Everybody — employees of vastly different workplaces from Facebook to the Federal Reserve Bank — knows that standing desks offer a range of health benefits. Research by the Mayo Clinic, for one, found that employees utilizing sit-stand desks were seated 91 minutes fewer per day, lowering their risk of obesity, cancer, back pain and depression. And yet another study at Texas A&M, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, concluded that workers outfitted with standing desks were 46 percent more productive than those using conventional desks.
But for a variety of reasons, specifying this wellness essential for the office can be a pain in and of itself. Standing desks can be exorbitantly expensive or cheaply constructed.
That’s why New York City–based Poppin is changing the game. The office furniture manufacturer’s new Loft Adjustable Height Standing Desk is an affordable solution to the standing desk conundrum. Loft is simple to specify, is always in-stock, and can be processed and delivered within a matter of days. What’s more, Loft fully integrates into Poppin’s other product lines, allowing projects to be scaled with your team without a second thought.
Poppin’s Vice President of Product Design, Jeff Miller, tells us how Loft can make the transition to standing desks in your workplace a snap.
1. It’s the future.
Perhaps the first standing desk in the country was in the Monticello office of Thomas Jefferson. Now, they are starting to appear in offices coast to coast—in part, Miller says, because we want options. “Task seating development has for more than a century been predicated on the need to create a comfortable relationship between the body and a fixed desk height,” he says. “Seating can now evolve to accommodate the reverse. Already, hybrid stool/seat offerings that allow height adjustable ‘perching’ have entered the market.” Loft allows users to alternate between standing and sitting, at whatever height they find comfortable, as they become familiar with working at a standing desk.
2. It’s a problem solver.
According to the Huffington Post, Americans increase their life expectancy two years by reducing sitting time from the standard six hours to just three hours per day—something a standing desk easily helps you accomplish. “It’s a component of an active and healthy lifestyle,” Miller says. “It enables the individual to balance a day’s routine — away from long periods of stagnant behavior — toward more dynamic activity.”
3. It’s easy to use.
Of course, there’s no point specifying new office furniture if you can’t make it work, or if it doesn’t work for each person in the office. To make the most out of a standing desk, it must be properly positioned for each individual user, depending upon their height and comfort. The rise in flexible working spaces means desks may be used by multiple people each day. Loft makes all this a no-brainer. “Our Loft Adjustable Height Desk has a memory function to program any four preferred heights within a generous range of 24 to 50 inches,” Miller says. “Offices today are increasingly more nomadic so this allows flexible transition from sitting to standing in seconds.”
4. It’s easy to specify.
The Loft series is easy to explore, either online or in Poppin showrooms in New York and San Francisco. “Unlike traditional contract manufacturers,” Miller says, “our sit-stand desk is in stock, ready to ship, extremely affordable, and with multiple configurations available from a concise variety of SKUs.” And it’s designed to complement the Poppin products you already know and love. “Its aesthetic fits seamlessly into the rest of the Poppin Furniture collection — matching our current Series A Desk tops and finishes for a cohesive look across the office.”
5. It’s the new normal.
Standing desks are increasingly appearing everywhere, in workplaces ranging from BNIM’s headquarters for AEG in Des Moines to the offices of artists like Cory Archangel. And they’re especially popular on the west coast, where the tech sector has embraced them wholeheartedly. “Loft was launched in conjunction with the opening of our new showroom in San Francisco,” Miller says, “where the tech start-up market for sit-stand desks is burgeoning beyond existing acceleration nationally.”
As we see today with the rise of co-working spaces, where Silicon Valley goes, corporate America follows.
The Loft series incorporates both single and double desk formats, the latter separated by a pinnable privacy panel that is reconfigurable with edge clips. Loft’s high-pressure laminate desktops are stain-resistant and offered in everyday classic finishes including bright white and light oak. All models can be positioned with the press of a button, which adjusts the electrically driven legs, powered by a standard 15A outlet, to the ideal height.
A cable management column can accommodate multiple cables, while the power tray keeps everything tidy via wire cuts on both top and bottom. Power sources include a convenience outlet that clamps to the desk, offering two standard outlets or two outlets and two USB ports; an optional Belkin-brand power strip within the power tray boosts the power with an extra-long 6-foot cord. And soft edge desktop bands virtually eliminate the possibility of dings. In fact, Loft meets the BIFMA durability standards for commercial offices.
No matter the height or finish, Loft coordinates elegantly with Poppin’s full range of accessories, including everything from monitor stands and desk sets to the stylish stapler whose design provided the impetus for Poppin’s founding more than five years ago.