The Alera Elusion has been recommended on a few sites I've seen as an affordable high quality alternative to the big boys, so I bought one on craigslist without much testing, and I can't say I really like it.  I don't know it just doesn't feel very comfortable no matter how I adjust it.

I got a no name (Flash Furniture) one from amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012JJ2EEY/), mostly because the ability to roll the arms back meant I didn't have to have an extra stool for when I use my guitar.  It's been pretty good, and compares well to all of the $350 or less chairs that I've used.  I think that in order to get a better chair, you have to spend more than I'm willing to...

I got a no name (Flash Furniture) one from amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012JJ2EEY/), mostly because the ability to roll the arms back meant I didn't have to have an extra stool for when I use my guitar.  It's been pretty good, and compares well to all of the $350 or less chairs that I've used.  I think that in order to get a better chair, you have to spend more than I'm willing to...

How long have you had it and how well has the material held up?

My last major chair purchase was about $150 IIRC for a nice "professional/executive" chair probably in 2008 or so. I decided to pay a bit extra for a 3-year extended warranty because the warranty was so cheap. A couple years later, all the faux-leather started cracking and peeling off. So shortly before the warranty expired, I was able to get a replacement--a similarly priced model--for free. And I'm glad I did because the damaged chair started deteriorating quickly. But the replacement, too, started to fall apart after about 3 years. It's been a longer, slower process. But they both leave lots of little black "droppings" all over the carpet, which sometimes even stick to the backside of my clothing.

Here's what my most recent chair looks like now after owning it for about 6 years:



With a close up shot of near the top of the backrest:



And here's a small sampling of the little "droppings" that I have to vacuum up all the time:






EDIT: I just realized I posted about the initial purchase of my "nice" chair in this very thread:

My two crappy metal chairs with fabric covered cardboard (or some kind of manufactured wood) both broke last month within weeks of each other. So I just bought a decent office chair for about $150, but strangely enough I can't find any information or pictures of it online.

It's an executive style chair made out of what is probably fake leather. It has massage motors in the lower and upper back. Seems pretty comfortable to me. It's a lot better than my previous chairs.

Yeah, I think that's the faux leather they put on a lot of them.  I had that problem with my $250 chair I had before this that I purchased from Staples.  This one is fabric, so none of the 'chair-droppings'.  I haven't had it that long- less than a year.  So I'd have to report on it later.

Now that this thread has been resurrected, I should probably offer an update on my chair situation.

The chair I mentioned in my previous post bit the dust back in 2008, and I had to buy a new one, because it was killing my back and cutting off the circulation to my legs. It was beyond repair and too bent up to straighten out.

I ended up buying a high back Sealy Posturepedic chair, like this one, for about $200:



The differences between mine and the one pictured there, is that on mine, the fabric is brown. Yes, fabric, because I still can't stand sitting on leather, vinyl, or plastic.

At the time that I purchased the chair, my back was killing me so bad I could barely walk.

I did show mouser the chair I was considering buying, but at the time he thought it was way overpriced and that I could get a "decent" chair for much less. While I did understand his concern at the time, because I was going through some financial difficulties, I am glad I didn't listen to him and bought the chair, any way.

My thoughts on it, which justified the price, is that one spends 6-8 hours per night sleeping in their bed, and would not think twice about spending $600+ on their mattress & box spring, for the purposes of comfort and avoiding a bad backache, so why not spend some extra on a chair that I spend far more time in, than my bed?

If I could have afforded a $600+ chair at the time, I would have bought one, but my budget at that time was around $200*, max. And that was the best $200, fabric covered, high back chair with arm rests that I could find, that was made by a company with a reputation for producing mattresses that offered good back support.

When the chair arrived, my back was in such bad shape that I could barely stand up. My husband brought the box upstairs, and I assembled the chair while sitting down, on my old chair. Then it was a matter of just pushing the old chair our of the way and sitting my butt in the new one. Within 24 hours, I noticed a real difference, and instead of my back getting worse, it actually started to heal, and within a few days I was good as new.

And the chair has served me well enough over the past 8 years, that I'd even consider tossing away all 4 of my oak kitchen chairs (that have seen better days), and replace them all with something similar to this desk chair, if I could get ones in leather, without arm rests. As much as I hate leather to sit on, it's much more practical for use in a kitchen, where chairs would need to be able to be easily wiped clean and not absorb spills directly into the cushions. And the adjustable height would make them perfect for my kitchen table, which is unusually high, too high for standard height kitchen chairs. And that also would mean that when using my laptop, I could have the same comfort as sitting at my desk, without having to drag my desk chair into my kitchen. And having wheels, nobody would ever have to hear that horrific sound of a wooden kitchen chair sliding across a textured floor, ever again.

But that dream will have to wait, since I have better things to do with my money, at the moment, than spending $800+ on new kitchen chairs. And before anyone gets the wrong idea, no, I am not requesting or accepting donations to help cover the costs, because the wooden chairs I have are still quite usable and replacing them can wait as long as I need. A trip to Home Depot to buy the appropriate drill bits & screws, to finish reinforcing the chairs, along with a good set of the right type of steel glides, would cost far less and make those wooden chairs last a another 20 years, at least.




_{*Thank you again, to everyone that has used my software and donated to support further development, during 2006-2008. I wouldn't have been able to afford the new desk chair without your help.}

Oups -- just now, I see it's described as 'standing support'

What exactly does that term mean? When I read that, I conjured an image in my mind of how I used to use a standing desk at one of the places I used to work, resting one knee on a folding chair of the perfect height, keeping one foot off the floor, switching about once per hour to give the other foot a rest. I suppose having something of adjustable height, without a back, and a firm padded seat (like that "chair"), would probably have been more comfortable than the folding chair I used.

I've never actually done standing at a desk myself, but the knee method sounds interesting.

It was out of necessity, since standing for 10+ hours was killing my feet. I am just lucky the length of my legs (from knee to floor) was perfect for that folding chair.

I bought a Maverick A4 chair from Office Depot ten years ago and it still looks near brand new.  It's astonishing, really, if you consider how many hours I've got in this chair.  When I'm not travelling for work, I work from home so you can imagine the amount of work (and play) time I have in this seat.  I did have to replace the height-adjustment piston a few years ago but that's to be expected as they don't last forever.  The chair actually has a ten-year warranty on it, too.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/277968/WorkPro-Maverick-Multifunction-High-Back-Fabric/