Leap vs Gesture: My Opinion 3 Years Later

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Steelcase case needs to make a chair with the back of the Leap v2, the seat of the Amia and the arms of the Gesture.

Excellent video that really goes in-depth into the differences between the two and rare several years of use experience on the chairs. Really helped to inform an expensive purchase decision. Thanks!

Thanks for the great comparison! Minor question: is the fabric shown on the Gesture here the Era Night Owl or the Cogent Graphite?

First time watching a video from this Channel. The informative content in this video alone has made me Sub. Great stuff!

"unbearable to sit in for long periods of time" is probably the last thing you're looking for in a chair that costs over 1,000$

I got my amia shipped today from yall!!! I'm so excited to get it and use it as I've been having a secretlab titan and it's been the most uncomfortable I've ever been on a chair especially giving me tailbone pain!

Went to local distributor and tried both chairs. I'm 5'10 and 182lbs and normal build. My sense and test showed that the Gesture was just a more solid and comfortable option. I like it that with the Gesture, there's a little back movement on full up tilt (6.40). It's feels more natural as it seems to me that your body is always moving and this small movement helps. The tilt function, when the personal tension is adjusted is a joy. The Lumbar option gives enough support without overkill. The seat and back are very supportive and comfortable. I opted and purchased the Gesture. Received today and very happy . The armrest movement is beyond brilliant . Gesture wins !!

I got my gesture for 350 new of a local auction in Michigan that auctions returns, over stock, shelf pulls. Had the original stickers and books

I sat on the gesture for the first time, for around 9 hours at work and it was perfect

I don’t really like aggressive lumbar so I just took the lumbar system out on my leap v2, it’s still adjustable but just not as aggressive, but it’s no longer height adjustable only depth adjustable but it works for me

My order from BTOD just arrived with my refurbished Leap v2. I'm sitting in it and initially like it. My biggest complaint after my initial setting is the seating area isn't long enough. Like Greg stated the tailbone area is a bit weak. I'm 6' 2" and just over 200 lbs., and finding the cushion bounce is good in the seat but the size of the seat length is too short. Before adjusting my seat forward to get the closest distance between the seat's edge to the back of my knees I was feeling good in my tail bone area (but of course my back and upper legs weren't). By sliding my seat forward all the way, my tailbone cushion area is weak. I'm only 6'2" and yet the Leap's seat is at its end on adjustments but the back of my knees are supposed to be 2" to 3" at the most from the edge of the front of the seat. The back of my knees is 4" from the edge of the seat's cushion (no wonder why that area of my legs are always aching). This is the big fail in the Leap for anyone my height or taller in my opinion. Where's the chair for taller people? Oh, right they didn't make it. Why hasn't Steelcase made a chair to fit taller people? Or why doesn't Steelcase offer a seat that's at least one inch longer for tall people? People are getting taller. Where's your video for taller people to watch on taller people's chair offerings? Thanks and overall you made a great video with this one Greg.

I tried out both of them and just by comfort, Leap wins it for me.. If Steelcase could add the Gesture's arms to the Leap that would be an awesome chair.. I really like the Gesture's arms, what a great idea to make them very adjustable.

I have a spinal injury that resulted in neck surgery and I can only sit in a very specific position. I need to heavily slouch as a correct upright position cause my arms to go numb. I need to be able to sit in my chair for up to 14 hours a day, and currently the chair I have won't go low enough to get my feet flat on the floor and accommodate the correct position required. Out of both of the se chairs I need the one that is the most adjustable towards a heavily slouched position, that will allow lumbar support to try and avoid lower back issues. I'm finding it difficult to decide between these two chairs as the reviews are all so varying.

I just sit on a testing embody from a site for a little over a week now also had some tailbone pain the first 2-3days but it went away but slowly I feel like for how I sit and what i do in it (mostly gaming, and then also for straight a lot of hours at a time) the back on the embody feels too hard for me. Because I game and for ove ra decade always tend to slouch after a while no matter what (even on the embody which made the back feel even harder for me) I feel like the leap v2's "slouch function" where the arms and seat not tilt back with the backrest, is exactly how people that game slide down in their chairs and get a crooked back. I did and do the same even in the embody sometimes. And I can imagine with a light slouch in the leap v2, having the arm rest still straight on your desk height, this looks like The perfect chair function for long hours for me. I can realing imagine gaming a lot in this position and still having a straight back while being leaned back. I'm kinda interested in this chair now. I just hope the padding of it really is soft enough and also holds up for a long time.
Edit: weird question regarding the leap v2, but because of its slightly forward looking headrest and 2 thin straps that hold it, can you bend it slightly backwards?

