Review: Sumo Omni bean bag chair
A while back I got an email from Andrew at Sumo, asking me if I would review their bean bag chair for the blog.
I struggled with the question for a while. On the one hand I was afraid to sell out. Could I maintain my integrity in the face of free stuff? On the other hand: “Yaaay, free stuff!”
I accepted and my Sumo Omni arrived two weeks ago.
The material is cool to the touch even when you’ve been sitting in it for a while and the bag strikes just the right balance between firm and squishy. Also: The thing is huge! Further testing found that it is fine for two people watching a DVD together. Or, say, an episode or two of Dexter.
If anything, the damn thing is too comfortable – I don’t really want to get up out of it.
When they ship the Omni overseas, they do it without filling, so I had to order 400 liters of those little plastic pellets on line. This is what such a package looks like:
And let me tell ya: They do look at your strangely at the post office when you pick up those kinds of parcels.
My dream: Make a meeting room where all the walls are whiteboards and the only furniture is bean bag chairs in various sizes. The Omni and it’s smaller cousin The Otto would be perfect for this.
John Wesley Said,
January 16, 2007 @ 8:12 pm
I like your vision of the ideal meeting room. Those bean bag people have done a great job using blogs to market their product. This is probably the third review I’ve seen. Now if only my site was big enough to get me free stuff.
shel Said,
January 16, 2007 @ 9:12 pm
Oooo… looks comfy!!
Stressedmanager Said,
January 16, 2007 @ 9:50 pm
Looks comfy! http://www.sumolounge.com/events/bud.shtml
MyNameIsMatt Said,
January 16, 2007 @ 10:30 pm
What a coincidence, a friend of mine just bought the Sumo and Otto (no free stuff here), and I get to test them out regularly, and they’re great. The Otto is a nice complement to the Sumo because it acts as an ottoman (surprise, surprise).
I really like your vision of a meeting room filled with these or similar, and the Sumo isn’t all sloppy like regular bean bags, so they’d actually work really well. I might have to make this come true where I work…hmmm.
Jonas Haurum Said,
January 17, 2007 @ 12:38 pm
We’re soon to design our new office, we’re thinking about making a kinda crazy playground… we will consider involving theese sumo bean bags… it would be nice with more thoughts on how to design the optimum office for happiness at work.
Daniel R. Sweet Said,
January 18, 2007 @ 12:18 am
Sure…it *looks* comfortable, but I think it would be less so in Texas. Houston humidity and all…
Of course, I could be forced to test it if someone wanted to send me one. (hint–hint)
Dan
Alexander Said,
January 18, 2007 @ 10:38 am
John: Yeah, they do some good viral marketing. AND they have a good product. That’s a nice combination.
shel: It IS!
Stressedmanager: That looks REAL comfy :o)
Matt: Cool! For a meeting room, I’d go with a lotta Ottos. For lounging, I’d go Sumo. The Sumo is too comfortable for meetings – people would relax waaaay too much :o)
Jonas: I’m working a post on how to pimp your office – stay tuned :o)
Daniel: Good point. But then you guys have airconditioning everywhere right?
Daniel R. Sweet Said,
January 18, 2007 @ 2:25 pm
Yes, we have air conditioning everywhere. I’m pretty sure that there were about 5 people who lived in the Houston area before air conditioning. Now, we’re looking at around 4 million.
However, you can’t air condition away 95% humidity. You might get it down to a comfortable 40% – 50%, but it’s still there.
I’m pretty sure that they need to test in an environment like this. I mean, who knows how big the swamp market is?
Dan
Alexander Said,
January 19, 2007 @ 11:24 am
Ah – good point. We don’t have those kinds of problems here in Denmark, but with global warming, we may soon. God knows what Houston will be like then :o)
Daniel R. Sweet Said,
January 19, 2007 @ 2:53 pm
The surface of the sun?
But we’ll still have the nicest residents of any city! (“Hey, hon! Could I get you some zinc oxide and a putty knife? You’ve got some skin showin’ there.”)
Dan
henry Said,
June 3, 2008 @ 5:34 pm
They do look great and most people would love one. However, do not think getting one will be easy. Especially if you do not live in the US or Canada. I live in London and ordered some Omni’s weeks ago. No one from Sumo contacted me yet and I have not received my purchases yet. I then discovered despite them having a UK website, e-mail and contact number and even physical address it is all a shell and all calls are directed to Canada. Don’t bother to use their e-mail address…no one reads it….think twice before you order from the UK…
beanbags Said,
August 1, 2008 @ 8:25 pm
hi henry, i too had problems with ordering from them so i contacted my credit card to stop the transaction and bought a better one from ambient lounge who are based in the uk