Anthros Ergonomic Chair Review

Anthros is a newer brand in the office chair space, having launched its first chair to the public in 2023. That same chair continues to be its flagship and now that it’s been out for a while, has managed to set itself apart in both looks and its pelvic-first design. Designed by a team of physical therapists, designers, and ergonomic experts, it builds on their experience with wheelchairs to deliver a uniquely supportive seat that’s truly designed around the mechanics of your body. It won’t be for everyone, but if you sit for long stretches and want to protect your back, and have more than a little expendable income or nice stipend from work, it’s definitely worth considering.

Anthros Chair – Design and Features

The Anthros chair is an ergonomic office chair, but it’s probably unlike any you’ve seen before. Its unique approach to ergonomics translates to a very unique look that stands out from the pack. This works to its benefit because it’s immediately eye-catching, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t look a little strange at first.

There is something a bit alien about its design. From the extra-wide seat base to the two-part backrest, the lower part long and rectangular and the top an irregular triangular polygon. It’s unlike any other chair I’ve personally encountered.

But it’s this very design that makes the Anthros chair what it is: an ergonomics-first chair designed by a team of physical therapists and clinicians that draw their experience from designing wheelchairs. It seems an odd shift at first, but not when you think about it. If you live your life in a wheelchair, even temporarily, it’s critically important that that seat be designed to properly support the patient’s body. If you’ve ever been to a physical therapist, then you already know the deep understanding that they have of the interconnections between each joint and muscle group in the body. They understand the spiraling chain of impacts that each piece has on the next. This chair is a natural outgrowth of that, a reaction to seeing other chairs on the market not address the actual mechanics of the human body in a proper way to support them over the long-term.

Put another way, if your back doctor designed a chair, it would probably look something like this.

I’m not an ergonomics expert and don’t have medical training, so I’m not equipped to evaluate the company’s conclusions about other chairs and their emphasis on lumbar support missing the mark. From my experience, I found that many of these chairs are quite comfortable, so long as they can match the contours of your back.

The crux of the Anthros chair’s design, however, is not lumbar support but pelvic support, and the company does seem to be onto something with its impact on promoting good posture.

Wide seat aside (we’ll get to that in a moment), the backrest is entirely purposeful, and its unique aesthetic is just a byproduct of what it’s attempting to accomplish. The lower piece of the backrest is not a lumbar support; it’s a pelvic support, and all you need to do is sit in the chair to feel the difference as it connects much lower on the back, right above your bottom, at about the level of the tailbone. The upper portion of the backrest supports the upper back. Together, these support a proper upright posture with the natural S-shape of the spine.

The seat cushion is also designed to support proper posture and comfort. It’s wide, plush, and highly contoured, avoiding putting any extra pressure on your legs that might result in reduced blood circulation. Below the upholstery, the cushion has two cutouts on the underside beneath your sit bones. Note that these are not on top and you can’t actually feel any portion being hollowed out. Instead, it just feels soft under your sitter and it distributes your weight more naturally without having pressure points on your pelvis. There’s also a layer of special material beneath the upholstery called CloudTex. This helps distribute pressure and increases the overall contact area, while also preventing the foam from sticking to the material.

The chair also comes with 4D armrests. They are lushly padded, similar to the seat and backrests, and can be adjusted for height, depth, angle, and width. Of the whole chair, these feel the most standard compared to the competition. The padding is very nice, and you can position them to be effective for different tasks, like typing or holding a controller.

When it comes to adjustments, I was surprised to find fewer here. Because of the way the pelvic support works, there is no need for a seat depth adjustment. You simply position your body at the proper depth and then move the support up to match. It does offer height, of course, and tilt tensioning. Unlike many other chairs, this isn’t a knob that you endlessly spin. Instead, it has defined notches, and each one makes a meaningful difference with how much resistance you feel when leaning back. It can also be locked to a 5-degree tilt to create a suspended, floating seating position – but this isn’t a chair you can really recline in.

While all of these basic features, sans armrests, are locked in, you can configure the chair in a number of ways. It comes in ShapeKnit Boucle fabric or Port Leather for an additional $99. For colors, you can choose either a black or white frame with four base colors shared between both types of upholstery: ivory, onyx, steel, and dune. If you opt for the fabric seat, you have pink as an additional option.

Interestingly, you can also choose the material that makes up the back of its two backrest supports. There are five shades of wood (yes, it’s real wood): Natural Oak, Sierra Oak, Ivory Oak, Gray Oak, and Walnut. You can also choose from four specialty designs, including Carbon Fiber, a black or white embossed circuit pattern, or a gradient black, purple, and pink. Anthros has also recently partnered with the ESL and DreamHack and has two additional options for each that should be available soon.

For the last configuration options, you can choose whether you want armrests or not (leaving them off will save you another $99), and choose between two kinds of wheel bases. You can choose a standard five-spoke base or a fixed four-spoke base. The latter option does not allow the chair to turn on a swivel. Instead, if you need to turn, you’ll have to move the whole chair. While this could clearly create some issues, it does help to ensure that you’re maintaining proper posture even as you’re turning and addressing your colleagues.

