Do you suffer from poor circulation in your legs? What about hip pain, whether caused by arthritis or something else? Is your chronic pain keeping you from being as productive as you once were, and are you frustrated by the fact that your current office chair isn’t helping as much as you’d hoped?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, then you’re going to love our review of the Salli brand of saddle style office stools.
About the Salli Brand
Haven’t heard of Salli? Unless you work in the medical profession, we’d be surprised if you had. They’re a small company based in Finland, but they’re giants in their field with a well-deserved reputation for excellence.
Salli makes a variety of products from their world-famous saddle-style stools, to innovative ergonomic desks, and even paddle boats. We’ll be focusing on the saddle chairs only for the purposes of this review, and if you’re ready to consider alternatives to conventional office seating, you’re going to love the products this company makes.
Not only are they of exceptionally high quality, but the sky’s the limit in terms of customizing them so they fit both you and the way you work, perfectly.
Although the company makes a wide range of stools, there are four that really define the brand. The other stools are minor variations of the design themes established by the “Big Four,” and as such, we’ll talk about them first, and then provide some details on the subtle differences that make their minor variations important and compelling.
We’ll be quick to say that Salli Saddle Chairs aren’t for everyone, but as you proceed through this review and learn more about the products they offer, we think you’ll agree: If you’re in the market for an alternative to conventional office seating, these stool chairs belong on your short list of consideration.
Before we get into the details of their main products, let’s start with a broad overview of the Big Four:
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4.4
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4.2
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4.1
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4.0
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4.8
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4.3
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4.0
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3.8
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4.3
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4.0
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3.8
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3.7
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4.0
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4.0
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4.0
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4.0
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4.5
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4.5
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4.5
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4.5
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24” x 24” x 22.5” to 30”
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25” x 25” x 22.5” to 30”
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25” x 25” x 22.5” to 30”
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22” x 22” x 22.5” to 30”
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30 pounds
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30 pounds
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25 pounds
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16.5 pounds
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330 pounds
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260 pounds
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260 pounds
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260 pounds
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22.5” to 30”
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22.5” to 30”
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22.5” to 30”
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22.5” to 30”
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Anyone who can afford one, but it’s of particular value in offices or households where multiple people will be using the stool. Also provides the strongest ergonomic and therapeutic benefit for people who suffer from arthritis pain, leg pain, and poor circulation.
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Anyone. It’s pricey, but worth it.
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This is the model most preferred by women the world over.
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While not as robust or full-featured, this variant still provides powerful ergonomic benefits. Best suited to women, smaller adults and children.
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* While aesthetics is a matter of taste, aesthetic flexibility is a measure of how easily a given design would fit into a wide range of home or office décor schemes.
** Brand Reliability: This metric is a measure of the strength and longevity of the brand, which by extension, is a measure of the level of support you can expect.
A Closer Look: Salli Saddle Chairs
Salli Multi Adjuster
Recommended For: Anyone who can afford one, but it’s of particular value in offices or households where multiple people will be using the stool.
The Salli Multiadjuster Chair isn’t officially labelled as such, but can rightly be considered Salli’s flagship model. While all of the company’s stools are ergonomically designed and surprisingly comfortable, the Multi Adjuster takes things to the next level.
Not only does this version feature an anatomical split seat, but it includes an adjustment mechanism that lets you control the width between the split. This is essentially the saddle-stool “version” of a seat width adjustment and is an amazing innovation.
In addition to enhancing the ergonomic value of the chair, the ability to control the width of the split makes this model ideal for offices where more than one person will be using the stool. It’s also great for people who suffer arthritis in their hips, as it allows you to create greater separation and gently but steadily stretch the muscles and joints in your lower body.
It is a bit more expensive than the company’s other models, but it’s well worth the extra money spent. One of the most ergonomically powerful stools on the market today.
Salli Twin
This is an update to the company’s original design. The Salli Twin Saddle Chair provides all the same great ergonomic benefits as the original but comes with an anatomically split seat for greater comfort, and is compatible with all of the company’s extras and add-ons.
Salli Classic
Recommended For: This is the model most preferred by women the world over.
The company’s original design and the design preferred by Salli’s female customers. The one-piece design is sheer simplicity and provides exceptional ergonomic support. The Salli Classic Saddle chair does come with one drawback; however, that may be a deal breaker for some users.