I noticed the tailbone issues on the Gesture as well, which was really disheartening for a while. The Gesture is the first high class chair I ever bought, so I was a little disappointed. But after a while, I noticed it's really dependent on how I sit in it. I liked to slouch a lot in other chairs, and the Gesture immediately punishes that behaviour. But as mentioned in the video, it's because the Gesture wants you to sit in a more proper position and is very comfortable when you do. Whenever I start slouching and it starts to hurt my tailbone, I am reminded to get in a more upright position - with any other chair, I'd start slouching again in less than five minutes, but with the Gesture, it's more like five hours. Plus, with the way it tilts and its adjustability, I barely feel the need to "plank" in the chair anymore. It definitely requires some adjustment to the seating experience, but it's really rewarding for that.

Which chair is better for gaming with a mouse? I need to be sitting upright with good back support and the ability to freely move my whole arm around.

I have been sitting in the Kinn chair for couple years now (mine was Merryfair OEMs) and I like the lumbar support. I had several chair before with a lot of adjustment to the lumbar support but none support me like Kinn even without any adjustment.
I tried both Gesture and Leap, thinking that I would go with Gesture for the armrest, I actually love Leap a lot more for how better it support my whole back. Gesture is at a similar level to Kinn chair while Leap just put my whole back in the pocket.
Leap armrest adjustment is enough for me so I’m okay with the trade off.

I just got a gesture from Steelcase Japan last week. They have been offering a 30% off for this chair and got out of stock of the leap. So easy to make up my mind to get the gesture, and no regrets

Has anyone had experience with the gesture? The more upright position, less aggressive lumbar support and good headrest look very appealing to me but as someone who does long hours with a mix of writing and coding the stiffer front and weak tailbone region also sound worrying.
I'd like to get a gist of if these are common issues or something Greg is particularly sensitive to.

Please review the Steelcase Karman whenever you can get your hands on one. I want to know if it really fixes the problem other mesh chairs have re: uncomfortable frame.

I own several quality chairs including the original Leap, Leap V2, Gesture, Amia and Embody Gaming. The Gesture is my favorite. The Embody is great but takes a long time to get used to. And for my 5’8” body, my shoulder blades feel restricted by the curved top of the back of the Embody. The Gesture just feels very comfortable. I’m ready to toss/donate my original Leap.

My major issue as a 5’6” person is that these headrests are too high just like all office chair headrests. If you’re not 5’8” or taller the headrest shoves your head forward and ruins your posture. I would love to get a chair with head support but I can’t find one short enough

i got a leap v2 and it made my tailbone start having intense agony. It was so bad i had to send the chair back its crazy because the chair is so adjustable yet nothing i did helped the pain.

I have a question for you guys at BTODtv :) Can the Leap V2's seat be transferred to a Gesture, like you've done with Amia?

Which one would you recommend if don’t sit in them properly all the time? Sometimes I sit with one leg up and kinda sideways or sit partly slid down the chair.

I just ordered my first “pricey” chair from your website! (refurbished leap v2) hopefully it will be a good investment for my back and posture in long run

I've had trouble finding the proper spot to place the lumbar support for the leap, I'm about 6 feet tall and was wondering if there's a recommendation on where I should place it

Love the video, but can you please add metric units when you mentioned inches, feet, etc? Thank you :)

I nearly didn’t buy a gesture because of your review, mainly cause of the concerns of the seat comfort,
I’ve come from sitting on a secret labs Titan, and I can confirm that the gesture is far far more comfortable,
I was worried about the foam in the middle of seat being hard on the tailbone as you suggest in the video, but it’s honestly just not the case, been sitting in the gesture for 10hours a day and it’s really quite comfortable,
I also don’t have other high end chairs to compare it to, nor have I tried many,
However as a 6”2’ individual I am very Happy with the gesture with the headrest 👌

Nice video, I ordered a new Leap V2 here in the UK towards the end of April and it arrived around 2 weeks ago if I recall correctly. I feel like the backrest padding is somehow a little thin where my back tends to want to push back into it, I'm 5'8" and around 220-230lbs and if I push a finger through the fabric it's not hard to feel the plastic there at all. I already removed the additional lumbar support a few days back. From reading people on reddit etc they say it can take two weeks to even a month for your posture or back to adjust to the chair, but I don't really have any complaints about the actual seat part comfort wise. It's the back rest, and feels like my previous set up of a gaming chair with the recline back a bit and a pillow in between actually may be more comfortable than this. I wonder if the Aeron or Embody feel any softer on the back, or maybe I just need to get used to the leap. For my personal desk setup I would need to raise the arm rests all the way to get up to level with my desk, so when I do a lot of typing for work I generally just put my keyboard in my lap and work that way as I've experienced significant pain in one hand having my wrist bent over

What color is that green leap v2, your willow color?

