Hendrick’s Gin is the latest company to realize that slapping the word “gaming” in front of the name of any piece of furniture is enough to justify another zero on the price tag. The company’s Dept. of Not-So-Convenient Technology has revealed a Gaming Chaise that costs nearly $4,000—and proudly doesn’t have anything to do with gaming.
“Although we enjoy video games as much as any iconoclastic gin distilled in a tiny seaside village in rural Scotland,” Hendrick’s said, “it seems to us that current trends in gaming furniture have resulted in chairs lacking in worldly sophistication.” So it decided to “remedy the situation” with a $3,988.08 chaise of its own making.
Hendrick’s said the Gaming Chaise was specifically “designed to accentuate the pleasures of a range of leisurely diversions, from card playing to chess, backgammon and other board games — not to mention the pursuit of human conversation (over cocktails of course) with all its feints and complexities.”
The result: A seven-foot-long chaise equipped with “retractable arms”; “covert compartments”; and a “fully analogue horn that may be used to summon fellow players of games, bearers of cocktails, or simply to celebrate a particularly jubilant moment.” Oh, and naturally it provides “zero adjustable supports!” as well.
“Anti-optimized for computer gaming,” Hendrick’s said, “the chaise form factor is perfect for relaxing with drinks, maps or a novel as well as engaging in human conversation or creatively daydreaming.”
This is a fairly clever marketing stunt. How many people think about Hendrick’s Gin when they play games? Probably not that many. How many hardware enthusiasts, PC gamers, and people who enjoy nonsensical products are going to hear about the company because of this gaming chaise? Our editors hope the answer is “many.”
Manufacturers of gaming-related furniture have also made themselves an easy target for this kind of parody. This chaise has nothing on the Bauhutte gaming bed or the egg-shaped GamePod that Cooler Master showed off earlier this year. Hendrick’s was being silly; Bauhutte and Cooler Master were being sincere.
Anyone looking for a true gaming chair (which is the silliest phrase we’ve typed all day) should check out our list of the best gaming chairs of 2021. As for everyone else, well, it’s hard to deny that the Gaming Chaise from Hendrick’s would make an excellent conversation piece. It does have “subtle anti-racing stripes,” after all.