In a Nutshell:
This backpacking chair from GCI Outdoor made our list for being a highly durable, extremely stable chair solution. The primary reason it doesn’t rank higher is the weight. This chair comes in at six pounds, which can be a lot to carry for long distances.
Durability
Portability
Stability
Overall Rating
4/5
Benefits
Drawbacks
Recommended For: Anyone looking for a highly durable, extremely stable chair solution and would not mind the weight of the chair coming in at six pounds.
Camping, hiking, or otherwise enjoying the outdoors is a pastime that many of us enjoy. Even the strongest of us will need a place to sit, however. You could always take your chances with benches or a tree stump, but bringing a portable backpacking chair is much easier.
Join us as we look at the GCI Outdoor Quik-E-Seat chair to see if this piece of outdoor furniture is something that could be useful on your next excursion into mother nature.
GCI Outdoor Quik-E-Seat Overview
The GCI Outdoor brand was founded in 1996 based on a simple question: “why isn’t there a chair for this?” This question was posed by founder Dan Grace, who wanted to build an answer. With an engineering background, Dan was able to design what he called the Everywhere Chair®.
This first chair was a hillside adjustable seat that could go with you when you were hiking or otherwise enjoying the outdoors. In 1998, Jeffrey Polke joined the company as a co-owner. He brought his sales, marketing, and retail expertise to the picture.
From this point, GCI Outdoor exploded into a well-known brand. Both Dan and Jeff are still working to improve and enhance their products. One such product in their line is the Outdoor Quik-E-Seat that we’re taking a look at today.
This tripod chair can be deployed or folded out at a moment’s notice. It has an extra-wide backrest and a beverage holder as well, which are great features. The durable material and frame also ensure that it will be your companion on a lot of journeys into the wild world.
Let’s take a look at all the features you can expect from this backpacking chair.
Quik-E-Seat Features List
Chairs like this one live or die on their features. They need to be lightweight, portable, and most importantly, durable. Let’s take a look at how this GCI Outdoor backpacking chair fills those roles:
High-Quality Materials
Standard materials just won’t do when you’re bringing furniture outside. Thankfully, GCI Outdoor has included 600 denier Polyester in this chair, along with powder-coated steel for the frame. The polyester is Marine Grade Canvas designed to survive the most intense conditions.
Powder coated steel gives the metal a resistance to wear, fading, or scuffing, which will keep the chair looking good, even when the weather isn’t cooperating.
Simple Folding and Transport
Some portable backpacking chairs require you to take the frame apart and build it again, but that’s not the case here. This chair quickly folds up or deploys within seconds. The included sling strap will help you carry it from one place to the next.
High Weight Capacity
This heavy-duty chair supports up to 250 pounds, which is higher than other chairs on the market.
Extra Wide Backrest
The extra-wide backrest is 18-inches, which offers a lot more comfort and space to relax your back and shoulders.
Beverage Holder
Every chair should have a beverage holder, it just seems like good form. When you’re relaxing on a fishing trip or calming down after a long hike, you need a place to set your water, and this chair offers one.
Quik-E-Seat Folding Chair Specifications
Pros and Cons of GCI Outdoor Quik-E-Seats
This tripod chair from GCI Outdoor is a remarkable piece of furniture that has a lot of positive features. Let’s take a look at a full breakdown of the pros and cons:
PROS
CONS
The presence of military-grade polyester and powder-coated steel are both things we want to see from a durable chair design. This chair will withstand a variety of extreme conditions and weather for all of your travel needs.
The added beverage holder is a small, but welcome addition to the chair’s design. Too often on camping trips or hiking excursions, placing your drink on the ground can invite insects or dirt to get inside.
The chair starts to show some of its weakness when we look at the weight. At six pounds, this is one of the heavier backpacking chairs we’ve encountered. While this isn’t ideal, we did notice that the shoulder strap makes carrying it somewhat more manageable.
Even so, with chairs that come in under 2 pounds, this weight was a downside. Looking through the customer feedback, some people have expressed a desire for a fourth leg instead of the tripod design. This would indeed add more comfort, but it would also increase the weight.
Overall, this is an excellent backpacking chair that, while somewhat heavy, will become a dependable piece of equipment for any outdoor adventure.
Our GCI Quik-E-Seat Review Verdict
If you consider yourself a lover of the outdoors, then you need a dependable chair for your breaks and moments of quiet serenity. Not just any chair will do, though. You need something durable, reliable, and easy to transport.
Upon reflecting on our GCI Outdoor Quik-E-Seat review, it’s clear that this chair meets all of those requirements. Its only major flaw is being heavier than we would like, especially when you look at other chairs that have made our top list of backpacking chairs.
Even so, this chair is a dependable option that will last through many adventures across the great outdoors.
REFERENCES & RESOURCES
- GCI Outdoor, Official Brand Website.
- The Definitive Guide That You Never Wanted: Backpack Fabrics, Pangolins with Packs.
- Some of the Key Benefits That a Folding Chair Offers, Self Growth.
- The Pros and Cons of Camping Chairs, Ezine Articles.