IKEA’s “Exploding” Initiative: Inflatable Sofa

We went there even if only to eat Swedish meatballs. IKEA’s air sofas Have you ever seen or heard of it? It may seem functional at first glance, but you can’t even imagine what problems it may cause.

What are the air sofas that emerged in the 1980s and were later persistently tried to be developed? to the disasters caused Let’s take a closer look.

IKEA’s air sofa design made perfect sense to the team at first.

The air sofa design, which emerged in the mid-1980s, came before the company’s global head of design, Marcus Engman. genius design It looked like. In fact, it might have been the best IKEA idea ever. After all, there wasn’t even a need for proper materials. Moreover, it was easy to carry and put away while cleaning.

We can think of air sofas as inflatable beds. Consumers who bought the sofa in a deflated state He would blow it up at home. Add a fabric cover and you’ll have a sofa that makes you feel like you’re sitting on clouds.

It was just starting to “break out” during the inflation phase.

There was no inflation device next to the couch. The expectation is that people will use them in their homes. with hair dryers It was inflation. As a result, almost everyone has a hair dryer at home, right?

But they missed one point. Everyone should put their sofas under the hair dryer. with cold setting He might not have thought of inflating it, which he did, and as you can imagine, terrible consequences ensued. The seats melted!

The problems did not end there.

Air sofas were permeable to air even though they were marketed as airtight. In other words, while you are enjoying your blanket in front of the television one evening, when you wake up in the morning, you find yourself on a shrunken piece of plastic on the ground you could find it.

Also, since we cannot sit on the seat like an idol for hours, we move There were loud sounds. Imagine, there are guests at home and loud noises keep coming from where you are sitting. “I have an air sofa and it comes out of it.” Instead of saying “I passed gas.” Also better.

Despite all their failures, they did not give up and tried to further develop their air furniture.

In the 2000s, IKEA continued to experiment with inflatable furniture. This time they tried to make a safe seating area for children. They strengthened the materials, increased the tests and the prospects. However air leak happened again and this attempt also failed.

The company eventually “Anyway, we tried it, it was a lesson.” saying gave up on air furniture looks like. Even though IKEA failed, some companies still sell inflatable furniture.

Our other content that may interest you: