An original story
The Navy Chair®. You've probably seen it in countless restaurants and bars, and in dozens of movies and TV shows. Fitting, since an authentic Navy chair comes with a story.
It's a story about making more with less, about American innovation and building products that live up to the standards we inherited from our founders. It's a story for today - and tomorrow.
What makes an original?
The 1006 Navy Chair® is recognised for its extraordinary durability. It was originally developed for the US Navy in the 1940's. The original brief dictated it had to be "torpedo proof". It's tested to last at least 150 years and comes with a lifetime warranty.
The Emeco 1006 Navy Chair® is made by hand from recycled aluminum at our factory in Hanover, Pennsylvania. The factory is on Elm Avenue, where it's always been. To build the chair, we employ a unique 77-step process that turns soft aluminum super strong. The aluminum also makes the chair super light, non-corrosive and fireproof.
The iconic silhouette is achieved by our craftsmen welding together the parts of chair into a seamless, monolithic piece without any hardware or fasteners. Just good old-fashioned American craftsmanship and engineering. The three weld beads at the top of the three bars are the craftsman’s signature, unique to each chair.
How can I tell it's an original?
Whether made from recycled aluminum, sustainable solid wood or recycled plastic, all authentic Navy chairs are made in the USA.
They have a smooth, curved back rest with three vertical bars, a unique concave curved seat shape and curved back legs. All Navy chairs have the Emeco stamp* on the back of the seat.
The Navy Wood chair is handcrafted from sustainably sourced, local, solid wood by Amish woodworkers in neighboring Lancaster, PA. The curved backrest is made of bent wood, where the wood grain direction mimics the brush grain of the original brushed aluminum.
* The Emeco stamp on the back of the seat was introduced in 2001. Older models will have different logo plates, stickers and branding.
The 1104 Navy Chair® with a seat in solid wood was introduced in 1954 as a library chair for the US Navy.
The solid wood seat is hand carved by Amish woodworkers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania from locally sourced, sustainable wood. You can tell it's an original Emeco chair by the contoured wood seat, which has the same sculpted shape as the original aluminum 1006 Navy Chair®. The aluminum frame also carries the same hallmarks as the all-aluminum chair.
The upholstered version of the Navy Chair uses the same handcrafted frame in recycled aluminum, but adds an upholstered seat and back.
Originally introduced in the 1940s, the Navy Officer series was mindfully redesigned by Jasper Morrison in 2019, with a slightly slimmer silhouette, better adapted to today's needs. You can tell it's an original Emeco chair by the aluminum frame which carries the same hallmarks as the all-aluminum 1006 Navy Chair®.
Why choose authentic design?
Many new innovations are created when exploring the best solutions to difficult problems. By choosing authentic design, you are helping to secure the future creation of original, innovative and sustainable design.
Like the 111 Navy Chair® - made from recycled plastic bottles. Coca-Cola and Emeco teamed up to help solve an environmental problem: Upcycling consumer waste into a sustainable, timeless, classic chair. Sensible on many fronts. But easy? No. It took four years, new science and a lot of hard work. But it was well worth the effort. Every year we help keep millions of bottles out of landfills and oceans.
