Hendrick’s Gin Creates A Gaming Chair That’s ‘Anti-Optimized’ For Modern Gaming
Image via Hendrick’s
Hendrick’s, the gin company, has released a gaming chair of its own. Yes, it’s a Hendrick’s gaming chair. But hold on now, it’s not what you might think.
All too often, when you think of a gaming chair, something pretty high-tech springs to mind, complementing an RGB setup and optimal peripherals. The Hendrick’s Gaming Chaise is aiming to be the total opposite of that: an “anachronistic alternative” that has been designed for optimal “low-tech gaming.”
Or lounging around and sipping cocktails on, whichever the user prefers.
This handmade, seven-foot-long chaise is hued with Hendrick’s signature green velvet, accented in copper. Its length might make it the most unsuitable complement to a desk setup, but the firm is promising that the additional inches will “enable all manner of real-world play and leisure.”
Image via Hendrick’s
Designed to “encourage escapism through cocktails and board games,” the chair is fitted out with the best of a couch (comfort) and a bar cart (drinks). And really, what more could one ask for?
On its side sits an amplified horn that will allow the hardcore gamers to call for additional drinks or supplies, as well as retractable arms that can hold bottles or cards alike to “free the hands for imbibing.”
Image via Hendrick’s
And underneath, secret compartments provide storage for classic offline games, including three unique Victorian-era board games, Hendrick’s playing cards, and a chessboard.
Apart from the games, barware is also stashed away neatly in these compartments: highball glasses, a shaker, cocktail spoon, strainer, muddler, stirrer, and mixing glass. If it’s too early in the day for a drink, though, not to fret—Hendrick’s has also included teacups.
Image via Hendrick’s
“We’ve taken a more Renaissance approach, integrating a well-rounded range of features with an eye toward timeless distractions,” explains Vance Henderson, the Scottish gin maker’s National Ambassador, in a statement provided by the company.
“Our contrarian outlook begins with our unique chaise design, which actively—perhaps I should say, leisurely—discourages any performance-driven efficiency and utility, and instead encourages casual cocktail sipping and an afternoon nap.”
Essentially, the “anti-optimized for computer gaming” chair is telling you to calm down. Which is, of course, a reminder we could all do with sometimes.
Image via Hendrick’s
The Gaming Chaise, created in collaboration with Pickett Furniture, comes as part of the Department of Not-So-Convenient Technology (DNSCT). Born in 2018, the DNSCT hopes to “offer the world a much-needed respite from the relentless march towards technology-enabled convenience, efficiency and utility.”
Based on the principle of inconvenience, the DNSCT takes direct inspiration from the company, Hendrick’s explains. Its signature gin is “delightfully and inefficiently concocted using two entirely different types of stills, blended with 11 botanicals, then combined and further transformed with rose and cucumber essences—all of which is done in the tiny, utterly inconvenient seaside village of Girvan, Scotland.”
Previous inventions include the Hendrick’s Horatio, a tongue-in-cheek take on the smart speaker that could hold a cocktail for you, because why not?
The limited-edition Hendrick’s Gaming Chaise is available for registration of interest, with more information to be found on its website. It’s priced “at the entirely reasonable cost” of US$3,988.08, but how many people can boast a gaming chair like this one?
The Hendrick's Gaming Chaise is utterly and unapologetically inappropriate for electronic gaming. Using the mysterious art of flâneur-ergonomics we have created an exceptionally comfortable chaise, ideal for the card-playing, cocktail-sipping gentleperson. https://t.co/SlVW1jcWLM pic.twitter.com/UrrME3LLbt
— HENDRICK'S GIN (@HendricksGin) November 20, 2021
[via Hendrick’s]
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