Herman Miller Embody vs Aeron vs Steelcase Leap by Steelcase Review 2024

As you can see, these chairs are all exceptional. In our ranking system, there’s very little difference between the scoring, so this is a close contest, which is why there may be some reader disagreement with our top pick.

Before we can compare these chairs, it’s important to give you an overview of each one’s capabilities. Taking them in the same order they’re listed in the table above, and we’ll do that next.

Our Overall Pick: Steelcase Leap Chair

The first thing we’ll point out here is that Steelcase makes several chairs under the Leap name. These are:

For this review, we’ll compare the Standard Leap Chair (the base model) with the other two, so Aeron vs Leap vs Embody, using the base model. While all of the variants mentioned above share many features in common, if the Leap Chair isn’t a perfect fit for you, the other variants and even other Steelcase office chairs are worth taking a closer look at.

The Leap Chair’s design is based on four key discoveries. These are:

Adjustability

Almost every feature of the Leap Chair is adjustable, including:

Honestly, this is flat-out amazing. However, as you can see from some of the numbers above, it isn’t the best office chair for bigger, taller people. If that describes you, check out the Leap Plus, which offers all the same features but in a bigger, more robust package.

Key Features

Let’s highlight a few of the Leap’s key features, which will have a bearing on our comparison of the Steelcase Leap vs Aeron vs. Embody a bit later on. In no particular order, these are:

Seat Back Design

The design of the seat back – Steelcase uses a proprietary technology they’ve dubbed “LiveBack.”  The seatback is slatted such that when pressure is placed on it by leaning back or changing your seating position, the shape of the back changes subtly in response, providing additional support when and where you need it.

This feature makes this one of the best office chairs for back pain. We also rank it as a top office chair for sciatica pain. The ability to dial in different levels of support for your upper and lower back is amazing and will help ease your pain. It’s not a solution, but it will help you be more productive despite the pain. 

Kudos to Steelcase for that – we hadn’t expected to say something like that about an office chair; usually, that sort of praise is reserved for massage chairs, so that’s saying something!

Lumbar Support

The position of the lumbar support is controlled via a simple dial on the back of the chair. From a seated position, you can reach back and make adjustments on the fly until it’s precisely where you want it.

Back Firmness

In our view, this sets the Leap apart from the competition. There are two dials to control the firmness of the chair (the amount of support it provides). You can set these values independently for your upper and lower back, each controlled by its dial. It takes some tweaking to get the settings just how you want them, but once you do, you won’t know how you got along without this chair.

Angle of Recline

The angle of recline – again, this feature is controlled via a simple dial. There are five preset positions ranging between 96 and 120 degrees. Dial the position you want, sit back, and relax! 

Comfort

The Leap doesn’t look like it would be enormously comfortable, and based on the padding alone, it might not be – the padding is adequate but certainly not exceptional. The thing is, comfort isn’t solely about padding, and given the extreme level of adjustability this chair offers, you’ll find this model a joy to sit in, even after marathon work sessions. We even recommend this as one of the best office chairs for hip pain.

Upholstery Options

You can order your Leap in one of three upholstery configurations:

A variety of fabric colors are also available. These include:

Finishes

Finally, the Leap can be ordered in the following finishes:

Extras

You can even order a few “extras” from the company to further customize and personalize your chair. The best of these is the Steelcase Ottoman, which can also serve as an impromptu work table and a headrest, which can be mounted to the back of the chair if you want one.

Put all these elements together and then factor in that the Leap is marginally less expensive than the chairs we’re pitting against for this article. It’s easy to see why, in the matchup between the Steelcase Leap vs Embody vs Aeron, the Leap comes out on top. It’s a remarkable design. We love it! 

Oh! And did we mention that the chair is made from up to 98% recycled materials? Mark that down as another reason to give this one a serious look!

Note that the Leap has a variant with an ergonomic headrest, which is why we chose it as our top pick in our best office chairs for neck pain review.

Assembly

The Leap comes mostly assembled, so there aren’t many parts you’ll have to contend with. While many office chairs take 30 minutes to an hour to put together, you’ll be done with that part and testing your new chair out in about ten minutes, and that’s pure awesome.