I was sold on the Gesture after watching 7 hours of these videos until he said "it's unbearable to sit in for long periods of time". Back to the drawing board.

What about the Steelcase Please Air?

Ordered a Gesture since there's a sale in the EU now making it cheaper than the Leap or Amia. I had the Leap v2 for a couple of months and couldn't get used to it, not sure if it was the crooked back defect it had from factory(replaced once, 2nd one was even more crooked), or I just didn't get along with the aggressive backrest. I think it was both, but crooked backs on a 1000$ chair is not ok, so I returned it.
Hopefully the Gesture doesn't come with any factory defects and I can finally enjoy a good ergonomic chair, because I've had horrible luck with both Steelcase and Herman Miller(Sayl, forward tilt broken from factory, cylinder replaced twice, plastic base replaced once, in 2 years).

Been looking at a lot of chairs reviews with no budget limit and everything seems to be cheap and uncomfortable. Our older Aeron’s at work constantly break and uncomfortable as well. Spending $2K for a chair seems crazy when none of them are “S” tier.

My Leap is giving me tailbone pain so i'm thinking about switching chairs. But it looks like the Gesture will have similar problems and not worth to switching to it. Any other recs?

Gesture is $1800 here in Japan.
Leap is $1000.
There's a 20% off coupon on their site I can use.
I'm on the fence. I sat on both at a store and couldn't decide. The arm rests are cool on Gesture but Leap felt more comfortable overall?
I've been sitting on a $6 kitchen chair with a silicone pad for the past 3 years so I doubt some tailbone pain can affect me anymore. I usually try to take a 5min break to stretch every hour anyway.
I can get a used Gesture for around $700 on mercari. Is it worth it over Leap?

I'd love to see a video looking for the best office chair IF you have cats. No kidding. I had an Ergohuman chair my boss passed over and that mesh was screaming for help every time my cat was on it. It was a claws magnet. He loved kneading it.

Would you choose the Gesture if you had someone refit it with a thicker more comfortable foam?

do you know if the gesture needs a break in period? it feels so stiff when compared to t he leap v2

For someone who is looking at the Gesture, but has also experienced quite a bit of coccyx pain, do you think that getting a piece of memory foam or some of Purple's seat padding and stuffing it in the cut out would be a good solution for fixing that issue?

Just curious how tall are you and would you reccomend the leap v2 for someone that's around 6'3" 155lbs?

interesting as the cutout in the gesture should scientifically result in relief to the tail bone area instead of pressure. i imagine thats why they designed it like that.

I was fortunate that I was able to try out both chairs before I shelled out over a $1k. I ruled out the Leap2 for two reasons. First, the harsh lumbar support and the second was the gap between the seat and the back. That gap was constantly "pinching" my backside. The only concern is how comfortable the Gesture will be on my tailbone as it was damaged during the birth of my first child. I don't have the chair yet as it was a custom order. I'm hoping all those adjustments will prove helpful towards making the Gesture comfortable for me.

I’m 5’5 165 which would be better for me?

Pretty interesting that leap is so expensive now. I picked one up new 6 years ago for about $500.

Will you comment on the fact that the warranty was reduced to 5(!) years for EU customers? I was going to pull the trigger on a gesture when I noticed this, now I'm almost completely turned off unless I find a very good price somewhere.

FYI: Steelcase EU announced a few days ago that they now offer 12 year warranty instead of 5 years.

tried both and got an Embody instead.

I'm 164cm so like 5' 3 or 4 ish.... I was leaning towards gesture but someone said they aren't good for people of my size? What do you think

Here in 🇩🇪 leap v2 cost like 1400$ and gesture half of that or less but I got rid of it cus back pain…. and bought leap v2 with headrest with 50% off

I've been looking at these videos for days and I still don't know what's best for me...
I'm a software dev / digital artist and I just want something that's comfortable for my work and wont hurt my lower back... I feel like this shouldn't be so hard...

This is an incredible video and will be very helpful in my decision to upgrade. I'm looking between one of these two and the embody from Herman Miller.
I haven't had a chance to try out the Steelcase chairs yet, and I might not be able to, so if not, this video is my best option!.

