Herman Miller Mirra Chair Review

First Impressions

At this writing, I’m sitting in one of the most comfortable chairs on the planet. After years in a sequence of basically featured and generic office chairs, we decided to step up to something better. We did our research as usual. We considered the ubiquitous Herman Miller Aeron. We looked at other top-rated products from other manufacturers. In the end, we stuck with Herman Miller but chose their Mirra offering, a slightly more up-to-date option from this leading office furniture company.

Now the Herman Miller Mirra can cost upwards of $1000 depending on the feature set. We shopped around and found Mirra’s from a variety of sources — everywhere from Herman Miller direct to eBay, and a series of discount office furniture providers. We ultimately chose to buy from Seating Mind, an online retailer based in New Jersey, and purchased a restored chair for less than half the MSRP.

Features

The Herman Miller Mirra we chose was described on the Seating Mind website as “fully featured” and had everything Herman Miller offers on the product. Our version also came with the Butterfly Back which combines the regular Mirra’s Triflex Polymer with a mesh covering similar to that of the Aeron. It’s a super comfortable combination that looks great too.

Specs
Weight: 50 lbs
Materials: Coasted steel, plastic and mesh fabric

Herman Miller builds an incredible range of adjustments into the Mirra. These include standard components like chair height and back tilt. But Herman Miller doesn’t stop there. To these standard adjustments, you can add adjustable arms (forward and back, side to side), FlexFront seat depth (allowing the seat to be shortened or lengthened for comfort), an adjustable lumbar support, forward tilt options, tilt tension and limiters, and more.

Overall, you could ask for a better set of features on a chair at any price.

Fit

The Mirra features an almost infinite number of adjustments to fine tune the fit. And it took us a while to figure them all out. The most difficult to fathom was the forward tilt. It’s a lever on the right side of the chair. Sit in the chair normally and the level feels immovable. Continuing to force it, I’m sure could cause it to break. The documentation provides the clue to successful adjustment: lean back in the chair before attempting to move the lever. This allows the seat to lean forward for a typing angle that some prefer over leaning back.

The other adjustments present the opportunity to completely lock in a custom fit. After a bit of experimentation, we got just what we wanted. Lumbar at just the right location and depth, Arms and seat at the appropriate height. And a backward lean tension that was perfect for keeping us upright when we needed to be, but relaxed and leaned back when for that between project stretch. Just amazing.

Final Verdict

As I mentioned, we bought the chair second hand from Seating Mind. Everything arrived safe and sound, and a day earlier than promised. Shipping for this 50 pound piece of office furniture was free via Fedex Home Delivery.

The company’s website states that their chairs are all “Restored to Brand New Condition.” This is only mostly true. The castors on our chair were caked with some sort of grime that required scraping to remove and the mesh on our Butterfly Back showed some wear around the lumbar area. Nothing outrageous but not exactly brand new. Definitely beat the condition of a chair I almost purchased from a cash-demanding Russian eBay seller peddling his damaged Mirra out of the back of a black SUV behind an abandoned building.

Would I buy from Seating Mind again? Yes. Would I recommend the eBay route? Only with the utmost caution.

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