A New Kind of Folding Chair

A New Kind of Folding Chair

Simply put, the Leaf from Folditure is a space saving chair with a tall backrest that lends ergonomic support the entire length of your back. The seat is made from a relaxing, yet sturdy outdoor mesh fabric. The chair is space saving because that also happens to fold up flat, with a very slim profile.

It is also a multi-purpose chair that can be used indoors or outdoor, as an accent chair or a dining chair.

Folded, you can even display it on your wall as a work of art. Alexander Gendell of Folditure, who designed the Leaf, talked to us about the chair.

How did you come up with the idea?

Alexander Gendell: Trying to revolutionize folding furniture. I am an architect by training and what always rubbed me the wrong way was wasted space, and there is a lot of it. And furniture was a good place to start.
Folding furniture goes back centuries to ancient Egypt, but there haven't been any changes in the mechanism. I felt I could do better than that, and tried coming up with different mechanisms and came up with Leaf. Folding furniture has been neglected for a long time.

Can it be used outdoors?

Alexander Gendell: It was designed as a dining room chair, but the aluminum composite material can be used outdoors as well. I wouldn't use it on gravel, but it can be used on a deck or patio.

On your site, you say it is an ergonomic chair, which means it must be comfortable.

Alexander Gendell: It is actually a very comfortable chair. We're looking at developing relationships with retailers, so people can actually try these chairs and see for themselves as opposed to simply looking at pictures on the website.

Will you be taking it to High Point or Las Vegas Furniture Markets?

Alexander Gendell: I'm planning to. It was very well received at Dwell on Design where we had people constantly stop by to try it out to sit on it, as well as to operate it. We got very positive feedback, and not just from designers.
There was one person at ICFF in New York who tried it out, and then came back again half an hour later with more questions!

Color Choices for Leaf

Does the chair come in different colors?

Alexander Gendell: We've just started manufacturing, and right now the chair comes in silver. The seat comes in three different colors, and later the shell will also be available in different colors as well.
The mesh comes out very easily, so that you have the option of changing out colors in minutes if you want to change the look. We are also offering custom colors apart from the three colors available.

Additional seat inserts can be purchased separately. Presently, the seat comes in Platinum Silver, Red Orange, and Olive Green.

We decided to also offer the chair with a laminated back. The backrest comes with an additional layer, which is more aesthetic in nature, where someone may want a more finished or modern look, where you don't see the rivets in the back.

How to Buy the Chair

How does one buy the chair? Is it available on the West Coast?

Alexander Gendell: We are selling online presently, and still working on other distribution channels. We don't have any retail outlets yet, but we have Fed-Exed a chair to L.A. It is very cost effective to ship because it is so small.
The shipment goes out very quickly as the chair is manufactured at a facility in New Jersey. We don't have to wait for it to be shipped from overseas.

We are very focused on quality, and we have to. Because of the design, it is almost like a machine, and the mechanism has to be precise, otherwise it won't work. Which is why we are trying to do everything ourselves.

The chair operates very easily. Simply open with a simple flick of the backrest. There is no need to assemble anything. To close, it is much the same. A release button on the backrest flips it closed.

The Leaf is very thin when folded. How thin? Less than 3/4 of an inch when folded. It folds perfectly flat making it maybe the one of the most space saving folding chairs ever.
There are different ways of storing it. You can even hang it on a rod in a standard 24" depth closet. A set of 4 chairs takes up all of 3 inches of closet space. Since the chair folds perfectly flat, it can even be hung on the wall doubling as very functional wall art.