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SFist Holiday Gift Guide: Sumo Lounge

We here at SFist are proud to kick off our 2005 Holiday Gift Guide with our fine friends from Sumo Lounge, producers of the most evolved and high-end bean bag furniture this world has ever known, at least until Swarovski puts out a crystal-encrusted one (ouch!).

Our sister, Austinist has already been initiated into the cult of Sumo Lounge, but for those of you not in the know: Sumo makes really big fancy-pants bean bags (the Omni, ottomen (the Otto), and combinations thereof (the Combo).

Sumo sent us an Omni (which, they tell us, is on sale for $169 with free shipping until December 15). After the jump not only do we try it out, but have what might be our best giveaway ever!

When we first opened up our Omni, or reaction was negative. We think our exact words were “This is just a big-ass f**king pillow! What a rip off!” (Ironic, since we paid not a cent for it, but typical of our poor snap judgment skills.) The animals circled it suspiciously, as we poked at it with one toe.

We had moved into another room when we heard a yelp from the living room. “We were wrong, this thing totally works!” our other half cried. Excitedly dragging the Omni into the room, he began to demonstrate the various permutations into which it could be customized, a somewhat beefier version of the models on their site.

We admit it — we were wrong. Since we got the Omni, it’s become the living room chair of choice, pulling ahead of the cat-mangled sofa and the IKEA futon. The rip-stop nylon is easy to clean and remains cat repellent (SFist Franny, as you can see above, overcame her fears), making it the chair we reserve for dander-allergic SFist Rita when she comes over. The teeny-tiny balls make it incredibly easy to morph into the shape we desire, fluffing it up enough to edit SFist from our desk, smooshing it down for coffee table sushi, and reclining it for optimum TV consumption. We’ve even been dragging it into other rooms (it’s really light) to have Sumo-seating everywhere we go. We’re believers, and are guzzling the Sumo Kool-aid in huge gulps (which, since Sumo products are water-repellent, poses little threat of mess).

This is the perfect gift for every grown-up slacker on your list, as it’s the perfect marriage of undergrad era style seating and reluctant sell-out convenience and comfort. Equally suited to bong, laptop, and very naughty uses, we’re starting to wonder how we ever lived without ours. Viva Sumo!

And now it gets even better, as our pals at Sumo are offering one lucky winner their very own Omni, can you believe it? Enter below by midnight Friday December 9, and we’ll contact the winner via email to make the final arrangements. Trust us, you really want this chair, so enter now!

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