Interview: Vari talks chairs, desks, and designing furniture for modern workspaces | Tech Radar

Overview

News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest smartphones

News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets

Details

Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more

Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards.

'There’s no one-size-fits-all office chair': Vari explains the design decisions behind its award-winning chairs and desks, and how it's bringing over 100 new products to market this year

I spoke with Jason Mc Cann, Co-Founder and CEO at Vari, about workspace design

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Unlock instant access to exclusive member features.

Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.

Office furniture has changed from being purely functional to something that actively shapes how people work, collaborate, and stay comfortable throughout the day.

Chairs, desks, lighting, and modular layouts now play a role in everything from posture to productivity, especially as hybrid work and flexible office layouts become standard across industries. What once counted as basic furniture is now expected to support long hours of screen time while adapting to constantly changing work environments.

Designing modern office furniture means accounting for how people actually behave rather than how they are supposed to behave. Workers lean forward during long calls, shift positions throughout the day, and rely on quick adjustments that don’t interrupt their workflow.

Interview: Vernal talks testing, design, and the soul of its standing desks

Save $179 on this truly comfortable Vari standing desk deal

Best office chairs of 2026: All-day comfort and ergonomic support for every budget

Companies like Vari, which are building furniture for these environments, face a balancing act between durability, ease of assembly, and flexibility. Products need to hold up to daily use while remaining simple enough to install quickly, particularly for businesses outfitting entire offices at once.

Vari’s origins grew from a practical need rather than a large-scale product roadmap. The company began with a single sit-stand desk converter built to help relieve back discomfort, but that early success quickly led to wider ambitions around workspace design.

Over time, the company expanded into seating, storage, conference furniture, and modular office systems, creating full environments rather than just standalone products. Its approach mirrors the way workplaces themselves have evolved, moving toward adaptable layouts that support both focused work and collaboration.

Ease of setup has remained a recurring theme throughout Vari's product development, with features intended to reduce assembly time while maintaining structural strength across desks, chairs, and larger furniture systems.

Having tested many of the best standing desks and best office chairs, over the years, I wanted to better understand what separates thoughtful engineering from simple convenience.

So, I spoke with Jason Mc Cann, co-founder and CEO at Vari, about the misconceptions surrounding ergonomic design, the hidden engineering behind fast assembly, and how workspace furniture is evolving beyond individual products into complete systems.

Consumers often confuse 'plush and soft' with 'ergonomically good' for chairs, or they assume simply buying a standing desk cures back pain. When it comes to designing office chairs and standing desks, what’s the biggest misconception people have about what they actually need, and how does Vari design around that?

The biggest misconception we hear all the time is that people think standing all day is best, when in reality, movement is what’s key.

“We wanted to focus on those three things… not always done by our competitors when they put out products” – I talked to Intel about its plans for 2026, Panther Lake, and beyond

Best standing desk: Tested for the home and office

I wish all electric standing desks were designed like the 'beautiful' Vari Ergo — and it’s $150 off with this special code

A standing desk allows you to stand when you want to and pairing that with an ergonomic and supportive chair, allows you to sit when you need to. What’s most important is listening to your body and reacting to what it needs.

Vari has a reputation for standing desks that can be assembled in minutes with minimal tools. From an industrial design perspective, how much hidden engineering and cost goes into making a heavy, commercial-grade piece of furniture 'idiot-proof' to build?

One of the biggest selling points of the very first Vari Desk was that it arrived fully assembled, ready to use out of the box.

While that’s not feasible with full desks, we created the first electric standing desk you and a friend could assemble in less than 5 minutes. To do this, we designed our patent-pending slide-and-lock method for attaching the legs, which has carried through to all the desks we make.

Most of our desks come with the frame already pre-installed, and the models that don’t still have the desktop come pre-drilled.

And if a tool is required, we include that as well. We are regular people too, so our instructions are clear, easy to follow, and often supported with assembly videos when it makes sense.

The office furniture market is currently flooded with white-label standing desks and $100 mesh chairs that look virtually identical to premium models in photos. From a manufacturing perspective, what are the invisible corners being cut on these budget models that people won't realize until six months after purchase? What’s the one specific mechanical detail that immediately tells them whether they are sitting at a quality piece of engineering or a cheap imitation?

