How to Choose Your Chair Size: Getting the Right Fit for Your Body

Most office chairs come in one size, and you adjust what you can with levers and knobs. For a chair you sit in for twenty minutes, that's fine. For a chair you sit in for six, eight, or twelve hours a day, a size that doesn't suit your frame isn't really fit — it's a compromise you get used to. Getting fit right starts with an accurate measurement of your own body, then choosing the right size and setting the chair up around you.

Why One-Size-Fits-All Sizing Falls Short

A chair sized for an "average" body is, by definition, an imperfect fit for almost everyone — because almost nobody is exactly average in every dimension that matters. Seat depth, seat height, and backrest height all need to relate to your specific leg length, torso length, and overall height for a chair to actually support you rather than just seat you. When a chair comes in one general size, the parts of it that don't line up with your body are usually the parts that quietly cause discomfort over a long session — a seat pan that's slightly too deep behind the knees, or a lumbar curve that sits an inch above or below where your lower back actually is.

This matters more, not less, the longer you're in the chair. A slightly-off fit is easy to ignore for twenty minutes. Across an eight-hour session, small mismatches compound.

How to Accurately Measure Your Own Height

Getting an accurate height measurement is simpler than it sounds, but a few common mistakes throw it off:

• Measure without shoes, standing on a hard, flat floor against a wall.
• Stand with your heels, shoulder blades, and the back of your head touching the wall, looking straight ahead.
• Have someone place a flat, rigid object (a book or ruler) level on top of your head and mark the wall where it meets, rather than trying to eyeball it in a mirror.
• Measure straight down from that mark to the floor — a soft tape measure alone, without the wall mark, tends to introduce error.
• Measure in the morning if you want the most consistent reading — like most people, your spine compresses slightly over the course of a day, so height can read a bit shorter by evening.

General Seated-Posture Measurement Concepts

Beyond raw height, a few well-established ergonomic reference points are worth understanding when you're thinking about chair fit generally:

• Eye level to your screen or console: your eyes should meet the top portion of your monitor or console roughly at or slightly below eye level without tilting your neck up or down.
• Elbow angle: when your hands rest on a desk, console, or keyboard, your elbows should sit at roughly a 90-degree angle or slightly more — not sharply bent, not fully extended.
• Hip-to-knee angle: a seat that's the right height for you generally puts your knees at or slightly below hip level, with feet flat on the floor.
• Seat depth: there should be a small gap — roughly a couple of fingers' width — between the front edge of the seat and the back of your knees.

These are general concepts, not fixed rules for any one chair — but they explain why a chair's size needs to suit your actual body rather than one size for everyone.

How Stealth Sizing Works

Stealth comes in two sizes. The Standard is for people under 6'0" and under 200 lbs. The Pro is for anyone 6'0" or taller, or 200 lbs or heavier. If you're close to either line, size up. Every chair also ships with two piston heights, a desk height and a taller standing-desk height, so you can set the seat for your desk or console. Every model is made in Centennial, Colorado, rated for 400 lbs and backed by a 5-year warranty, whichever size you choose. Our Standard vs. Pro guide goes deeper.

The Bottom Line

Fit isn't a luxury detail for a chair you're in for hours at a time — it's the difference between a chair that supports you and one you just get used to. Start with an accurate measurement of your own body, understand the general posture concepts that make a chair actually work for you, and choose the size that matches your height and weight.