ZEELAND, Mich. — Herman Miller, the iconic, more than century-old office and home furnishings design company, is expanding its retail presence this fall with new concept stores dedicated to high-performance task chairs and other home office products.
“We are excited to reveal our first retail destinations dedicated to offering customers the opportunity to explore the quality and breadth of Herman Miller’s ‘work from home’ solutions firsthand,” said Debbie Propst, Herman Miller retail president.
“We are currently seeing unprecedented sales across these categories,” she added. “The stores are a direct response to our collective need, which has been building over time and heightened by the pandemic, for more versatile home environments and our customer’s desire to test drive these highly-considered products in person.”
Following a record-breaking summer, the retail arm of Herman Miller (comprised of Herman Miller, Design Within Reach and HAY) reported its strongest quarterly financial performance to date.
The company said the on-demand economy has driven a trend towards workplace flexibility for decades with the majority of the U.S. workforce now largely working from home.
“The office will always remain important, but a more distributed workforce, and the impact of COVID-19, is accelerating this paradigm shift quite broadly, thus increasing the need of our domestic spaces to support evolving day-to-day work and life behaviors,” said Propst.
Each store will feature Herman Miller’s iconic home office product categories, including the brand’s award-winning performance seating chairs that are built with features to support long-lasting health-positive benefits, from pressure distributions and individualized adjustment capabilities, to inclusive sizing and breathable suspension materiality, which the company said contributes to healthy circulation, postural alignment and overall comfort.
“Just as the mattress industry has done a great job of educating the general public on the benefits of a good night’s sleep, our goal is to drive home the science of sitting well and how the effects of research-driven ergonomic solutions ultimately improve one’s well-being,” Propst said.
Herman Miller said first new concept stores are expected to open in late fall 2020.