On most of our desks, we use 1.25-inch tops for durability, which are thicker than the standard 1 inch or less for lower quality desks that you see in the market.

We use a thicker gauge steel in our 3-stage legs for both greater durability and greater height range and adjustment, while others settle for 2-stage legs. And we test to BIFMA standards, which includes thousands of height adjustment cycles with weight to simulate real world usage.

It’s those reasons we’re proud to stand behind our Vari desks with a limited lifetime warranty.

Our seating options feature quality fabrics, durable foams (including TEMPUR-Material from Tempur-Pedic), and carry quite a few awards as a result.

For example, our Task Chair is certified by the World Federation of Chiropractic, while our new Align Chair is a Red Dot Design Award Winner for 2025.

Ergonomic chairs are designed for perfect posture and standing desks are marketed with users standing perfectly upright. But in reality, we slouch in our chairs, and after 20 minutes at a standing desk, we lean half our body weight onto the front edge. How does Vari’s design team accommodate how people actually behave - engineering chairs and desks that don't punish slouching or won't wobble when the afternoon slump creeps in?

We believe that different people have different seating needs, whether it’s a workhorse office chair like the Task Chair or a more “active sitting” approach like our Core Chair or Active Seat that allows you to engage your core.

There’s no one-size-fits-all office chair, so we try to meet folks where they are with different chairs designed for different needs.

When you listen to your customer, chances are they’ll tell you what they really need!

My biggest issue with the standing desks my team reviews is the complete lack of cable management solutions. I know routing cables on a desk that physically moves up and down is an engineering nightmare, but why is cable management still treated as an afterthought in this industry, and how is Vari designing a desk that actually kills the clutter?

Our desks come with complimentary cable management wraps to get customers started right out of the box.

These are designed to allow the cables to move alongside the desk as it raises and lowers. For more “complicated” needs, we offer a Cable Management tray that’s designed to fit a power strip, but also tuck away most cords, so that you only have a single visible cord feeding into it.

And for corporate office settings, we have products like our Power Beams and Quick Flex Cubes that can accept integrated power for a sleek look at scale.

Finally, every industrial design team has a 'holy grail'. If you had absolutely no limitations regarding motors, physics, or manufacturing costs, what is the one fundamental flaw of the modern standing desk that Vari would permanently eradicate tomorrow? What is the ultimate evolution of the standing desk?

There are a few things we’ve considered “holy grails” that we’ve actually managed to accomplish – desks that carry a full lifetime warranty, the Comfort Edge that eliminates hotspots in the wrists and hands, and of course our patented assembly I mentioned earlier.

As for what’s next, we’re focused on the future of work and the role our desks, chairs, and other products play within it.

We’re designing solutions that support both focused, individual work and spaces built for connection and collaboration. As AI, robotics, and the evolution of work continue to reshape the world, we’re excited to embrace these changes.

While I can’t say exactly what’s coming, I can tell you we’re excited to bring more than 100 new products to market in 2026!

Follow Tech Radar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course you can also follow Tech Radar on Tik Tok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on Whats App too.

Steve is B2B Editor for Creative & Hardware at Tech Radar Pro, helping business professionals equip their workspace with the right tools. He tests and reviews the software, hardware, and office furniture that modern workspaces depend on, cutting through the hype to zero in on the real-world performance you won't find on a spec sheet. He is a relentless champion of the Oxford comma.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

1I tested Turtle Beach's Mario-themed controller and headset for Nintendo Switch 2 — and they surprised me for 5 key reasons

2I matched the upgraded Meta AI against Chat GPT, and you can really tell which AI has social media roots

3 Quordle hints and answers for Saturday, April 11 (game #1538)

4NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, April 11 (game #1035)

5NYT Strands hints and answers for Saturday, April 11 (game #769)

Tech Radar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Key Takeaways

• News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest smartphones
• News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets
• Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more
• Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards

• 'There’s no one-size-fits-all office chair': Vari explains the design decisions behind its award-winning chairs and desks, and how it's bringing over 100 new products to market this year