How This Couch Broke IKEA

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In the mid-90s IKEA wanted to revolutionize the furniture world with a new product. The project is now considered the biggest failure in the company's history.
Original: • IKEA und die schlechte...
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Armchair documentaries, almost weekly

[@Kyrikrliy]

I love the idea of walking into a IKEA and just seeing inflatable couches flying through the aisles whilst the employees try to get the chaos under control

[@chickenleg440]

xi jin ping does too. part of his evil plan.

[@TheBlakus420]

Ikr 😂

[@shlock1459]

😂😂😂

[@dearrobloxiscool]

cfmot

[@DomyTheMad420]

not gonna lie, the idea of just deflating my couch the next time i have to move sounds like a wet dream at this point. Nearly threw my back out the last time

[@sentosaco]

I lowkey am all for it to make this idea work? 😅

[@isaacs3413]

@@sentosaco There is certainly a way to make a high quality sofa or mattress using Boston valves and an ability to fill the couch quickly I think its just hard to convince people to pay so much for a good quality inflatable sofa when a softwood one with the perceived sturdiness is so cheap.

[@shroomzy8030]

@@isaacs3413 you hit the nail on the head sir

[@MK-ou6kc]

They make blow up futons now. I see them ordered all the time at work

[@CoreDump451]

Yup, I am moving this week and I am currently having nightmares about moving the furniture

[@heinzaballoo3278]

0:01 Me a Swede, looking at my room furnished entirely with IKEA.

[@user-ej8qt4ee4p]

Haha jag med (:

[@lonestarr1490]

Me, a German: same thing.

[@beavrboiijr]

Lol jag har också lite Ikea i mitt rum. Men inte så mycket

[@MarcusTSMarcus]

Me a Swede, proud over not having a single IKEA piece in my room.

[@lonestarr1490]

@@MarcusTSMarcus And that pride of yours is based on what exactly?

[@peabody1976]

It feels like a sound concept. We had waterbeds for ages and despite logistics for them, they were popular. It feels like the plastic needed to be more rigid than it was, and sit in a sturdy (lightweight, collapsible) frame rather than being a sole piece. But kudos to Ikea and Dranger for the attempt.

[@Someone-cd7yi]

maybe it could work if it came with a automatic pump that would occasionally inject air into it to make up for the loss of volume.

[@main2333]

Don’t they have auto fill when it starts to lose some air.

[@Pwnation98]

I have an air mattress that does this and it works great. No reason they couldn’t do it aside from costs

[@vitoc8454]

We can jokingly say that, in the 21st century, we designed *books and chairs* that need an electrical power source

[@Hawk7886]

​@@vitoc8454my chair needs to be hooked up to my wifi so it can adjust itself to my preferred pressure setting when I come home and it detects my phone

[@janthran]

@@vitoc8454 we've had electric chairs ever since edison!

[@je777y]

I was trying really hard last year to find an inflatable couch or chair ANYWHERE 😭 It makes more sense as to why there isn't options out there now

[@EnormousPurpleGarden]

I've been looking for an inflatable armchair for 14 years. I've found nothing.

[@oxydator]

@@EnormousPurpleGarden Intex actually has an inflatable transparent armchair right now.

[@HowManyHintsDoYouNeed]

I just want a nice bean bag chair that doesn't explode while sitting down in.

[@dano1307]

@@HowManyHintsDoYouNeed If you can afford it, Luvsac's are fcking awesome. I had one years ago and man, that thing was amazing.

[@jaguar-yv2hq]

​@@EnormousPurpleGardenwhy

[@Foxy_AR]

Sounds weird having Jonas speak English 😅

[@Tweek42]

Yeah, so true. But I got used to it.

[@ThinMethod2758]

Yep

[@BestCrafting]

For me it has the unfortunate effect I don’t watch videos voiced by him. I feel bad for doing it, but I guess I’m sensitive to not-so-good voice overs.

[@wassembata]

​@@BestCraftingi thought i was alone 😅

[@heroinfluenzer]

I didn't understand the first few words because my brain was expecting German

[@Crosmyn]

I still have an IKEA air footstool and use it frequently. I bought it many years ago while out of town and was able to just stuff it into my luggage. The fabric cover isn't prone to accumulating dust. Given the light use a piece like this gets I only occasionally have to add more air to it.

[@jaguar-yv2hq]

Sounds stupid.

[@Xyzair]

I'll take 10.

[@coagulatedsalts4711]

"there's at least one peice of IKEA furniture in your room" bruh my entire room is just IKEA

[@ninjaguys1000]

My family has a couple inflatable paddle boards for when we get the chance to go out on the river and they are seriously impressive, they get inflated to like 15-20 psi and have zero give to them while being flat as a board. My understanding is they do this with an insane amount of strings on the inside or something. Anyway what I’m getting at it we totally have the technology to make inflatable furniture but a couch might be more then one piece and you’ll be using a bike pump not a hair dryer, maybe with removable covers for each piece like pillowcases so you can easily wash them and get sell em separately so you can switch up the couch pattern.

[@euphoriaaaa3900]

its still not very marketable though since prices between an inflatable couch of good quality would likely be higher than normal couches not filled with air lol

[@Snarf_Le_Wombat]

The thing about furniture is that you'll have a hard time convincing anyone to do any kind of maintenance on their furniture at all, ever.

[@graemeenglish9600]

Ah yes I was thinking about my paddleboard too! Might be a bit £££ though...

[@I_M_ANONYMOUS]

The kind of effort you guys put in your videos needs to be truly appreciated....❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@Rymdkakor]

I had one of the inflatable armchairs! Never had a problem with it losing air, it actually works fine and lives on in my mom's summer house 25 years later! It's not very pretty, not super comfortable and it's as loud as you'd expect, but it's alive!

