FlexFit Hyken Mesh Back Fabric Task Chair Review 2024

Are you on a budget? Is your current office chair beginning to show its age? If it is, or if you don’t yet have an office chair and suddenly find yourself needing one, you’re going to like what you read in this—our Flexfit Hyken mesh task chair review.

If you are unfamiliar with the Hyken brand, you’re not alone. 

Hyken is a part of Union and Scale’s product line. Union and Scale isn’t a big, well-known name in the office furniture industry, and they sell most of their products to big-box retailers.

They know a fair bit about making good quality furniture, though, and the production quality of the products they offer is almost absurdly good, so don’t let the fact that you don’t know the name put you off. This chair is well worth a look.

In the following sections, we’ll step you through everything this stunningly capable office chair has to offer, and we won’t pull any punches when describing its limitations. That way, you’ll have all the details at your fingertips to decide whether or not this is the chair you’ve been looking for. If that sounds good to you, read on, and let’s take a closer look.

An Overview Of The Flexfit Hyken Mesh Back Fabric Task Chair

Overall, this is a strong component of our Flexfit Hyken mesh task chair review, but as you’ll see, the chair’s one glaring weakness becomes apparent here.

When you see the chair for the first time, one thing that will jump out at you is how ordinary it looks.

The designers stuck purely to convention, creating a chair that looks a lot like most of the other office chairs on the market today.

That’s not a bad thing. Most people buy office chairs for their function, not their form, and most office furniture tends to fade politely into the background as your eye passes over it. If that’s what you’re looking for, this one will suit you as well as most any other.

It’s important to mention here, though, that this is an all-mesh chair. That’s got pros and cons. All mesh means that the chair is wonderfully breathable, which adds to comfort, but there are limits to that. The more time you spend sitting in the chair, the more you’ll wish the seat had some padding rather than mesh.

The other thing is that not everybody likes all mesh chairs. This is really a matter of personal preference, but if you’re not a fan of all-mesh, no matter how good this chair is, you’re simply not going to be impressed with it.

Of course, aesthetics will only take you so far in the office furniture world. At the end of the day, function matters more than form for most folks, and to get a better feel for that, we need to look at hard numbers.

With that in mind, here are the stats that define this model:

With one notable exception, these numbers are fantastic. The chair is not overly heavy, and being on casters, it’s relatively easy to move about. It’s got an about average-sized footprint, and the seat height adjustment range is spectacular, straddling the line that separates standard office furniture from big and tall office furniture.

The only real issue is that it’s lightly built and sports a nylon base. Unfortunately, that means that it can’t support a lot of user weight.

The informal office furniture average is 300 pounds, and this chair doesn’t quite rise to that level. That’s a pity because it limits the appeal of the chair. It simply won’t accommodate as much of the market as we like.

Assuming you’re okay with that, if you decide you want one of these, you can order yours in your choice of either red, grey, or black.

The Flexfit Hyken Mesh Task Chair Boasts Adjustable Arms And More

This is another fairly strong component of our Flexfit Hyken mesh task chair review. This model has three adjustable features of note, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s worth remembering that this is a value-priced chair, and in its market segment, yes, that’s impressive.

The three features to talk about here are the seat height, which we’ve already given a mention, and the second are the armrests, which are also height adjustable. 

We would love to have seen 3D adjustable arms that could pivot, but given the low price of the chair, we completely understand why those niceties were left off. The third adjustable feature you’ll find here is the headrest, which can be adjusted for both height and angle.

For prospective buyers looking for a chair for light to moderate use (say, up to 4-5 hours a day), this chair is a wonder. The mesh upholstery makes the chair extremely breathable and delightfully comfortable.

Here, we part ways with the company. If you read their sales literature, you’ll see that they claim you can sit in this chair comfortably for up to ten hours a day.

We highly doubt that.

Mesh is fine for short to medium duration seating, but after a certain point, padding matters at least as much as breathability. And by design, a mesh seat has exactly zero padding, so if you are a power user, you’ll probably want to invest in a seat pad for added comfort.

Thankfully, given the low price of the chair, you’ll have plenty of money left over to do that, so we don’t regard this as a knock on the design at all; we just don’t agree with the company’s assessment in this particular case.

In addition to that, the chair offers well-implemented lumbar support for added comfort. Even better, you can adjust the height of the lumbar support if you need to. It is well-implemented and effective and adds value to the chair.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that this model features a standard tilt and lock mechanism, giving you tremendous freedom in terms of how you sit in and use the chair.

We like that, and we’re pleased to see it included because, on some low-priced chairs, it’s notably absent.

The Union & Scale Hyken Technical Mesh Task Chair Has No Extras

Sadly, the Hyken FlexFit doesn’t offer anything in the way of extras, but we want to carve out some space here to mention something we really love to see on some future model updates.

We already really like this chair, but if the company could see their way clear to add a coat hanger on the back, that would really take it to the next level. It’s a small extra that would add even more value to the chair and serve as a mark of distinction since so few low-priced chairs feature anything in the way of extras at all.

The Staples Hyken Flexfit Doesn’t Come Assembled, But…

As is the case with most of the office furniture sold today, the Hyken Flexfit chair doesn’t come assembled, but you can pay an additional sum to have it assembled before it is shipped to your door.

We don’t recommend this.

The chair doesn’t cost a ton of money, and the assembly fee adds about thirty percent to the overall price. Given that the chair only takes about 20 minutes to put together, we just don’t feel that it’s worth it, but of course, if you want the added convenience and don’t mind spending the extra money, just know that the option is available.

Pros & Cons of the Flex Fit Hyken Mesh Task Chair

So, where does that leave us?

We like almost everything about this model. We believe there are only two potential snags to be aware of. The first is a practical limitation. The chair only supports 275 pounds of user weight. If you weigh more than that, this model is a non-starter, no matter how much you may like it.

The second is an aesthetic/personal preference matter. If you’re fine with mesh chairs, this one will serve you well indeed. If you can’t stand the idea of sitting in a mesh chair, you’re not going to like this one.

Other than that, this is a fantastic option that’s easy on your wallet.

FlexFit Hyken Mesh Task Chair Review Conclusion

We like the Staples Flexfit Hyken mesh chair but don’t love it. Its modest weight limit and the lack of a padded, fabric-clad variant make it somewhat narrowly focused.

That’s not the end of the world, and as long as you fall into the fairly narrow band that the chair is marketing to, it will serve you very well. On that basis, we provisionally recommend it.

Other Options To Consider

If you’ve read to the end of this Flexfit Hyken mesh chair review and you’re just not convinced that this is the right chair for you, here are a couple of other options you may want to consider:

This is a fantastic budget option, made even better by the fact that it comes in both a task chair and a drafting stool variant, giving you even more options.

Feature-wise, it’s comparable to the chair we just talked about and is offered by a smaller but respected company in the industry.

Flash Furniture is an underappreciated company, and this is a fantastic entry-level chair that you’ll absolutely love.

It’s not as good as Flash’s mighty “Hercules” line of virtually indestructible chairs, but this one is very good and has a comparable feature set, making it well worth considering.

---

Official Manufacturer Support

References and Resources:

• FlexFit Office Chair, Official Brand Website.
• How to Sit Properly At Your Desk, Work Fit.
• Occupational Sitting Behaviour and Its Relationship With Back Pain, Science Direct.
• Adverse Effects of Prolonged Sitting Behavior on the General Health of Office Workers, National Center for Biotechnology Information.