The Navy Chair is Emeco’s most iconic product and been in production since 1944. Made from recycled aluminum, it is lightweight, non-corrosive and fireproof. It is made to last for 150 years.
It is named the Navy Chair because it was originally designed for the US Navy, which needed a chair for the deck of battleships that could survive sea air and a torpedo blast to the side of the ship.
It takes 77 steps to make a Navy Chair, from forming, welding & grinding, to heat treating, to hand finishing & polishing, all the way up to anodizing. All Navy Chairs are made by hand and under one roof at their factory in Hanover, Pennsylvania.
To see the 77 steps in action, click here.
The Navy Chair has been featured in many Hollywood movies such as The Dark Knight, The Matrix and Armageddon. It is frequently seen in scenes of interrogation and therefore been dubbed the “Prison Chair”.
Picture from imgur.
Philip Starck is a regular collaborating designer. He has designed the Heritage collection and the Broom Chair (pictured).
Other collaborating designers include the architect Frank Gehry, who designed the Superlight Chair.
Japanese design studio Nendo designed Su by Nendo 2014, a collection of barstools that follows the Japanese aesthetic of ‘su’ – meaning plain or unadorned.
Architect Norman Foster came up with the 20-06 Chair that launched in 2006. It was selected by the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum for its 2006 Triennial.
Emeco is big on sustainability, and known for their use of recycled and reclaimed materials. CEO and owner of Emeco Gregg Buchbinder is an avid surfer from Southern California who cares about the effects of pollution and waste dumping has to the oceans.
In 2006, Coca-Cola and Emeco collaborated to create the III Navy Chair which was launched in 2010. The plan was to up-cycle their bottles into a sustainable, timeless, classic chair.
Because of the timelessness of their designs, Emeco chairs are often copied by competitor brands, but they are known to come down hard on their imitators. In 2015, Emeco filed a design right and copyright infringement case against IKEA, alleging that IKEA’s Melltorp dining chair was similar to the 20-06 Stacking Chair designed by Norman Foster in 2006.
Picture from Dezeen.
In 2016, Emeco collaborated with Sam Hecht and Kim Colin of Industrial Facility, who have done designs for Muji, to produce the Run collection. With the Run collection, Emeco had their first ever tables to complement their vast selection of chairs.
Their latest chair is the 1-inch collection designed with Jasper Morrison that was launched at the 2017 Milan Salon del Mobile. The 1-inch collection is so called because a one inch size, square extruded aluminum tube was used to make the frame.
All pictures, otherwise stated, are from Emeco.