So the next time you’re having a drink, raise one up to these guys for their tremendous impact on our modern party and event rental industry. Senior editor Kalee Thompson, who wrote a previous version of this guide, has been regularly using the Coleman chair she originally tested in 2016. Aside from the color fading and the cooler pouch deteriorating, her chair has held up to years of backyard hangs and camping trips. In summer 2023, she bought a newer Coleman Cooler Quad Chair to compare to her 2016 model, and she found them to be more or less the same.
It comes in dozens of colors and even emblazoned with sports team logos, so you can choose the option that best matches your vibe. This chair’s big canopy provides ample sun protection at a campsite or sporting event, and it doubles as a backpack-strap-equipped carrying case. Several Wirecutter staffers have owned the Coleman chair for years, using it on camping trips, in backyards, and at sporting events. For the most part, it’s held up well, but one common quibble is that the seat bottom begins to sag after several years of use. Kalee Thompson is the senior editor heading up Wirecutter’s kid coverage. When she wrote the first version of this guide, Kalee lived in Southern California, where she tested chairs on three group camping trips.
Special features like cup holder sizes, storage pouches, recliners and canopies were also considered. I also chose models that had close to 1,000 reviews and above a 4-star rating, as an added layer of assurance that they’re worth the spend. Combining durability with comfort, ozark trail chairs this camping chair has a sturdy alloy steel base and 600-denier polyester that makes it ready for the long haul—or a multiple-day camping excursion. It can hold a whopping 800 pounds and comes with two side cup holders and two mesh storage sleeves on each side.
That ubiquity we mentioned earlier makes them profitable for rental companies, for sure. It’s that familiarity and prevalence that makes party chairs so uninteresting to us. You can buy one for peanuts and keep it out on your porch or patio for three hundred years and never think twice about it. You probably have folding chairs in your home right now that you couldn’t describe with much detail without cheating. They’re little more than background actors in our day to day lives. I like that you sit high so it’s easier to get up when you need to.
Made from an easy-to-clean polyester fabric and metal frame. This durable yet lightweight chair features a flat-folding extra-wide steel frame easily stowable in a closet or car trunk. It also has a padded seat, armrests, and a maximum weight capacity of 600 lbs. “The Alps Mountaineering Camping Chairs met my expectations for a very well built and robust replacement for my old camping chairs.
Renetto licenses its patent to a company called Kelsyus, which makes cheaper versions of the chair. However, they don’t have all of the same features. There are also chairs that are hybrids between categories, such as the Nemo Stargaze Reclining Camp Chair, which comes highly rated and recommended.
Someone out there in history—perhaps multiple people, even—deserve(s) credit for such a popular product, right? So let’s find out who invented the folding chair and dish up some kudos. The REI Co-op Flexlite Camp Chair and the Flexlite Air (its featherweight sibling) are lighter than any other chairs in their category, but they felt less steady. We blame the crossbar design, which runs front to back rather than side to side; this creates a lot of wobble from right to left, especially if the chair is not on perfectly even ground.