Steelcase Think® Gets a Glow Up to Meet Needs of the Modern, Hybrid Worker
While continuing to provide award-winning ergonomics and comfort, the chair’s new finishes and upholstery details infuse added style wherever work happens.
Grand Rapids, MI, April 2, 2024 – Steelcase, a global design, research and thought leader in the world of work, has elevated the style of its award-winning office chair, Think®, by introducing new design choices infused with residential warmth to meet the needs of the modern, hybrid worker.
Adding soft, approachable style to any workspace, the chair’s new design range offers a quilted back style, featuring plush upholstery with horizontal stitch detailing as well as a back cover option to conceal back flexors. The expanded offering also includes new finishes — neutral monochromatic color schemes and warm-toned Lux metallics that create visual warmth and heightened style that can work with hundreds of style tastes.
Steelcase conducted extensive interviews with interior designers within the global architectural and design community when rethinking the chair’s design offerings. The qualitative research confirmed office workers are looking for the comforts of home in the office and more style options for their remote work setups. Findings also showed a great desire for both proven ergonomics and a variety of aesthetic options, which inspired Steelcase to create the wide range of design options the chair now offers.
“Designer feedback was instrumental in helping inform Think’s new look,” said Megan Wolenberg, senior product manager for Steelcase. “Think is known for its ergonomic support and the way it intuitively responds to the body, making it easy for anyone to get to work quickly, whether sitting for a while or moving between different kinds of work. Now, the chair’s new quilted back design and finish options invite it into settings beyond workstations, including the home office, meetings spaces and even ancillary settings.”
Recent global Steelcase research, which surveyed 5,925 employees across 11 countries, shows work-life balance has continued to drop over the past three years. Nearly half of workers say they don’t have the health and energy they need at work, nor do they find their work interesting or engaging, and they are concerned about their mental health. A powerful element to consider when updating a workspace is color and materiality, which can evoke feelings, influence moods, create stylized expressions and ultimately, affect a person’s wellbeing. The Think chair now features soft neutrals, energizing blues and warmer finishes, which can help workplaces feel more secure, welcoming and supportive.
“In the places we work, color and materiality communicate in ways we may not be consciously aware of, but it influences how we feel,” said Kaitlyn Gillmor, senior industrial designer. “Prior to the pandemic, your workplace and your home looked and felt different from a color and material perspective. Those spaces are now blurred, so they need to provide a similar level of comfort.”
Think continues to support workers’ physical wellbeing through award-winning, proven ergonomics and its simple and streamlined functionality. It was the first Steelcase office chair designed with a weight-activated mechanism, which responds to body weight to provide the right amount of back tension and resistance, intuitively responding to the user making it easy to get to work whether sitting for a long time or moving around. The chair does more with less by using fewer parts while taking the guesswork out of adjustments.
The Think chair additionally delivers on the organization’s commitment to do better by the world we share. Designed with fewer parts for quick and easy disassembly, it can easily be taken apart in just five minutes for recycling. The chair was also the first furniture product in the world to receive Cradle to Cradle® certification and roughly one-third of its weight is comprised of recycled content. The chair has a Declare label for providing material transparency. Think is also one of eight high-performance Steelcase chairs available for purchase with CarbonNeutral® product certification, thanks to the organization’s partnership with Climate Impact Partners, which helps customers offset carbon emissions for the entire lifecycle of a product.
For more information on the chair, visit Steelcase.com/Think. Think is orderable in the Americas and available on Steelcase Store.
Cradle to Cradle® is a registered trademark of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. Cradle to Cradle is not affiliated with and does not endorse products or services of Steelcase.
About Steelcase
Established in 1912, Steelcase is a global design, research and thought leader in the world of work. We help people do their best work by creating places that work better. Along with more than 30 creative and technology partner brands, we design and manufacture furnishings and solutions for the many places where work happens — including learning, health and work from home. Our solutions come to life through our community of expert Steelcase dealers in approximately 770 locations, as well as our online Steelcase store and other retail partners. Founded in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Steelcase is a publicly traded company with fiscal year 2024 revenue of $3.2 billion. With approximately 11,300 global employees and our dealer community, we come together for people and the planet — using our business to help the world work better.
