Furniture gets bigger with plus-size market

UpholsteryJournalMag.com | March 16, 2010

As Americans grow larger, so do furniture sizes. More than 68 percent of Americans are overweight and 34 percent qualify as obese. Meanwhile, most armchairs available in the United States are 20 to 26 inches wide and therefore too small for this market. Furniture manufacturers are responding by producing "oversized" furniture that focuses on comfort, however, marketing efforts have been difficult.

The oversized furniture industry has found that empathetically marketing the products to obese customers has been difficult to do. Some companies choose directness, such as Oversize Furniture.com, which guarantees "oversized comfort." Others prefer a softer approach, such as Living XL, which saves customers from "discomfort, frustration and inconvenience." It should be noted that furniture companies that market directly to overweight and obese clientele are most online-only.

The majority of retailers offer options such as a chair-and-a-half or sleeper chairs. These terms disguise the oversized seating and help to appeal to a part of the market that doesn't identify as overweight or obese. Another issue that arises is that of construction; some use tubular steel frames and others use traditional wood construction, with added weight guarantees that protect from potential lawsuits.

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