chairs, and this was surprisingly easy to put together. All tools required (i.e. 2 hex tools) are included. The back comes with 4 bolts already screwed in, so you remove those, attach it to the base seat, and bolt it back together. Then there are 2 plastic side covers for the metal to make it look nicer & protect your fingers, so that's another bolt each (note: one sticks out more than the other to accommodate for the lever on the right side. Then unscrew 4 bolts from the bottom & clamp the metal base under the seat with them. Push the 5 casters into the starfish base (requires some pushing), put the hydraulic lift on, put the 3 plastic lift covers on, and lift the chair onto it. That's it! Only takes a few minutes to assemble, and unboxing wasn't a pain either.
4. Features: Key features include:
1) Highly adjustable armrests (up/down, slide forward/backwards, slide left/right, spin left/right). I think this is the only chair I've ever had where I've actually used the armrests & also been comfortable using them because I can put them exactly where I need them (i.e. to support my arms). Nice.
2) Height adjustment for the entire chair, up & down. As usual, sit on the chair & pull the lever to drop, or stand up & pull the lever to raise.
3) Tilt & lock. Lock it upright by pushing the height adjustment lever under the seat in to the left, or pull it out to allow for the chair to tilt back. It takes some effort to tilt back, and you have to keep pressure on your legs to hold it tilted back by default. I adjusted the screw-knob under the chair for tilt-tension to the max, and while it did get easier, you can't just lean back & stay leaned back, you'll have to prop your legs up on something like an under-desk foot rest to stay leaned back. I would say that's my only complaint, however, see #4 below.
4) The back of the chair also angles back via a lever on the right side. So you can basically lay out almost flat if you want to, so if you have a couch or something nearby to prop your legs up on, you can basically put the chair into "nap mode", which is pretty cool. So you don't necessarily need the regular tilt in #3 above because the entire back drops back. Also, the more you tilt the back of the chair back via the locking mechanism, the easier the tilt & lock feature in #3 works. So if you want to prop it back at a 45-degree angle & then lean back, you can almost do like a rocking-chair kind of thing, which is nice if you're on a boring call or want to close your eyes for a minute & zone out with your headphones or just stare at the ceiling for awhile to collect your thoughts.
5) Comes with a lumber pillow & head (or neck, it's slightly adjustable location-wise) pillow. I find most lumber stuff pushes too much into my back & makes me feel like I just ate a huge Thanksgiving dinner, so I took that off right away, but I actually ended up liking the neck pillow.
5. Comfort & Ergonomics: Even though this is made of leather (supposedly), it's not squishy or soft. It's borderline hard; in fact, I'd call it "firm". However, that's not a bad thing, because the way the seat is designed feels fairly conformed to your body (a bit slouchy on the back, kind of a groove for each leg, etc.), so it's oddly comfortable, despite the firmness. Kind of like a glove, but it doesn't squish you with lateral support like say a Recaro seat would (hey, watch the love handles!). My Jeep has similar seats - firm, but surprisingly they work on long rides because you're not just sitting on fluff the whole time, you actually get some good support - this chair is the same way.
I mentioned the armrests earlier - they are great & I actually use them, which is a first! I actually like to have the back of the chair straight up & down instead of leaning back a bit, like usual; usually I slouch big-time or sit funny (do a google image search to see how Carrie Fischer used to sit), but the ergonomics of the chair actually kind of encourage you to sit down into the "mold" it makes for your body. Kind of feels like you're in a captain's chair, ready for action. Comfortable & conforming, but not overly grippy. For me at 6' 0", that's nice. The only slightly odd thing is that I have to lower the chair's hydraulic lift all the way down to put my feet on the floor, which is weird because I have kind of long frog legs, and usually I have to lift up chairs so that my knees aren't angled up.
Here's a fairly detailed review on Youtube. Note that a lot of people who review chairs on Youtube get a small commission for each chair sold, so you'll see a lot of coupon codes floating around for 15% or whatever. Check sites like Retailmenot & use your burner email account to sign up on the E-WIN site & you can usually find something a bit better (the Memorial Day coupon was $49 off, plus free shipping, so it was a few bucks extra over the 15%).
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