The Durability of Herman Miller’s Eames Lounge

Ray and Charles Eames designed their classic lounge chair and ottoman for Herman Miller in 1956. Joe Schwartz, then Marketing Director for Herman Miller recalls, “I think it sold for about 900 U.S. dollars at that time. And not a lot of people liked its aesthetic then... it was an unfamiliar visual object. Eames made it to give it as a gift for his friend Billy Wilder. It was not originally designed as a Herman Miller product.” Over 50 years since their introduction, the lounge chair and ottoman are still being manufactured with minor modifications and they continue to sell. Durability, endurance and timelessness are not easy to capture in the design of products. Herman Miller C.E.O. Brian Walker believes that planned obsolescence is by no means a necessary condition for either innovation or market success. “By increasing durability, extending 12 year warranties to customers and developing long lasting design solutions, we strive to create a sustainable world. In the contract furniture business, customers do not want short-lived goods; they want their furnishings to endure over time.”