The fit and finish of the chair is overall good. It has a reassuring weight to it and is quite sturdy. The knobs all feel solid and the back and pelvic supports are firm and robust. It is made almost entirely out of plastic, however, which is a bit disappointing given its high price, though I don’t particularly have concerns about its durability and longevity. The manufacturing of the cushions and the stitchwork on the fabric is excellent, and there are no complaints.

Lastly, it should be noted that there is a small amount of assembly, but it pales in comparison to the average gaming chair. You’ll need to attach the wheelbase, which uses a slotted mechanism to make it easy to change if you’d ever like to, and slide the knobs onto the associated bars underneath the seat. The top backrest also needs to be attached, but slides into place and secures easily. The whole process can be done within ten minutes by a single person, even if they’ve never built a chair before.

Anthros Chair – Performance

Before receiving the chair, a representative from Anthros warned me that it typically takes a couple of days before most people really get used to its unique design. They were right. At first, it does feel a bit strange, but having used the chair now for around three weeks as my daily driver at work, I can say that it does indeed become comfortable and feels especially supportive in a way other chairs do not.

That isn’t to say that other chairs are necessarily worse in terms of comfort or, especially in the ergonomic office chair space that Anthros competes in, are going to leave you sore at the end of the day. I would certainly hope not given the high price they typically ask, and if you’ve read any of my other coverage, you already know that there are others that I found to be extremely comfortable. Virtually all great ergonomic chairs like the Steelcase Amia or Haworth Fern promote good posture, but it’s how the Anthros goes about it that sets it apart.

Other chairs focus on the lumbar region, typically through a long contour that presses against the whole back. The pelvic support on this chair immediately feels different and almost out of place. At first, I almost felt like it was pushing me too far forward. Because it’s so different, it’s critically important that you set it up correctly or else you’re likely to throw off your posture instead of helping it. The company offers free setup consultations after purchase for exactly this reason.

Getting it set up for the first time is different than with a conventional chair. Many ergonomic office chairs give you the ability to control seat depth and adjust lumbar support up/down and in/out. Here, you need to sit at the right depth first (about two fingers of space between the seat and your knee), then adjust the pelvic support outward to match your position. Then, sitting upright, you adjust the top cushion to match that depth. After all of this, you can adjust the recline tension so that it feels completely natural.

With all of this done, you should be able to sit back and rest into the cushions while still being in a proper upright posture with support for your key pressure points. It’s not complicated, but it’s also not the same process as with other chairs, and because of its approach to supporting your body, it’s arguably even more important to get right.

At first, it honestly felt a bit strange. After testing so many chairs, everything ranging from gaming chairs to high-end office seating, I’ve gotten used to the ability to lean back and slouch without even realizing I’m doing it. This chair doesn’t let you do that. You are in an upright position with your spine in proper alignment all of the time you’re leaning back.

After a couple of days of adjustment, however, I’m surprised at how much more comfortable it feels to sit in it. It was never uncomfortable per se, but that strangeness fades. Once it did, I started to notice how soft yet supportive the cushions were. The ability to lean back provides that more relaxed seating experience I initially craved, but without sacrificing my posture in the process.

The seat cushion may just be the best I’ve ever sat in. It’s thick and tapers down as it approaches the back. Even though you can’t feel the cutouts themselves, you can feel that weight distribution. It’s as if the seat nestles you into its center and cradles you there.

The armrests are slightly less impressive. They’re soft and are comfortable to lean on (though I find I do this less in the Anthros because of how it enables good posture). I also like that I can adjust them far enough down to where they are almost completely out of the way. I’m able to play guitar in this chair with the armrests depressed, which isn’t something I can say about most ergo chairs, where the armrests get in the way of the guitar body. At the same time, I would prefer if they were able to raise a little bit higher and move a little farther forward. I always felt like they were a touch too far back and had to consistently leave them all the way forward.

My overall impressions are very positive. I didn’t experience any back pain even during the adjustment period and can honestly say that its comfortable enforcement of proper posture did make me feel more energized when working or gaming at my desk. The craftsmanship in its construction is very good. The port leather is supple and breathable (though fabric would certainly be more breathable still), and the stitch work is perfect. I’m also a big fan of the wood accents on the back as it gives it a unique elegance that would be right at home in an office or modern home decor setting.

Still, for its asking price of nearly $2,000, I really would have liked to have seen finished metal instead of plastic, especially on the wheelbase, which is most prone to breakage.

Again, it genuinely does not seem like durability is a concern, and the company offers a 12-year warranty with a 30-day risk-free trial, putting it on par with other major players like Herman Miller and Steelcase. Clearly, this is a chair that’s intended to last at least 12 years into the future. Plastic, metal, or anything in between is less of a concern than with a chair offering a shorter warranty.