Emeco (styled "emeco®") is a privately held company based in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

. The

Emeco 1006 The Emeco 1006 (pronounced ten-oh-six), also known as the Navy chair, is an aluminum chair manufactured by Emeco. The 1006 was originally built in 1944 for Navy warships during World War II, but later became a designer chair used in high-end rest ...

, known as the Navy Chair, has been in continuous production since the 1940s. Today, Emeco manufactures furniture designed by notable designers and architects such as

Philippe Starck Philippe Starck (; born 18 January 1949) is a French industrial architect and designer known for his wide range of designs, including interior design, architecture, household objects, furniture, boats and other vehicles. Life Starck was born on ...

Norman Foster Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

, and

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are considere ...

History

Wilton C. Dinges founded the Electric Machine and Equipment Company (Emeco) in 1944 with $300 in savings and a used

lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to ...

for machine-work. He started bidding on government manufacturing contracts out of a loft in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, beginning with experimental antennas and jet engine parts. Dinges moved to

Hanover, Pennsylvania Hanover is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, southwest of York and north-northwest of Baltimore, Maryland and is north of the Mason-Dixon line. The town is situated in a productive agricultural region. The population was 16,429 at the ...

in 1946 in order to take advantage of the local labor market. He obtained 10,000 pounds of aluminum scrap metal at an attractive price and started using it to build dining table legs. Later Emeco manufactured chair frames and eventually focused completely on aluminum chairs in 1948. The

Navy Chair for which the company is known was one of several furniture products made out of anodized aluminum, such as bunks and lockers, that Emeco made for the US Navy's fleet during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The business grew by under-bidding other manufacturers on government contracts for office building furniture. By 1953, there were four Emeco factories in Hanover. By 1955, Emeco was producing 200,000 chairs per year. Dinges developed the chairs and Emeco's manufacturing process, but he was not a good businessman and due to the elaborate manufacturing process, found it hard to generate a profit. By 1979 the company was not receiving enough new government contracts to stay in business and was nearing bankruptcy. Emeco was sold that year to Jay Buchbinder who tried unsuccessfully to revive the military end of the business. Buchbinder's son, Gregg, acquired Emeco from his father in 1998. He noticed that

Giorgio Armani Giorgio Armani (; born 11 July 1934) is an Italian fashion designer. He first gained notoriety working for Cerruti and then for many others, including Allegri, Bagutta and Hilton. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, which eventually expand ...

and other designers showed an interest in the 1006 chair, so he decided to focus on those and similar products. In 1999 the company posted a profit for the first time in more than 20 years. Gregg met French designer

at the 1998

International Contemporary Furniture Fair ICFF Logo Black RGB

By 2004 these accounted for half of Emeco's production, or 46,500 chairs per year. A short documentary film called "The 77 Steps of Making an Emeco Chair" by the grandson of designers

Charles and Ray Eames Charles Eames ( Charles Eames, Jr) and Ray Eames ( Ray-Bernice Eames) were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture through the work of ...

shows the industrial processes and craftsmanship required to manufacture the Navy Chair. Emeco Hudson chair

Famous designers and starchitects

In addition to starchitects Gehry, Starck, and Lord Foster, Emeco has collaborated with many other famous architects and designers such as Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec,

Naoto Fukasawa Naoto Fukasawa (; born 1956) is a Japanese designer, author, and educator, working in the fields of product and furniture design. He is known for his product design work with the Japanese retail company Muji, as well as collaborations with com ...

, Barber Osgerby,

Jasper Morrison Jasper Morrison (born 1959) is an English product and furniture designer. He is know for the refinement and apparent simplicity of his designs. In a rare interview with the designer, he is quoted as saying: "Objects should never shout". E ...

, Sam Hecht and Kim Colin, Nendo,

Konstantin Grcic Konstantin Grcic ( sr-cyr, Константин грчић, born 1965) is a German industrial designer known for creating mass-manufactured items, such as furniture and household products. He has participated in leading design shows and his work ...

Adrian Van Hooydonk Adrian van Hooydonk (born 21 June 1964 in Echt, Limburg), is a Dutch automobile designer and BMW Group's Design Director. He is based in Munich, Germany. Biography He studied at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, where he re ...

( BMW Designworks), Michael Young,

Jean Nouvel Jean Nouvel (; born 12 August 1945) is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of ''Mars 1976'' and '' Syndicat de l'Architecture'', France’s first labor union for architects. He has o ...

, ,

Andrée Putman Andrée Putman (23 December 1925 – 19 January 2013) was a French interior and product designer. She was the mother of Olivia Putman and of Cyrille Putman. Life and work Childhood and youth (1925–1944) Andrée Christine Aynard was born ...

, and

Ettore Sottsass Ettore Sottsass (Innsbruck, Austria 14 September 1917 – Milan, Italy 31 December 2007) was a 20th century Italian architect, noted for also designing furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting, home and office wares, as well as numerous buildings an ...

Use of recycled and reclaimed materials

Emeco is noted for their use of recycled and reclaimed materials.

The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrup ...

and Emeco partnered to re-create the Navy Chair using rPET plastic bottles; the 111 Navy Chair became available in 2010. Philippe Starck and Emeco revived and reengineered a 2001 design so that it could be made using a formula that combines waste polypropylene and reclaimed wood fiber. The result, called the

Broom Chair A broom (also known in some forms as a broomstick) is a cleaning tool consisting of usually stiff fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. I ...

, was launched in 2012. In 2015, the

Alfi Chair The Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry represents the financial sector of the Luxembourg government. Membership ALFI has three types of membership: full members “(i.e. “fund” members and “non-fund” members)), individual m ...

designed by Jasper Morrison was introduced. The seat of the chair is made of 100% discarded industrial waste – 92.5% polypropylene and 7.5% wood fiber. A 2022 advanced product design course in collaboration with the MIT Department of Architecture led to the development of "The next 150-year chair".

Legal actions

Restoration Hardware

In October 2012, Emeco filed a lawsuit against Restoration Hardware for allegedly violating their trademark and trade dress by selling look-alikes of the Emeco Navy chair, which Restoration Hardware called the “Naval Chair”. Restoration Hardware renamed the chair, then removed them from their website. In January 2013, Restoration Hardware agreed to stop selling the disputed chairs and to recycle their existing stock.

IKEA

Emeco filed a design right and copyright infringement case against Swedish furniture giant

IKEA IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been ...

in 2015, alleging that IKEA’s Melltorp dining chair was similar to the Emeco 20-06 Stacking Chair designed by

in 2006. In May 2016 Emeco accepted an out-of-court settlement from IKEA, both companies issued a joint statement announcing that a deal had been reached. Details of the deal remain confidential.

Awards

* 2000 Good Design Award, Hudson Chair by Philippe Starck * 2010 Good Design Award, 111 Navy Chair® (in collaboration with Coca-Cola) * 2011 iF Design Award, 111 Navy Chair® (in collaboration with Coca-Cola) * 2014 iF Design Award, Parrish chair by Konstantin Grcic * 2020 Core77 Design Award, On & On Collection by Barber Osgerby * 2021 Inaugural ELLE Decor Earth Award * 2022 Wallpaper* Design Award, Za stools by Naoto Fukasawa * 2022 Core77 Design Award, Student Notable Furniture & Lighting Award, Bethany Mumford,

Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private nonprofit art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. Founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the Un ...

(Inspired by Emeco)

References

{{reflist Manufacturing companies of the United States Furniture companies of the United States Furniture companies Chair-making Furniture designers Industrial design Design