As the company’s oldest design, the Salli Classic predates all of the company’s accessories. Unfortunately, none of the accessories offered later are compatible with this chair.
Salli Light
Recommended For: While not as robust or full-featured, this variant still provides powerful ergonomic benefits. Best suited to women, smaller adults, and children.
The Salli Light Swing is a trimmed down, more mobile version of the company’s classic design. As with the original chair, this one isn’t compatible with the various accessories the company has on offer. While it can be modified to be suitable for larger folk, this one’s true purpose and ultimately, its best fit is smaller adults (especially women, who tend to favor the classic design) and children.
Minor Variants
Salli Care MultiAdjuster
This is a more lightly built variant of the standard Multi Adjuster, which supports slightly less weight than the main design. If you’re interested in the Multi Adjuster and want to save some money on the purchase, as long as you weigh less than 260 pounds, this one will work well for you.
Note that Salli Care chairs are the sustainable and affordable versions of their premium chairs. The difference with Salli Care chairs:
Other Salli Care chairs available:
Salli Swing
While the standard Salli Stools feature a stationary saddle-style seat, the seat on the “Swing” variants (this one and the SwingFit) has been redesigned to rock and tilt, giving you a much broader range of movement, which works beautifully in tandem with the chair’s rolling casters.
Salli Strong
A ruggedized version of the classic chair that’s capable of supporting up to 330 pounds of user weight.
Salli TripleFit
A lighter weight version of the multi-adjust chair, ideal for smaller adults and children.
Salli Sway
This chair and its cousin, the SwayFit is a variant of the Swing chair. Like the Swing, it offers a tilting and swaying seat, but the range of movement isn’t as impressive as you’ll find on the Swing. If you like that functionality and want to save a bit of money, this is a more budget-friendly option that still gives you access to the feature.
Brewer 135DSS
This variant won’t be of interest to any beyond the medical profession. It has been designed and optimized with dental, medical, and veterinary technicians in mind.
Salli Job
A simple, scaled-down variant of the Twin design, ideal for job shops, assembly lines, workshops, and the like. This is the company’s most budget-friendly model, but also, it’s least capable. Best suited for people who only need a seat for short periods, and then are up and moving about.
Customizing Your Chair
When you buy one of these, Salli gives you tremendous freedom when it comes to selecting the particulars. Among other things, you can customize:
With that in mind, treat the seat height adjustment range in the overview table as merely a guideline. It’s there to give you a general guide, but the reality is, the seat height adjustment range can be custom-tailored to your specific needs because the company gives you four different gas lift options to choose from.
Upholstery Options
Whichever model you ultimately select, the company offers a variety of upholstery options, allowing you to select from:
If you opt for leather upholstery, you can select from any of the following colors:
If you opt for artificial leather, you can choose from among the following colors:
If you select ESD fabric, the following color options are available:
You can also order seat covers, either black (100% cotton) or dark blue (spark-protected pile fabric, 100% polyester).
If that wasn’t enough, if you like, the company can upholster your chair with your own, unique material if you have something you’d like to use.
Accessories and Extras
One of the coolest things about the Salli Brand is that they’ve worked hard to provide more than “just” an ergonomic stool. There are a number of extras you can order to really customize whichever variant you gravitate to.
Some of these extras are things you’d expect: replacement gas lifts, replacement casters, seat slipcovers and a replacement for the base.
These are all excellent, and they allow you to make piecemeal replacements to the various components of your Salli Chair. So if you’re happy with your purchase, you’ll never actually have to go out and buy a new one. You can just replace components as they wear out and keep right on using your new favorite stool.
This is one of the many things the company gets right, and it’s a detail we love. Why this isn’t a standard practice for every company in the industry, we’re not sure, but it’s fantastic!
Those types of accessories, however, are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The accessories below will allow you to dramatically increase your chair’s versatility and function, depending on what your needs are.
Here’s a quick overview of your options and possibilities:
Salli Armrests
These come in a variety of shapes and styles depending on how you work and what you need them for, but it all comes down to the same basic idea. Stools like these don’t usually have armrests, and that can be limiting depending on the type of work you do.
It’s not a problem if you have a Salli Stool, though; just browse the possibilities and order your own custom-fitting arms!
