Haworth Zody Task Office Chair Review 2024

Are you in the market for a new office chair? If so, you owe it to yourself to consider the Zody.  This model is offered by a company you may not have heard of called Haworth. 

While they don’t have a tremendous footprint in the consumer market, this family-owned operation has grown into a two-billion-dollar juggernaut in the B2B world, and now, thanks to the internet, consumers can easily buy from them as well.

Haworth is a design-focused company with a world-class design team, and the Zody is an excellent example of their work.

In the sections that follow, we’ll do a deep dive into the chair itself and the ordering process.

The reason we want to call particular attention to the ordering process is the fact that if you order from the company directly, you’ll have tons of customization options. 

Stepping you through that process here will make it quick and painless if you decide the Zody is right for you.

The other ordering option is to buy from an Amazon vendor so that all of the decisions are made for you. 

This is quick and convenient, but it does mean that you’re living with someone else’s choices. That’s fine if one of the pre-configured options is perfect for you, but if you want to maintain maximum flexibility and get a chair that fits you like a glove, you’ll probably want to order directly from the company.

In any case, with all that said, let’s jump in and see what the Zody chair has to offer!

An Overview Of The Haworth Zody Classic Mesh Office Chair

There’s a lot to like in this section of our Haworth Zody review, but before we take a look at the raw statistics that define this model, we should point out something important.

One of the defining characteristics of this chair is the fact that there are actually three model variants to choose from here:

All three share a common framework and are built around the same basic design, but they’re all aimed at a different segment of the market. Even if you ultimately plan to buy one of the pre-configured chairs from an Amazon vendor, it is well worth heading to this page: CONFIGURATOR

Spend some time playing with Haworth’s “Configurator” so you can get a sense of what options are available and how they’ll impact the final cost of your perfect chair.

In terms of the numbers all three variants have in common, here are the basics:

There’s a lot to like where these numbers are concerned and a lot to talk about.

Starting at the top, we see that this is a sizable office chair but it’s narrow enough that you should have no difficulty rolling it through a standard-sized doorway if the need arises. That’s a good thing, as it adds to the flexibility of the design.

Next up, we see that it’s a highly adjustable chair with seat height, seat depth, and armrest height all showing adjustable ranges. In addition to that, there are relatively few office chairs on the market that allow you to adjust the seat depth, and this is one of them.

Taken together, all of these adjustable features are a clear sign that you can customize your seating experience so that the chair fits you like a glove, which will enhance your comfort even if you spend several hours each day sitting in it.

If that isn’t enough, there’s a reference to something referred to as “Dual Posture.” That’s a feature Haworth offers on the Zody task chair that we haven’t seen anywhere outside of Haworth designs.

This feature makes the Zody an ideal choice if you use a standing desk, as the chair can be adjusted to a much wider range of seating positions than most other chairs make available, allowing you to “perch” —half standing, half sitting—while you’ve got your standing desk raised to standing height.

That, in turn, allows you to work longer and in more comfort than you’d otherwise be able to, and that’s pure awesome. In fact, we’d rate the “Dual Posture” feature found here as one of the strongest aspects of the Zody’s design.

Note that the lumbar support feature is optional on this chair. We like that, and we don’t.  

On the one hand, if you don’t spend much time sitting in your chair each day, you can probably get by without the lumbar support, and there’s no point in paying for a feature you’re not likely to use.

On the other hand, we suspect that the vast majority of the potential customers for the Zody 2 chair will want it, making the ordering and customization process one step longer than it needs to be.

Whatever side of the argument you come down on, it’s worth noting that if you don’t want the lumbar support, you can leave it off as you customize your chair (assuming you’re using the company’s website and not buying a pre-configured model) and save yourself some money.

The raw numbers and basic stats only tell part of the story, however. There are a number of other aspects of the Haworth Zody task chair that all three of the variants we mentioned share in common. These include:

The final thing to mention before we leave this section is the fact that the Zody classic task chair comes with a twelve-year warranty. While that’s not the absolute best you can find in the industry, it’s very good, and Haworth is one of only a handful of companies in the office furniture industry to offer a warranty that good. It’s a mark of distinction and a testament to the quality of the chair.

It also makes it somewhat difficult to compare the Zody classic to less expensive chairs because the temptation is to look at price alone, which makes it easy to conclude that the Zody just doesn’t deliver the value that the lower-priced options bring to the table.

The reason the price-only comparison isn’t fair is that it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.  With proper care, your Zody will easily outlast the warranty, so you can expect at least a decade of reliable service from the chair.

