American Trails Extra-Wide Premium 30″ Director’s Chair Black Frame with Black Canvas, Bar Height

Handsome Chair
First let me say that I like this chair a lot, I’ve always been a fan of director’s chairs and this one’s pretty nice. It’s not as nice as one I used to have where the back rest was larger and actually swiveled, but oh well, that was a long time ago. I plan on using this chair as an occasional chair only in my studio apartment, and for that purpose it will be ideal. It’s substantial and heavier than I thought it would be. The color of the wood seems true to the product photo, but the red canvas seating and back are pretty bright! I still like it though…What I’d like to tell you though is my experience with it straight out of the box. It was easy to set up the seat and back pieces, but I couldn’t get the braces to lock in flat. Not possessing great upper body strength, I tried different approaches without success. I ended up using my rubber coated hammer handle, standing and pushing down with my whole weight on the braces. I knicked my pinky the first time, and now I have a bruise, so be careful if you have to use this method.The frame had several little knicks and mysterious tiny holes here and there, so I used a furniture scratch repair marker to disguise those. The sliders on the feet weren’t to my liking as well, so I unscrewed them and replaced them with cup sliders for carpet use.All in all this is a great chair, it just needed a tweaking…

Poor Design
There are some design deficiencies that anyone considering these chairs should consider. As a frame of reference, I have had two other director’s style chairs for about 25 years. They came from suppliers in Los Angeles who provide for the movie industry. One of those chairs is the 24″ “make-up chair” height. There are two pluses for this Amazon product: it’s price; and it being oak. But other factors render it inferior. The first thing one will notice once it’s assembled is that the foot rest is permanent, not hinged. This renders the chair unable to be folded without removing the foot rest. The hardware used for that foot rest is not heavy-duty. I weigh 205 pounds and can stand on the foot rest of my old oak chair with zero stress because the hinge bolt is probably 3/8″ steel! You wouldn’t dare try that on this product’s foot rest. The next two issues work together to make this a very uncomfortable chair. The back legs seem to be longer/taller than the front legs which makes the seat tilted forward (front edge low). The vertical members that the fabric back spans are set at the wrong aft angle/pitch. They are almost vertical rather than the roughly 4-5 degree reclined pitch on high quality chairs. A well-designed directors chair is superbly comfortable because the seat is level or slightly pitched aft, and the back is also pitched back so there is a mild recline. These chairs have neither, and therefore make you feel like you are being pitched out of the chair. You cannot “settle in.” If the manufacturer overcame these issues, it would be a great product for the price. Amazon highly cooperative on the return.

Feels Shaky
My intended use has for dangling feet into our hot tub while sitting outside.Height is perfect for this. However, it feels a little unstable to me. Maybe when I get used to it it will be better.Very nice. There are two hinges on the legs, maybe to fold down to store the chair. I had to use a rubber mallet to force them into a locked position. My 180 pounds was not sufficient when my entire weight was supported by my hands. Several raps with the mallet locked them. Folding up? I don’t think so.

Great with a little tweaking
Everything I expected it to be. Product as described. Easy assembly. Foot tray didnt line up immediately, but once you put weight on it, the screws line up just fine.

I have been looking for a chair for my work bench that was not too heavy to move around – this fit the bill. When not needed it also with little effort can be made to take less space

I was very disappointed with the chair. Firstly, we found a large crack in the wood (see photos). Putting down the secure brackets was extremely hard to do. Took two weeks to get my item. No more available at this time. Waiting for my refund to be processed.