Portable chairs these days are of a kind: metal rods supporting a hammock seat and back, designed to collapse and fit in a tubular cloth bag. It’s been impossible to find those web chairs, strips of woven plastic interlaced on a frame of light aluminum tubing; it just folds for transport. Web chairs are more comfortable and to me about even in carrying convenience: their light weight counters the heavier but smaller package made by the hammock chairs.
That’s before a recent trip to Sam’s Club. Weighing in at 37 pounds is the Kingpin Chair. While the box has a picture of a couple of people sitting on it side by side, it’s not sofa-shaped but surely intended for a plus-sized person.
No photo here because it’s a proprietary item. Click here for Amazon’s photo and description. At Sam’s Club it cost a bit over $100.
The intent here is not to mock big folks. On recent visits to hospitals I’ve spotted at the doors of the emergency room a several wheelchairs, as always. Among them now sit several extra-wide models. This is a fact of current American life.
Something here is worthy of mockery, the cynicism of the manufacturer, seen by the name but mainly on the arm rests. The new style portable chair often has a fabric cup holder sewn in. The KingPin Chair has six cup holders, three on each arm.
Thinking about a half-dozen cans or bottles lined up at either elbow makes me need to stop typing and head to the little boys’ room.