Pros & Cons of Steelcase Leap

In our view, Leap’s most significant advantage to a prospective buyer is the crazy amount of customization offered at a surprisingly modest price. Granted, we’d rate the Herman Miller chairs as being slightly higher in terms of overall quality, but where functionality is concerned, it’s just hard to top what Steelcase has produced here.

Regarding negatives, aside from the slightly lower overall production quality we mentioned, the padding sticks out as one potential sore spot for users who may be accustomed to sitting in more luxuriantly padded seats. We don’t have an issue with it, but we understand that some people may.

Herman Miller Aeron Chair

The Aeron has been in the Herman Miller product lineup for over twenty years and has recently been redesigned “from the casters up” to take advantage of all the company has learned about ergonomic design.

It’s a fantastic chair by any reckoning, although in our view, in comparing the Herman Miller Aeron vs Steelcase Leap, the Aeron comes up ever so slightly short.  

The differences aren’t enormous, and opinions may vary, but our view is that the Aeron is perhaps a quarter step down from the Leap.

Having said that, all three are fantastic designs, and you’ll find a lot to like here. 

Where the Leap has entirely different variants of their chair to accommodate different body shapes and types, the Aeron takes a much simpler approach, creating an “A,” “B,” and “C” variant, which correlates to small, medium, and large sizes.

For this review, we’re looking at the “B” model, the medium-sized chair. If you’re petite or big and tall, and the measurements we discussed in the table above and the figures we mention below aren’t a perfect fit for you, be sure to check out the other size variants, and you’ll find something closer to your liking.

Adjustability, Comfort, and Extras

Where the Leap sports a feature that the company calls “LiveBack,” the Aeron boasts “PostureFit SL,” with the “SL” referring to the sacral and lumbar regions of the spine, which covers the lower back to the mid-back.

On the Aeron, these two segments of the chair flex independently, dynamically adjusting the levels of support for different regions depending on how you’re sitting in the chair.

This is a great feature and well-implemented, and you can even tweak the system to fit the precise curve of your spine better. However, we like the manual control that Steelcase offers in their model slightly better and find this implementation somewhat less robust than the one provided in the Leap.

The Aeron also boasts a tilt limiter that allows you to adjust how far the chair leans back, with three options: upright, recline, and full. In addition, the armrests are height adjustable between 6.8” and 10” and pivot in/out to a maximum of 17.5 and 15 degrees, respectively.

Finally, while the Aeron does allow you to adjust the lumbar support tension, the support itself is fixed in its position.

It’s an impressive list of features, and if we hadn’t presented you with the Leap’s long list of adjustable features, you’d probably be fairly dazzled. Unfortunately, as we mentioned earlier, it’s slightly lagging when comparing the Herman Miller Aeron vs Embody or the Leap.

Where comfort is concerned, the Aeron has all the advantages and disadvantages of a mesh chair. It boasts an 8z Pellicle, which provides eight dynamically adjusting suspension zones for optimal support. It is also incredibly breathable, making it ideally suited for long-duration sitting, but it lacks padding.

Fortunately, padding isn’t the only dimension of comfort, and the ergonomic design features the chair sports make this model surprisingly comfortable.

When comparing the Aeron chair to the Embody chair, we find that the Embody is the more comfortable of the two but also more expensive. Ultimately, it depends on your needs.

Finally, while the Aeron is offered in a few different color combinations, you won’t find the selection to be nearly as impressive as what the Leap offers. Your options are:

Assembly

The Aeron does not come assembled but in just two pieces, so assembly is quick and painless. You’ll be sitting in your new chair in a matter of minutes.

Pros & Cons of Herman Miller Aeron

We like almost everything about the Aeron and readily acknowledge that it’s a great design. Even better, it’s backed by Herman Miller’s impressive 12-year warranty, which has to be counted among the model’s advantages.

It’s also a good “green” option, being constructed of 53% recycled materials, although again, it’s not quite as green as the Leap. However, we were underwhelmed by a few aspects of the design.

