Durability is a word that gets thrown around a lot in the world of furniture manufacturing—especially as it relates to the contract market. Every furniture, flooring, lighting, fabric, or surfacing dealer wants specifiers to know their products will last a long time and withstand the abuse of high-traffic environments.
That’s why we were so amused by the folks at Shield Casework, who decided to demonstrate just how tough their Shelfie cabinet is by leaving it outdoors for 10 months exposed to the elements and filming it using a GoPro. Check out this time lapse video that proves just how well it held up. In spite of the heat, rain, ice, and snow (and a car wash to clean it), the Shelfie held up remarkably well and demonstrates the product’s durability in a unique way we’ve never quite seen before. It’s also now on display in the company’s offices a testament to their craftsmanship.
If you’re not the outdoorsy type, maybe this next video by Tough Furniture is more your speed. If the sight of a half-a-dozen grown men doing the Harlem Shake on a bed frame to illustrate how tough it is doesn’t make you smile, we’re not sure what will. But we do know that the company’s Tough Plus Bed can withstand a heck of a lot of weight!
For the mobsters at heart, there’s also this video from Norix Furniture that shows its Public Beam Seating taking a severe beating with a baseball bat. If that weren’t enough, they also stack 500-lb. drums of gravel on each seat and attach cables through the backrests to a forklift just to see what happens. We don’t want to give away any spoilers, but let’s just say this stuff is engineered to endure, as the manufacturer’s motto goes.
And who could forget our favorite contact sport, Aeron Office Hockey? [Editor's Note: Place your bets now on who will emerge victorious from the i+s team, now that we know this is a thing...] While this annual game played on Herman Miller’s iconic task chair isn’t new, it never fails to invoke a sense of jealousy over those employees who get to participate (and spectate) in such a cool event.
Who said work and play can’t be used in the same sentence? Not us.
