Path Chair │ 2022
Best Office Chair of the Year 2023
Category:Furniture - Office Chair UnitsLocation:New York, New York, USADesigner: Todd Bracher, Humanscale, New York, New York, USAManufacturer:Humanscale, New York, New York, USA
Path is the most sustainable task chair on the market as a result of both the composition and manufacturing process. Over five years in the making, the chair is composed of nearly twenty-two pounds of recycled content, including ocean plastic, post-consumer plastic bottles, and post-industrial material. A complete reinvention of the supply chain, every component of the chair except for the screws was designed and engineered by Humanscale.
Path’s structural components, including parts of the mechanism and the arms, are processed from fishing nets that are collected by local fishermen. These materials are collected within 50km of coastlines, thus preventing potential damage to our oceans and their delicate ecosystems.
Equally as innovative as Path’s design is Humanscale’s trademarked FormSense Eco Knit™ material, a mesh-like textile whose yarn is made with 100% post-consumer recycled polyester from approximately 68 upcycled plastic bottles per Path chair.
Knitted exactly to the shape of the chair, FormSense Eco Knit™ eliminates the need for cutting or sewing, creating zero waste. In line with Humanscale’s commitment to healthy materials, Path is toxin-free and comes with transparency labels.
It is certified net-positive by the International Living Furniture Institute’s Living Product Challenge (LPC), the strictest and most holistic sustainability framework for products in the industry. This certification means that every time one of these chairs are made, they’re leaving the planet better off, measured by adding together “footprints” (the damage caused to the environment) and “handprints” (the positive impact brought to the environment).
The chair received a 20/20 rating by the LPC, setting a new benchmark for responsible manufacturing. Designed for inclusivity of the 95th percentile of the population, Path ensures a personalized fit to every body type. Applying the laws of physics, Humanscale’s Gravity Mechanism™ automatically adjusts recline support to each user, eliminating the need for manual adjustments.
DESIGNER BIO
Todd Bracher has earned worldwide attention for his furniture and product designs.
Bracher teamed up with Humanscale to create the striking Trea multipurpose chair, which mimics the instinctive recline of the human body without resorting to manual controls.
A Pratt Institute graduate, Bracher earned his MFA in interior and furniture design at the Danmarks Designskole in Copenhagen after winning a Fulbright design fellowship.
He was named 2008 New Designer of the Year at New York’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair and has been twice nominated for Bolig’s International Designer of the Year Award.
He has global experience, having headed up Tom Dixon’s Design Studio in the UK, acted as a Professor of Design at the l’ESAD in France, and worked as Creative Director of luxury Scandinavian brand Georg Jensen.
More works from the designer: www.humanscale.com