Most of the low-cost options only have a one-year warranty, and they’ll last about that long.  Over the life of your Zody, then, you’d have to buy ten (or more) of the lower-priced chairs, and acknowledging that fact puts the value proposition in a whole new light.

Ordering A Zody Classic Office Chair

A key component of our Haworth Zody review, this section will walk you through the use of the “Configurator” and the various options you’ll find there. Again, here is the link to the Configurator: CONFIGURATOR

All of your customization decisions are made on the panel sitting on the right-hand side of the screen, with the bulk of the screen displaying an image of your chair as you add or delete features and change options.

Note that the various options are hidden behind the “Dimensions”, “Style”, and “Color” buttons on this panel, so to access the full range of your customization options, you’ll need to click on each of those buttons in turn.

Beginning with the “Dimensions” button, you’ll have two choices to make. The first of these is which of the three variants you want. You can choose from:

Whichever option you select, you’ll find the same four-seat height adjustment options. You can select any one of the following:

We recommend only selecting the dual posture option if you use a standing desk and only selecting the “high” option if you’re 6’3″ or taller.

Once you’ve made your selections here, click on the “Style” button to reveal additional options.

The first option you can select here relates to seat control. You can opt for either a forward tilt with a backstop or a synchro tilt with a backstop.

Below that, you’re presented with a false choice. The seat on all variants is depth-adjustable, and you don’t have the option to order your chair without it.

Following that, you can determine whether you want a back jacket or not, and then whether you want the optional lumbar support or not. Note that the Zody also has an option for both pelvic and lumbar support, making it one of the very few office chairs offering pelvic support!

After that, we come to the armrests. As mentioned earlier, you can stick with the standard 4D arms or opt for fixed arms, simple height adjustable arms, or even order your Zody with no arms at all.

Then comes the base. 

You’ll see two options here: aluminum or plastic. After that, you’ll select the casters you want on your chair, selecting one of the following options:

The final choice you’ll make in this section concerns surface treatment. You can either opt for none or stain resistant. There are no right answers here. Ultimately, it comes down to what your specific needs and preferences are and how you plan on using the chair.

The final section pertains to color, and you can choose the color of the seat, the back (choosing either one- or two-color options for the back), the frame, and the trim.

If aesthetics matter to you, this is huge. You’ll be able to customize your chair so that it not only appeals to you personally but also blends in perfectly with your office’s prevailing color scheme. 

We’ve never seen another company with quite so many options on this front, and we love it!

Pros and Cons of The Haworth Zody Chair

In our view, the biggest pros associated with the Haworth Zody are as follows:

Of course, to take full advantage of the customization options, you’ll want to order from Haworth directly. If you select a pre-packaged chair from a third-party vendor, all of the important decisions will be made for you, and the chair you get may not be exactly what you had in mind or wanted.

On the downside, the only real negative to talk about is price. If you’re on a budget and don’t want to save up for a chair like this, you may wind up concluding that buying multiple lower-priced chairs over the decade the Zody would have been in service is the way to go.

Again, there are no right answers here. Each person will have to decide for themselves whether it makes more sense to save up and get something like the Zody or buy a number of less expensive, less durable chairs over the same period the Zody would be in service.

Haworth Zody Review Conclusion

The Zody is an amazing chair, no doubt about it. Our view is that it would be most attractive to those who regularly make use of a standing desk and consider aesthetics a somewhat very important component of the chair they ultimately select.

If both of those things hold true for you, then the Zody is going to be hard to beat. It’s also going to be particularly interesting to chronic pain sufferers because it provides both lumbar and pelvic support.

If none of those apply to you, then although it’s an undeniably great chair, you may find a better fit by looking at some other model. Overall, we give this model a provisional recommendation.

Other Options To Consider

If you’re still reading and you’ve reached the conclusion that as impressive as the Zody is, it’s just not the right chair for you, here are some other options you may want to consider.

If you liked the Zody and are interested in other chairs by the same company, then the Very is well worth a look. It’s aimed at a slightly different segment of the market but is every bit as feature-rich as the chair we just talked about, though with slightly less to offer when it comes to color customization.

This is the gold standard where office chairs are concerned. The Leap is a legendary design by one of the best companies in the business today. It’s a feature-rich, incredibly comfortable, and supportive chair that will provide you with years of hassle-free service. Not to be missed.

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Official Manufacturer Support

REFERENCES AND RESOURCES

• Haworth, Official Brand Website. 
• Standing Desks: How They Help You Beat Inactivity, WebMD. 
• The Health Effects of Poor Posture, Cleveland Clinic. 
• 5 Adjustments You Need to Make to Your Desk Right Now, NBC News.