Read This Moonpod Review Before Buying It

At the graphic design studio where I work, the management went all out splurging and bought a dozen or so Moon Pods. This is actually stereotypical spending for tech companies. We’re not quite at dot-com bubble standards, but it feels like it sometimes.

The day the Moon Pods arrived, most of us had never heard of them. They filled a storage room. We went to unbox them, and somebody cautioned us not to use boxcutters, so we just ripped into the boxes by hand. That was work. Out came what can only be described as giant, fluffy marshmallows, along with some gray canvas sacks. The instructions say to stuff the Moon Pods into their sacks, so we all had a fun morning of exercise getting them cased up. It takes two people to sack one Moon Pod.

I confess, we have the kind of “bro culture” typical of small tech companies. Lots of comic book posters and Funko Pop dolls on every desk. We hadn’t bagged up the last before somebody was suggesting a secondary market for anime slipcovers instead. Then when we were testing them out, there seemed to be a minor contest to see who could crash onto a Moon Pod in the most violent way possible. One guy was going to stand on a chair and dive into a pile of them when a manager yelled at him to get down. Can’t have that liability.

After the ruckus has calmed down, we’ve all adapted marvelously. The Moon Pod is the last word in adaptive ergonomics, shaping itself to whatever posture you like, but staying firm enough to support you. Even though these are basically souped-up bean bags, they’re filled with some grainy material that’s quieter and smoother than a bean bag. You forget about it after ten minutes and just flow into work.
See, before this, the standard in pampered techie office seating used to be the . Those certainly are comfortable too, but they’re bulky, noisy, and keep you at one fixed position. Aeron chairs were fine when desktops were the standard, but these days nobody uses a desktop workstation. We all work on laptops, and the desktops are part of the render farm or sometimes for the IT guys to log in and manage the servers, that sort of thing.

The point we’re at now, everybody is mobile so we can all roam around. Which is important, because tech workers of any kind need to roam around. This keeps you from repetitive stress injuries and plain old mental fatigue, by letting you change the scenery and position as you select your work nook for the day. Moon Pods only weigh 12 pounds, so they’re perfect for this. They can plop in a corner while you work with your feet up on a stool, they can sit up as a proper chair, or you can take them to the nap room to sack out on. You can also easily move them together for two or more to have a mini-meeting.

The guys who are into Eastern meditation even sit on them to meditate in the sunroom. One grouchy purist says this isn’t how you meditate, it’s supposed to be uncomfortable, it’s mind over body. Everybody ignores him. They’re not studying to be monks, they’re just clearing their minds and focusing for the days’ work.

Not many people appreciate it, but graphic design is actually hard mental work. You have to be a part engineer and part artist, and sometimes part computer hacker when you’ve got a misbehaving program in your toolchain. Anything that helps your body-mind balance, helping you stay focused and in the zone, is great for productivity. It’s become a quieter office with fewer distractions since we switched to Moon Pods.
The main worry falling asleep in one when you’re not supposed to. , and they’re also a chore to stand up from sometimes since you sit low. Once planted, you tend to stay planted. But outside of that, these are perfect for laptop work.