IKEA have revisited their biggest ever ‘product fail’ – so cringeworthy they can’t believe they released it twice!
The a.i.r. sofa, an inflatable couch designed to combine convenience with feather-light novelty, was the biggest dud in the company’s history, according to IKEA’s global design boss Marcus Engman.
Speaking in Sydney this week, Engman admitted the couch was a disaster on multiple levels:
“This is one of the biggest mistakes in Ikea’s history. An amazing fiasco. There were some things we didn’t think of.”
First attempted in the 80s, the couch was meant to be a revolutionary, flat-pack piece that users could inflate at home.
“The idea would be to fill it with air from a hairdryer as we realised almost all homes around the word had hairdryers.
“People usually have them on hot and we didn’t think of that because if you have it on hot and attach it to plastic, it melts it.”
The couches would then leak air after a few days’ use, often sinking on one side, leaving a lopsided lounging experience.
Oh, and the feather-light marketing ploy turned out to be a disaster, too:
“We didn’t think if you sit on something that is so light it has this tendency not to sit still. You were actually floating around in your living room.”
Nobody was buying the loungeroom lemons, and IKEA got rid of their stock by selling at a massive discount. They tried releasing the sofa again in the 2000s after rigorous testing, marketing them as a children’s sofa. Again – they leaked air.
Engman calls the experience a “failing forward” move, saying the company learned some big lessons from the experience about what doesn’t work.
Their most popular item ever? A humble white plate – a much safer bet.
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Images: IKEA
Written by Hayley
