With gaming chairs finding their way into many homes, it comes as no surprise that other brands want a piece of the action. We have Razer’s Iskur and Predator collaboration with OSIM in an attempt to get themselves a slice of the pie.
Unfortunately, many of these chairs tend to adopt more of a racing, bucket-seat design. While there’s no doubt these chairs are functional, they tend to lack a bit more character at tugging at the emotional heartstrings of their users.
Thus, when a local scrapyard in Singapore released a customised office chair inspired by what most of us would recognize as old school SBS bus seats, it had us clamouring for more!
Crafted from the seats of the Volvo B9TL double-decker bus that was once a former main operator model of SBS transit, the nostalgia-inducing chair returns with its iconic top arm handle decked out with brand new height-adjustable mechanism and roller wheels.
If moving around in the old SBS seats was a part of your fantasy, then this could be a dream come true because authenticity is probably what they’re selling here, as the seats of the chair are not replicas, but actual seats used numerous times by the masses. In marketing terms, we could say this is a ‘pre-loved’ chair that has ‘stood the test of time’.
At first look, the chair did bring us back to the good old days of public commute and might be akin to a nostalgic piece of collector’s item that deserves a spot in our rooms, but truth be told, this customized chair is probably one of the worst office chairs you want to be sitting in for hours.
If you’re expecting armrests or adjustable back like the Secretlab TITAN Softweave, you might be utterly disappointed because all there is to the Volvo B9TL Office Chair, is the arm handle situated at the top of the chair. It’s unlikely users will find much use for the handle outside of draping a jacket over it. Otherwise, it’s great to fling across the room in a moment of gamer rage as well due to its easy-grip nature.
The frame of the seat maintains its dirty-green slosh colour kept in its “pristine” condition. At the same time, this makes us wonder what we might find over the seats with some UV blacklight.
Most of us would’ve familiarized ourselves with the seat’s heat retention and comfort, which in case you didn’t know, was absolutely awful, so if you’re looking for an actual office chair, we’d probably recommend the Ergotune Supreme instead. Otherwise, we’re sure it retains the ability to be patted down to adjust the seat temperature to optimal conditions.
Even though we’re pretty sure a preserved old public chair might not be the best ideal office set-up, we’re going to admit the office chair is definitely a great throwback and a good touch for nostalgic sake that you can purchase as a collectable.
If you’re interested, you can purchase the office chair it’s going for S$100 from Kim Li Huat Hardware but the listing, unfortunately, seems to be missing right now. Perhaps you’d need to drop them a message to express your interest.