MillerKnoll are a huge player in the furniture sector. They operate a number of brands, particular interesting to the sit/stand desk frame space were ‘Herman Miller’ and ‘Fully’.
These two brands were perhaps a useful way of segmenting their customer bases. Herman Miller have long operated at the higher end of the sit/stand desk frame market. Remember the Eames Lounge Chair? That’s Herman Miller. Renowned for it’s quality, design but also it’s price tag! Fully were targeting customers who wanted a much cheaper frame, effectively competing with the likes of Flexispot.
Whilst Flexispot (owned by Loctek) have never tried to hide the fact that they are a Chinese company, exporting Chinese made frames; Fully gave the impression they were more American based, but you still could not hide the fact that the pricing was not in line with the vibe that Herman Miller were trying to maintain.
MillerKnoll announce restructuring
But ‘giants the bigger they come the harder they fall’, the parent company MillerKnoll have reportedly had some tricky quarters recently. Famously the MillerKnoll CEO last month (April 2023) had some ‘words of advice’ for staff that highlighted all was not well, and so change was afoot.
Seemingly to reduce overheads and improve efficiencies, the Fully brand is no longer in operation, and the Fully Jarvis will be sold through the existing Herman Miller e-commerce outlets here in the UK. The price point for the Jarvis seems to be about the same as when it was sold under the Fully brand, however there is one key distinction.
The main difference between the Fully Jarvis and the Herman Miller Jarvis
The Herman Miller Jarvis does not have a BYOD (bring your own desktop) option. Perhaps that was a step too far towards the frugal customer when integrating the brands. Wether they will bring it back or not, time will tell. The BYOD option was a huge reason many of our joint customers went with Fully in the first place. Anecdotally, we have already had customers purchase a Flexispot frame over their initial choice of Fully.
We have for a few years supplied custom tops for other Herman Miller frames, but until recently we have not offered them as a standard option, for three reasons.
- Firstly, Herman Miller desk frames are not sold frame only. Desk top request were from customers who had worn out the existing desk top. Their desk tops are rarely (never?) made of solid wood, but if you have to buy the two together, it made sense that there wasn’t a huge demand in the market.
- Second, they often required specific metal inserts that were proprietary, we would need to sacrifice an existing top to embed them into the new top. This required extra work, extra cost, extra logistics, that most customers were not prepared to wade through.
- The third reason was after spending ££££ on a desk, there often wasn’t much budget, or desire, to source a third party solid wood desk top.
What does this mean for pairing a solid wood desk top with the Herman Miller Jarvis?
One good thing is we can now offer oak, pine, walnut or other woods for Herman Miller frames, albeit just the Jarvis, just like we did with Fully.
The bad thing is, will you bother? If you have to buy the desk frame with the desk top, most people won’t have the stomach to throw away or try and sell the unwanted desk top. It is a bit of shame considering how MillerKnoll say they “leverage the power of [their] collective to design a more sustainable world.” Actively removing the BYOD option seems to go against this. Even Ikea, a company with arguably larger logistical challenges, sell their tops with or with out desk tops to give customers the option.
Browse our reviews and articles to find alternative desk frame suppliers in the low/mid range budget, and also feel free to reach out if you have any specific questions or ideas.
Solid wood Herman Miller Jarvis compatible desk tops
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