Edit: Found an official response from Steelcase where they state they have reduced the warranty to 5 years to "make things less complex for the consumer". See reply to this comment for more info. (TL;DR: ugly reason & ugly move)
Edit2 (1 year after my post): Steelcase EU just announced that the now EU too has 12 years warranty instead of 5 years from now on!!! Yay!!!
Hi, (I noticed the other comment about the warranty case as well). But considering the Gesture's warranty in the EU is only 5 years, does that mean that it's made of different (worse) materials in the EU or something? (I saw on the website they make them in France for the EU I think). I really want to get a Gesture but because the warranty in the EU is only 5 years, I'm kind of scared that the chair's quality is somehow worse than the US version... And it's also not the case that every chair brand in the EU has max 5 year warranty either, because Herman Miller still offers 12 years here. Hell, even Neuechair offers 12 years in the EU.... What on earth is going on with that massive warranty difference? Hope you can give me some insight on this

Man those critics feels like every chair above 1000 bucks has some serious issues.

I don't like that little part of the plastic that sticks out on the plastic underside of the seat bottom on the Gesture. It looks like a seam or some joint where two panels come together... Maybe it only look weird in the videos, but it almost looks broken to me... Given how expensive that chair is, it's really surprising to me they would have some part like that that sticks out and looks bad. Leap just looks better from a design standpoint.

Why are they so expensive now?

I just need my butt to not be so sore, then again I'm using the hyken lol with a seat pad currently 140 pounds was looking at the gesture

Amia?

why do these chairs all have such a hard suspension?

If you want to buy chairs like this go store and check yourself. I watched few videos and though Gesture is better than leap then i tried myself, for me is Leap much better.

Makes me sad that no one, including you guys, ships to Australia other than steelseries. I make decent money and even im pushed out of the market for getting one at full price. Super disappointing.

I am former Steelcase AP lead designer, is interested to see this in-depth vs review , good work 👍🏼 and u r right the leap head rest is lame 🤣

Wait... why can you see all the other colors? There's only 3 available to me on the website... Is that an old screenshot at 0:33 or am I missing something??
Oh its the difference between ready to ship or not... maybe someone else has the same problem ill leave this

This chair is 2K more than the Gesture, about 600 dollars less.

Not willing to pay 1200€ for a seat, where i only get 5 instead of 12 years warranty. What a joke to us in germany.

How about flatulence smell absorption? Do they handle some gas without retaining the smell?

You sound exactly like Matt Damon wtf

When I spend $1000 on a chair I expect a car to be thrown in with it.

"They're really focused on fitting the 95th percentile...so you should be fine if you're 6'5"...uh you might want to check your understanding of height percentiles.

first!!!!!!!!!!

Second

why are these chairs so expensive bruhhh

Jesus

chair weath that price ....OMG people you insane.

Who the hell wants to pay that much for an office chair. That's insane

I bought a Gesture and got incredibly lucky, on Steelcase's site with a certain color configuration I got the price of the Gesture down to $659, that's with polished aluminum base and Oatmeal upholstery. The day after placing this order Steelcase raised prices to $1300ish for the Gesture and my configuration was no longer available at $659 or any discount. I'm curious as to how I was able to get such a good price, a system glitch? They took the time to build the chair from scratch so it's not some used or refurbished model, they advertised no sales at the time, and the deal was gone after I ordered, as if a mistake had been corrected. All I know now is I got an awesome chair brand new for an insane price, you can't find good condition Gestures used for that price. I feel like a lottery winner 😂
In regards to comfort - it's everything I expected and more. I got the standard Gesture without the additional lumbar support however it adapts to your backs curve and supports you in the correct posture without pushing you uncomfortably so I don't feel like the extra lumbar support is necessary when it already does a great job for someone who usually does use higher lumbar support options.
However, lighter people, especially people around or under 120lbs might feel back pain because they may not weigh enough to get the back of the chair to properly flex to adapt to their backs ideal curve. I'm 180lbs and didn't have a problem but I can see how lighter people may, though the tension adjustment does adjust lumbar slightly and loosen the back up so it's easier to flex.
It also encourages movement with the back being flexible - just don't slouch! The padding is thin so if you slouch for hours at a time you'll start to notice tailbone pain, correcting your posture, however, ends up being more comfortable and of course more supportive than slouching, but it would be nice to have the freedom to slouch a bit without pain so it's a very minor con.
The chair is worth 659, and it's worth 1200. The value proposition decreases as you start add options like leather upholstery or accessories like headrests, but if you have 2500 for chair and want to go all out, this chair will likely not disappoint you. And if it does you can return it at no addition cost if it doesn't fit right.
I spent a long time researching chairs and it was stressful at first but started to realize that I just buy quality rather than look for the best value, miraculously I got both! The Gesture and Leap are among the top 5 chairs that most people should consider buying in my opinion and I think BTOD echoes that. Appreciate the channel for your help in narrowing down my options. I somehow wrote a review on this chair - guess it's special enough to warrant yet another rave review. Reviews saying it caused pain worried me greatly but I bit the bullet and i'm glad I did.