Working adults spend a good 8 to 12 hours sitting at desks on a daily basis. If you’re sitting on the wrong chair for that duration, the results can be catastrophic. Hard chairs will flatten your arse cheeks and poke at your tailbone. Thick leathery chairs will make you sweat, to the point where your skin vacuum seals to the cushions and you’ll pull out leg hairs when you stand. You also don’t want an absolute chunker that’ll take up half your living space. Gaming chairs can be clunky, uncomfortable and hot — but in a sea of poor choices, the Anda Seat: Captain America Edition shines.
There’s certain elements gaming chairs need to have before you consider heading out to purchase one. They need to fit your space. They need a comfortable butt cushion. But most importantly, they need to be good for your back.
Cheap chairs often have poor lumbar support or thin cushions, straining your muscles unnecessarily or even restricting blood flow. Given you need blood to, uh, live you need to make sure the chair you’re buying comfortably fits your body and will remain comfortable for long periods of time.
The Anda Seat: Captain America Edition is the answer to all these problems. It might just be the most comfortable chair I’ve ever sat on. At $799.99 it’s also one of the most expensive, but there’s a good reason for this price.
Let’s start with the design: this is one bee-yoo-tee-ful chair.
Like others from the Marvel collaboration set, the above Anda Seat is based on the comic design of Captain America’s outfit. It includes neat, sewn-in details like having Captain America’s shield sewn into the back, and the American-flag design of his shirt detailed on the front. It’s a minor feature, but the stitching here is immaculate and lines are sharp, clean and colourful. There’s even more unique details, like the brown stripes at the front representing shield straps.
The reds and blues are dark and subtle, more like Captain America’s Winter Soldier outfit, so it doesn’t look garish or out of place. The Anda Seat fit into my setup very nicely. Which was great because the moment I sat on it, I knew I’d love this chair until the end of time (or as long as the PVC leather lasts).
Let me wax lyrical for a moment about the feeling of sitting on the Anda Seat for the first time.
It was a blustery Wednesday afternoon when the chair arrived on my door. I’d just finished my news shift and I was looking forward to a pleasant evening playing Persona 5 Strikers. This plan was scuppered by the need to crack out the tools and bolt together the Anda Seat but putting together a gaming chair is always a fun time, so I leapt at the opportunity.
My first ‘handfeel’ impressions were that the chair was soft. Really soft. And then when I put the whole thing together, I realised just how soft it actually was.
Sitting in this Anda Seat is like having your arse cupped by clouds. It’s like being enfolded in a soft and loving pillow. There’s one particular spot on my back where all my tension rests, and the lumbar support of the Anda Seat pressed right into this point, immediately loosening every muscle I had clenched.
It had been a long day prior to receiving the Anda Seat chair, and I’m not ashamed to say I teared up a bit when I sat down. The cushiony softness was a real marvel, and it surprised me a lot. Sitting down in it is like receiving a warm hug.
Even after hours sitting down (playing Mansions of Madness, of course) the cushions and seat remained cloud-like and comfortable. I also discovered the seat reclines after a brief, terrifying moment when I pushed back on the chair and it started to sink. You can push the chair down up to 160 degrees and it maintains balance the entire way down, making for a great recline if you need it. An added benefit of this is that it rocks like a grandma chair if you want it to. (You can tighten the chair so this doesn’t happen.)
The other great thing about the chair is that while it includes beefy cushions, they don’t absorb heat like other leather chairs. The foam inside boasts ‘strength and flexibility’ but the major benefit I felt was a lack of heat and sweat transfer. You sink into the chair, but it doesn’t retain your body heat. It means you won’t get very sweaty or stick to the chair at all.
But I did have some minor problems with the Anda Seat.
Like most gaming chairs, the headrest was in the wrong position for my noggin and I ended up taking it off. (It’s easily removable.) The chair itself is also quite large, making it difficult to manoeuvre into smaller spaces. My home office couldn’t fit the chair’s width. So if you’re operating in a smaller room, you’ll box yourself in by using it.
In the end though, these issues were relatively minor. They barely impacted my long-term use, or the overall impressiveness of the chair itself.
Of all the gaming chairs I’ve tried so far (including my previous chair, the HP Omen Citadel), the Anda Seat: Marvel Edition is hands-down the most well-designed and worth your money.
Which brings me back to the cost. $799.99 is a lot to pay for a chair. But if you have the means to spend that much, you should consider it: A good gaming chair is an investment in your future.
It’s not just for you, it’s for the blood flow in your legs. It’s for your tail bone and arse cheeks. More importantly, it’s for your back and spine. If you work regularly in a home office or spend several hours gaming a day, you deserve comfort. You deserve a chair like the Anda Seat: Captain America Edition. It’s sleek, comfortable and looks great in any gaming setup.
Plus, your back, legs and arse will thank you.
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