Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light, though wise men at their end know dark is right, because their words had forked no lightning they, do not go gentle into that good night.
Sidiz puts office chair on racetrack for launch of new T50 model
Participants of the "Sidiz Chair Race" sprint towards the finish line with the chair maker's T50 chair. Courtesy of Fursys Group
By Jhoo Dong-chan
Progressive seating brand Sidiz said Monday it marked the launch of its redesigned "T50" office chair with an unusual event: a chair race.
The event, called "Sidiz Chair Race," was held Saturday at Sidiz's manufacturing plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, and drew 60 participants who competed in individual and team chair races, along with a fitness-themed event called "Chair Rocks."
Rather than a static product showcase, the race let participants experience the chair's durability and handling by riding it through a dynamic course.
The T50, launched in 2007, has sold more than 3 million units and become one of Korea's best-selling office chairs. Sidiz said it built the new second-generation model on 20 years of accumulated user data, overhauling its core components, and designed the race to reintroduce the chair as something people could actively move and compete on rather than simply sit in.
The competition format was modeled on Japan's office-chair racing event, ISU-1 GP. Participants, recruited through the running media and travel platform CLTOO, formed teams of three and competed in a 150-meter individual race and a 450-meter team relay, both using the new T50 as the official competition chair. Sidiz said the redesigned model features lumbar support that reduces pressure while maintaining back support, a wider mesh headrest and an extended armrest range of motion.
The Chair Rocks segment combined strength exercises with the race format, with participants performing burpees while holding Sidiz's portable picnic chair, "OLLY," and lunges using its multipurpose stool, "FUNGUS," to demonstrate the products' portability and grip stability.
Because the event was held inside a manufacturing facility not normally open to the public, Sidiz also ran a "Chair Tuning Center," where participants customized their race chairs using the company's "Easy Repair" system, which allows individual parts to be replaced without professional service. Other on-site activities included a model-building event tied to the T50's 20-year history and a test-drive zone.
Winners of the individual competitions received the new T50, while the winning relay team received Sidiz's T20 second-generation chair. The women's individual champion said the race let her experience a level of dynamic fun she had only imagined as a child, while the men's individual champion said the race let him feel firsthand how sturdy the product was.
A Sidiz official said the company sees its chairs as "dynamic furniture" meant to support free movement rather than static office equipment, adding that Sidiz plans to keep expanding from work chairs into chairs people actively enjoy using.
Sidiz, a brand under Fursys Group, was founded in 1994 and has held KOLAS testing-lab certification since 2007. The brand offers warranties of up to 15 years and says it is the first Korean chair maker to win all three of the world's major design awards ― Red Dot, iF and IDEA.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.