Emeco 1006

Emeco also makes stools, tables, and other furniture.

• Title — Emeco 1006 Navy Chair • Launch Year — 1944 • Company — Emeco • Available — Yes • Url — Official website

Emeco founder Wilton C. Dinges developed the Emeco 1006 chair in 1944 in collaboration with the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA). It was originally designed for the US Navy, which needed a chair for the deck of battleships that could survive sea air and a torpedo blast to the side of the ship. The chairs had eye bolts under the seat, so they could be attached to a ship-deck using cables. When competing for the Navy contract, Dinges is reported to have demonstrated the chair's durability by throwing it out of an eighth floor window of a Chicago hotel where the Navy was examining submissions. It bounced, but did not bend or break. A similar design called the No. 4295 chair which was part of the "GoodForm" line of products was produced by the General Fireproofing Company of Youngstown, Ohio in the 1930s. After the war, Emeco started selling 1006 chairs to prisons, hospitals and government offices. The chair was sold to restaurants in the 1980s and 1990s, under Jay Buchbinder's leadership, then as a designer chair in the 2000s after Emeco was acquired by his son, Gregg. French designer Philippe Starck designed a total of 14 chairs and 4 tables for Emeco. In 2006, Coca-Cola began a collaboration with Emeco to create a 1006-based chair made out of recycled Coca-Cola bottles, which was released as the 111 Navy Chair in 2010. Metropolis Magazine said it was a public relations effort by Coke to make a durable product out of their bottles; they also hoped to encourage other manufacturers to do the same. In 2005, Target started selling an Emeco 1006 imitation product supplied by Euro Style. The supplier said it planned to modify the chair's style to avoid a legal dispute over alleged trademark infringement. In October 2012, Emeco filed a lawsuit against Restoration Hardware for allegedly making unauthorized reproductions of the 1006 Navy chair. Restoration Hardware removed the chair from its website, stopped selling the chair, and reached an undisclosed settlement with Emeco. The Emeco 1006 chair is featured regularly in design magazines and movies, such as The Matrix, Law & Order and CSI. In Europe the original 1006 chair is sometimes referred to as "the prison chair" due to its use in government prisons and in prison-related movie scenes.

Emeco 1006 is associated with United States. Recorded as made of aluminium. Classified as a chair. Recorded from 1944.