For us, the biggest disappointment is that the lumbar support isn’t height-adjustable, so if it’s not where you want it, you’re just out of luck. While you can adjust the tension and, thus, the amount of support you get, you can’t reposition it.

That’s typical of this model. It has a raft of undeniably great features, but they’re not implemented as well as the Leap or, in most cases, the Embody. 

On the other hand, not everyone wants or needs that level of fine-tuning. If you don’t, this is probably the chair you want. We’d rate it as an excellent general-purpose office chair, suitable for a wide range of uses. It’s good at almost everything but falls short of being great at any of them.

Herman Miller Embody Chair

The team behind this chair designed the Herman Miller Embody for gaming, or at the very least, with gamers and other power users at the forefront of their minds. As the spiritual, if not the actual successor to the Aeron, when comparing the Herman Miller Embody chair vs Aeron, you’ll find that the Embody exceeds it at least slightly in almost every way. Although, as we said, both designs are exceptional.

One marked difference you’ll note right off the bat, though, is that Herman Miller dispensed with the “A,” “B,” and “C” size designators for this model. There’s just one.  

It’s highly adaptable and adjustable, but ultimately, you either fit into it or you don’t. Still, assuming you do, if you spend endless hours in your office chair and you like the vaguely futuristic aesthetic, this is probably the chair you want.

The best and most intriguing feature of this design is that this chair has its spine, which can be set to move independently as you sit in it to do your work. This is a brilliant solution and exceptionally well-implemented. We’ve never seen anything like it on any other office chair, making this one ideal for marathon work sessions.

Adjustability, Comfort, and Extras

There are an amazing number of Embody chair adjustments you can make, including:

• Adjusting the seat height (16.5” to 22”)
• Adjusting the seat depth (15” to 18”)
• Tweaking the tilt tension (i.e., the amount of resistance the chair gives when you press your back against the back of the chair)
• Adjusting the tilt limiter (set the maximum angle of recline between 90 and 135 degrees)
• Adjust the height of the arms (independently)
• Adjust the “BackFit” to either be straight (flat back) or to allow the chair’s spine to move with your own curve.
• And adjust how far apart the arms are (note: the arms also pivot, but do not move backward and forward)

These statistics make this chair a great office chair for short users.

You’ll find a lot in common when comparing the Herman Miller Embody and Aeron. However, as we said earlier, the Embody not only has a greater number of adjustable features but also tends to have slightly superior implementations.

Like the other chairs we’ve discussed, the Embody lacks padding for comfort, but despite that, it is a lot more comfortable than you might imagine.

When you order this model, you can select between two fabric options: balance or rhythm. In the next section, we’ll compare and contrast those Herman Miller Embody rhythm vs. balance. 

Here are some photos that showcase the chair’s aesthetic, as well as demonstrate the independent action of the armrests:

Along with some side angle shots to give you a more complete picture:

And here are a couple of shots from the back of the chair, showcasing its “spine.”

A closeup shot of a spinal segment (vertebrae?) and a view from the bottom of the seat back, looking up:

Finally, here are two shots taken of the underside of the seat. Note the articulation. This is one of the primary reasons that the Embody is such a comfortable chair, even though it lacks luxurious amounts of padding:

Herman Miller Embody Fabric Differences

While some purchasers have claimed that the difference is mostly cosmetic, there are some interesting things to note about each.

The company’s rhythm fabric consists of a single layer, making it the thinner of the two. Despite being thinner, it’s the stronger and more durable of the two fabric options. 

Also note that the holes in the fabric are larger, making the rhythm fabric more breathable and much more like sitting in a mesh chair.

The balance fabric consists of two layers with a cushioned layer between them, providing a modest amount of additional padding. It’s also slightly more expensive than the other fabric option.

When comparing Herman Miller Embody balance vs rhythm fabric, it comes down to what you want and what you’re looking for in upholstery. 

If you want something more breathable and, thus, more comfortable, rhythm is the way to go. 

Suppose you want something with a bit of extra padding for a more traditionally comfortable seating experience and are willing to pay a little extra. In that case, the balance is the upholstery you’re looking for.

