The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2017–2026
KOKUYO's ingCloud chair adapts to your body — Red Dot Best of the Best 2026
A chair with no adjustment levers: seat, back and armrests glide with the body, so users feel they wear it — Red Dot's Innovative Design jury scores it 96/100.
KOKUYO
What it had to solve
Conventional ergonomics was built on two-dimensional measurements and user-tuned levers. KOKUYO's ing series had already challenged that since 2017, and ingCloud set out to make sitting feel like wearing the chair.
How it works
KOKUYO's ingCloud chair throws away the adjustment lever, the defining feature of the ergonomic office chair. Instead of the user setting angles, the chair's seat, backrest and armrests move with the body in three dimensions, following subtle shifts in weight, centre of gravity, and the twisting and bending of sitting.
The idea grew out of the ing series, which KOKUYO began in 2017 with the concept of 'releasing sitting'. ingCloud, the third model, launched in December 2025 and added a gravity-driven gliding mechanism that works without springs or motors, a 3D hammock mesh backrest and a shell shaped around the human body. The designers describe the goal as feeling like wearing the chair, not sitting on it.
The Red Dot jury gave the concept its highest honour: Best of the Best in the Innovative Design category with 96 out of 100, describing it as a new typology of chair. It also received a standard Red Dot in the Office Furniture and Office Chairs category, and KOKUYO noted it was the ing series' second Best of the Best after the original ing in 2018.
The bet is aimed at people who sit for hours in front of screens: by removing the moment of adjustment, the chair supports the body continuously and unconsciously, replacing fiddling with concentration and comfort.
Why it lands
- Every ergonomic chair made the user do the work; ingCloud inverted the relationship so the chair tracks the body continuously.
- A gravity mechanism with no springs removed the parts that wear out and the controls that distract from work.
- Shaping the chair like a shell around the body made the support feel enveloping rather than mechanical.
- Winning the Innovative Design category, not just Furniture, reframed a chair as a technology product.
What it did
Red Dot Best of the Best 2026 in the Innovative Design category with 96/100 — the ing series' second BoB after 2018's ing — plus a Red Dot 2026 in Office Furniture and Office Chairs.
What you can take
When a category is defined by how well users adjust a product, the breakthrough is to make the product adjust to the user — removing the adjustment interface can be the innovation itself.
Since then
ingCloud launched in Japan in December 2025 and took Red Dot Best of the Best 2026 (96/100 in Innovative Design) plus a category Red Dot. KOKUYO promoted it through nationwide experience spaces where corporate buyers and consumers could sit in the chair, and framed the award as the ing series' second Best of the Best after 2018's ing. The win positions KOKUYO's gravity-driven mechanism as a reference point in the office-chair category and a new answer to the question of what ergonomics means.
Sources
- KOKUYO's ingCloud Office Chair Wins Awards Including Best of the Best at Red Dot Design Award 2026
- KOKUYO Co., Ltd. — Interview with Yojiro Kinoshita, Ryoma Maeda
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card