Salli Back Stretch
Ostensibly, this accessory allows you to do some in-chair stretching exercises to help keep fatigue and muscle strain away while you’re working. A happy side-effect, however, is the fact that it works as a decent seatback.
That’s huge because one of the biggest and most often cited reasons people tend to shy away from this type of office seating is the conspicuous absence of any kind of back support.
It will cost you a little more to add the feature on, but that’s entirely within the realm of possibility for Salli owners!
Salli Elbow Table
This is, in our view, flat out amazing. It obviously won’t be something everyone needs, but if you work in a highly fluid, rapidly changing environment, the ability to have a small but functional desktop space attached to your chair is a tremendous boon.
Even better, you can detach it quickly and easily, so if you’re able to work at a proper desk for part of the day, you can leave it off, and then attach the elbow table as your needs change over the course of the day. Of the various accessories offered, this one is our favorite.
The Company’s Philosophy and Other Products
Most of the company’s products are designed around conceptualizing the office of the future and making it real, today. As such, the ergonomic desks and work tables they sell are designed to blend seamlessly and be an excellent companion to the seating solutions they sell.
While reviewing their office desks and tables is beyond the scope of this article, we wanted to at least give those products a quick mention here. If you venture to the company’s website, we heartily recommend checking them out. Any of them would make an excellent companion for your Salli stool. When the day comes that you find yourself in need of a new office desk, any of the models you find on the company’s site would be an excellent option.
Post Sales Service and Support
For such a small company, Salli has unbelievably good support, both before and after the sale. If you have a special request where your stool’s upholstery is concerned, they’ve got you covered. Once you’ve made your purchase, if there’s a problem, they’ll be quick to handle it.
The only potential wrinkle is that they are a European company, so there are a few more hoops to jump through in terms of getting in touch and getting replacement parts since they’ve got to be shipped in from Europe, but those are minor issues in the greater scheme of thing.
When all is said and done, Salli makes you feel taken care of, and isn’t that what you want from any company you do business with?
Pros & Cons of Salli Saddle Chair
We can’t think of a single negative associated with the brand. They’re an exceptional company, and they make well-designed, long-lasting, incredibly durable products. Even better, they offer an unmatched level of customization, in addition to providing world-class post-sales service and support.
The only potential downsides don’t really have anything to do with the company per se, but are worth giving brief mentions to nonetheless:
First, these are expensive products. Then again, they’re of European manufacture, they’re built to last, and they come with outstanding warranties, averaging 10 years (this varies depending on exactly what you buy). Sure, you’ll pay a premium, but you’re getting a quality product, and given the modular construction of the stools, if a component does finally wear out, you can simply replace it and keep right on using your new favorite stool.
Second, these stools, as with all unconventional office seating, are almost entirely self-selecting products. At the end of the day, you’re either willing to take a chance on or are actively in the market for some type of alternative seating solution, or you’re not.
If you aren’t, then it won’t matter how many glowing things we say about them, you’re just not going to be interested in getting one of these stools. If you are, Salli belongs on your short list of brands to consider. This may well be the last office stool you’ll ever buy.
Salli Saddle Chairs Review Conclusion
We recommend the Salli Saddle Chairs without reservation to anyone interested in unconventional office seating, but note that these stool chairs will be of particular value to people who suffer from the following conditions:
These stools are also an excellent option for anyone recovering from a surgical procedure. They’re great products, offered by an outstanding company.
Recommended Reading
BrylaneHome Extra Wide Woman’s Office Chair Review
We reviewed the BrylaneHome Extra Wide Woman’s Office Chair, a comfortable, sturdy chair designed for women.
Varier Move Ergonomic Stool Review
Our assessment focuses on the Varier Move Ergonomic Stool, an excellent option for unconventional office furniture.
ErgoErgo Active Sitting Stool Review
We examined the ErgoErgo Stool, a budget-friendly and fun alternative seating with a child-like aesthetic.
Humanscale Freedom Saddle Stool Review
We analyzed the Humanscale Freedom Saddle Stool, a game-changer for users with chronic hip pain.
REFERENCES & RESOURCES
- Salli, Official Brand Website.
- Tips to Avoid Prolonged Sitting, The Active Times.
- 9 Ways to Make Your Workday Easier With RA, WebMD.
- Proper Sitting Posture At A Desk – 10 Tips, Back Intelligence.
- 7 Tips on How to Improve Posture While Sitting, Organic Authority.