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Impressions of the ‘Sway Couple’ chair from SumoLounge.com

So, Rothbart from the Sarcastic gamer PlayStation Podcast has been raving about his chair from Sumo Lounge for a while now, so I finally got in-touch with them to see what all of the fuss was about.

The folks over at http://SumoLounge.com are quite awesome! They’re incredibly easy to communicate with, and are also just all-around nice people. They offered to send one of their new chairs for me to try-out, the “Sway Couple,” and even gave me the choice of color and fabric. So I went with a Corduroy in Navy Blue (which would normally retail for $299), which of course holds the possibility of giving me nightmarish flashbacks of being in Catholic Grade School…. but I digress.

Fast-forward to an hour before I was leaving for E3, and the package arrives. The box is HUGE, and after conversing with Rothbart about it, made sure not to open the box until it was in the room that I wanted the chair to reside in. This was very valuable advice, and definitely something you should heed when you get one of these chairs. Now, they have a lot of different models over at Sumo, and all would probably be classified as “BeanBag Chairs,” which is kind-of a misnomer, as the one that was sent to me is actually filled with some kind of foam (which I prefer personally.) The big difference with the “Sway” models is that they’re more traditional in that they actually have a bottom and a back, instead of just being a huge bag full of stuffing.

I’ll be honest, I went into this with the notion that “a beanbag chair for $300?!” So here’s what I did to put this thing through the paces. I moved it into my main gaming room, and moved the couch that currently resides there to the back of the room. While watching TV or playing any console games I only used the Sway Couple and haven’t sat on the couch since the chair has been in this room. One other prerequisite to know is that it takes a couple of days for the foam filling to actually fill-out after being compressed in that box for shipping, so the experience differs a bit from when you first unbox it.

Right away I was a bit worried since it obviously sits lower than my couch, but so far that has not been an issue at all. The chair is uber-comfy, and I have fallen asleep in it more than a couple of times. The corduroy is lush and quite soft, and you can tell that the build-quality is sturdy and very strong throughout. I love, LOVE the fact that this has a back on it. If they’d sent a “traditional” beanbag, I’m honestly not sure that I’d still be using it. I’ve had play sessions of 8+ hours in this thing, and not once have I gotten uncomfortable. This chair has become a replacement for the ratty couch that I’ve been gaming on for years, and I love that I have it in my gaming room. It even has a pocket in the right side for a remote or something similar, but it’s kinda tight and I’m worried that it would press buttons on the remote constantly and run the batteries down.

Now the big question, is it actually worth $300?? You know, it depends on your situation. I was already looking to replace the couch in my gaming room, and this actually is a great solution for my needs. I have a La-Z-Boy chair that I wanted to move out of my living room, so this along with that chair are perfect for my needs. It’s definitely cheaper than an actual couch, and while not being as big, the size is definitely bigger than what you’d expect. For others, a simple chair from a discount store may be sufficient, but in my case, I’m insanely happy with what this chair offers. They do have other models available on the site, including the “Omni” that runs around $149. As I said above though, I love the fact that this model actually has a back in-place, as it makes sitting for long periods of gaming much easier for this old body. If the Sway Couple fills your needs, I can’t recommend it highly enough! Anyone that’s been playing online with me the last couple of weeks can attest to my satisfaction, as I know that I’ve muttered “man this thing is comfy” more than a few times.

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