Rating: 5 / 5

This chair was a replacement for a folding double chair–I’d provide the manufacturer’s name if I could remember it–which served magnificently for close to ten years. This chair went to the beach in Hawaii every single weekend for 3 1/2 years, as well as rugby tournaments, every manner of kiddie sports, and lots of camping. My wife and I, the kids, the grandparents and any number of guests used this thing nonstop, logging thousands of equivalent butt-hours. And this old chair held up very well. The first thing to go was the front-center rivet, at eight years, and this was remedied just fine with some parachute cord, which held forever. This past summer, at scout camp no less, saw the end of ol’ Doubly, as the foot rivets finally gave out, and it became no longer stable. I set out to find a worthy replacement.

Now, I didn’t necessarily expect the same performance from this Stansport chair, not a good nine years of use. I figured at least three, maybe five.

Nope, not the case. I don’t think this low-budget chair is going to make it to the end of this fall’s soccer season. I’ll be amazed if this thing is seat-worthy within a year.

Within two weeks of use, the metal-grommetted openings at the right-front and left-front corners (through which the front parts of the armrests emerge) had started to fray and tear, at the grommet. These grommets have what appear to be a sort of saftey placket around them, which for now is hampering the spread of these tears. Both of these are now about 60% gone, and I expect one of these days for the entire seat fabric to rip lengthwise when either finally goes. That will render the entire chair completely unusable. I’ve tried some drops of Gorilla Glue at the tear points, but I don’t think it will stop the ripping.

After the third week of use, the seam between the cloth upper back and the lower back mesh had come apart from the left edge of the chair, with the tear now at about 10 inches in length. I examined this, and it was not sewing, but fundamental weakness of the material, which had torn. As I don’t have a sail-mending kit at home, I have no way of fixing this; glue and duct tape aren’t going to remedy this problem.

Given the unexpected wear this chair is showing, I examined it much more closely, and have noted that the rivets at all six feet are twisting/torquing/tearing, and likely will give soon. I see that a number of seams are showing clear signs of stress, and are ready to go, and probably will sometime soon.

Bottom line: Do not buy this product. In my experience, its materials are too weak, and its construction unable to take the use for which it is intended. The shoddiness of this product will have me permanently avoiding anything with a Stansport name on it.

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Update, October 17th, 2008

As the boys baseball and girls soccer seasons progress…

The tears at the corners of the seat are slightly larger, as are the rips in the backrest fabric.

There are small self-tapping metal machine screws which secure the chair’s fabric to the three backrest uprights. Two of these three have stripped and come out, so now the backrest fabric comes out of its sleeve each time you set up or take down the chair.

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Update, 20 July 2009

Rest in pieces, poorly made Stansport chair. You lasted all of 11 months.

At my son’s rugby match, the entire lateral seam where the back mesh meets the seat blew out, sounding the death knell for this poorly constructed chair. The seat grommets were still okay, although more frayed, and the legs and arms were still structurally sound, so I guess you could continue to sit in it, although never lean back. And, it plain just looked ratty, with the threads hanging off and the entire back all shredded and blown out.
Rating: 1 / 5