Color Options

Balance Fabric comes in the following color options:

Rhythm Fabric can be ordered in any of the following colors:

Assembly

As with the other chairs we’ve discussed, this one comes mostly but not completely assembled. The assembly process is quick and painless, and you’ll be scooting the Embody up to your desk and getting to work in no time.

Pros & Cons of Herman Miller Embody

Considering this chair’s own, there’s nothing to dislike about it. Very few people might be put off by its futuristic styling, but other than that, there’s nothing bad to say about it.

Sure, it’s pricey, but this is a case of getting what you pay for. You’re not going to find a chair with so many adjustment options, cutting-edge ergonomic technology, and a twelve-year warranty for a song; it’s just not going to happen.

We love the chair’s aesthetic and were blown away by the feature set and how many aspects of the chair can be adjusted to taste. As we said, if you spend endless hours working at your desk, this is almost certainly the chair you want. Besides, how cool would it be to own a chair with its spine!?

Comparing These Three Models

The Value Proposition

Here, Steelcase steals the spotlight from the other two in the Herman Miller Embody vs. Steelcase Leap vs. Aeron comparison. While all three chairs offer tremendous value for the money, we were impressed by the independently adjustable upper and lower back support feature.  

When you combine that with the chair’s price, we had to give the Leap the nod, narrowly ahead of Herman Miller’s two excellent offerings.

Comfort and Adjustability

Although the Leap isn’t as comfortable as some other office chairs we’ve reviewed, if you only consider the padding, as we mentioned earlier, padding isn’t the only element contributing to a chair’s comfort. 

Comfort-wise, we find virtually no difference between the Herman Miller Embody vs Leap, although they’re comfortable for different reasons. We feel that the Aeron lags slightly behind the other two models, but not by a sufficiently wide margin to be a deal breaker.

Where adjustments are concerned, Embody vs Leap are again virtually tied, although their adjustments take different forms in a few cases. Again, the Aeron lags ever so slightly behind the other two.

Aesthetics

All three chairs are attractively designed, putting them above average in the looks department. However, we don’t consider any of the three to be show-stoppers in terms of their aesthetic. In comparing the Aeron, Embody, and Leap, we find that the Embody, while striking, is perhaps a bit too futuristic to blend seamlessly into as many home or office décor schemes as the other two.

Honestly, though, while aesthetics matter, at the price point we’re talking about here, they’re probably not the primary consideration for most customers when purchasing.  

In any case, we rate this dimension as a tie between the Aeron and Leap, with the Embody lagging ever so slightly behind them due to its unusual and futuristic styling.

Brand Reliability

Herman Miller and Steelcase are at the top of the reliability charts, offering amazing post-sales customer service and support. For all practical purposes, then, in our Aeron vs Embody vs Leap comparison, we’re rating this dimension as a tie, but we did want to give it a brief mention so you’d know we didn’t forget to include it!

Aeron vs Embody vs Leap Comparison Review Conclusion

As we said at the start, since all three chairs are extremely close regarding their overall ranking scores, any comparison of Aeron vs Embody vs Leap will contain a subjective element. We fully expect and understand that some readers might disagree with our conclusion.

If you’re one of those, we’ll reiterate that all three of these chairs are extraordinary, and any of them would serve you well.

However, we consider the Steelcase Leap the best overall in this head-to-head comparison, but we recommend all three models without reservation.

Here’s a quick summary of how we see these three great models:

• Steelcase Leap—This is our overall winner and an ideal chair for people with chronic back pain. This chair allows you to remain productive despite the pain and may help alleviate it.
• Herman Miller Aeron – A brilliant “Jack of All Trades” chair – suitable for a wide range of tasks but falling short of exceptional at any of them.
• Herman Miller Embody – The perfect choice for power users who consistently spend long hours in their chairs, either working or gaming.

Recommended Reading

REFERENCES & RESOURCES

• Herman Miller, Official Brand Website.
• Steelcase, Official Brand Website.
• Steelcase Leap User Manual.
• Herman Miller Aeron User Manual.
• Herman Miller Embody User Manual.
• What’s the Difference Between an Office Chair and Gaming Chair, Standingdesktopper.