[@xingx355]

you know inflatable camping beds work and they don't make that hard plastic sound. With 3d printing today this design could work much better as extra support structures could be added inside the furniture.

[@nubplaisgaims8250]

Glad to see that fern is doing this well! Great vid as always!

[@Matthewcostellocod]

Over here in New Zealand not a single piece of IKEA furniture in my house

[@vitoc8454]

New Zealand's population density is fascinating to me. It's about 90% the size of my country (Philippines), but contains *5%* as many people.

[@Hawk7886]

Over here in New England and I don't have a single piece of IKEA furniture either. Pretty much all of my stuff is sourced from thrift stores.

[@OhAwe]

@@vitoc8454 Most people here live surprisingly close together. We have remarkable inequality and a relative handful of people own the majority of the land (much like anywhere else I suppose).

[@Lintary]

Spend nearly a decade working for an ikea, mostly as product quality specialist. This one was before my time, but yeah IKEA has stinkers you need to know what to buy to get a good product. As for kids (and adults) jumping on furniture, no inflatable stuff is needed sadly...

[@nairbvel]

Having worked at IKEA for a while, I have to agree -- we all knew what to use our employee discounts on and what to simply keep walking past. :-)

[@dennisbautista6795]

It is really a brilliant idea. It just comes down to execution in terms of quality and suitable materials for it to work

[@walker1054]

I mightI don't get how it failed for these reasons. Like if theres a valve issue then redesign the valve? Air beds exist and manage fine and it's pretty much a near identical concept and product. So why would the valve issue on one of their early products destroy the entire concept when it's something that already has a solution? Theres the squeaky issue mentioned too but they dont squeak with the cover over the chairs which is what the ikea ones have, so I dont see why the squeak issues caused them to fail either. Just seems like they probably just didn't sell well in the first place so they decided not to bother fixing the leak issue and release new updated products.

[@MacacoMoninheiro]

Yeah,there's no doubt the leaky valve was the thing that blew out all the steam for this product(budum-tssss). But, fr though,I like the concept. Only thing is, it doesn't give "luxury"vibes. I don't live in a country with IKEA so I don't really know if the prices they showed was expensive but maybe with similar furniture pricing to hard-built furniture,that could of also killed the product's sales.

[@Haskellerz]

Valves or flexible materials that does not leak air is very expensive. It would make the inflatable furniture multiple times more expensive than non inflatable furniture

[@gideonk123]

@@MacacoMoninheiroin general, ikea sells affordable products at affordable prices at each locale. They don’t aim to be luxury, but “good enough”. Where I live, when they opened the first store, their competitive prices brought down the prices of local home-furniture products to reasonable ones.

[@jaguar-yv2hq]

Air beds also deflate a bit after a few days

[@someguy2135]

@@jaguar-yv2hq I am guessing that they are mostly used as temporary beds when guests stay the night. People can shrug off the need to re-inflate as needed for the convenience, and to avoid the need for a guest room.

[@macjonte]

I want one! or four! Perfect outside sofas in the grass! At the festival! In the lake! Such possibilities!

[@DoglinsShadow]

Why would I buy a piece of furniture that I constantly have to re-inflate? This puts the "-85% resource consumption" number to shame. Your time is a resource. Your energy is a resource. Constantly using your time and energy to re-inflate your furniture over and over and over just to make the initial move easier does NOT sound resource efficient to me. Normal couches you buy, pay someone to help move it, place it, and then it stays there until you move. Unless you're moving around every month to places that don't have couches that you critically need (unlikely), the lack of transport volume and resource consumption is not really a major perk considering you literally have to re-inflate it 2-3 times per week if you want to use it.

[@Permafrostrock]

The mangaement marvelled at the sight of resource consumption during production. Yay, we can produce furniture for almost nothing and sell it for an "inflated" price - yay!

[@jcue85]

Sleep Number has been very successful with their air mattresses, they are always attached to pump and inflating/deflating is a feature as it can adjust the firmness

[@mikedtw]

I've often wondered why Sleep Number didn't also create inflatable couches and chairs that would so easily adjust to your comfort and support needs using, as the beds do, an attached air pump. I believe the air chamber in my Sleep Number bed is made of rubber, not plastic and of course then has a nice, comfortable cloth covering - there's no silly squeaking or problems with static electricity, it is then contained within a frame. If they were to offer living room furniture, I'd buy it and fast.

[@evan]

In before this video... BLOWS UP

[@TRDiscordian]

I'm subscribed, this is incredible. The personal notes at the end really pushes this over the top too. Thank you for your content, I'm happy I found your channel.

[@RAREFORMDESIGNS]

At 3:47 it says 995.00, how much would that be today adjusted for inflation? 🤣

[@3210hej]

that is sek, adjusting for inflation it is ~1500 sek or 150 usd

[@richardrothkugel8131]

As someone one in the innovation space, make sure you fail fast but fail small. You don't want to roll out a product that isn't tested.

[@CarlytheQueenofChaos]

This is truly a SCP-3008 Moment

[@final_catalyst]

If you use the "popup" tent frame like system we see all over today with a sealed air inflatable, you could fix some of the problems. It would hold and "inflate" with the valve open then resist collapse with it closed. You could in theory have it opened and close when positive pressure is put on and off it with a flap like valve, even with out you would just need to occasionally open and close the valve.

[@Zman44444]

IKEA slaps. Fr. We have done custom countertops with Ikea kitchen appliances and cabinets. Also Love me that Ikea thing they have that you can use in store to plan out your whole room to the cm. Such an awesome company.

[@krisstopher8259]

early water beds had a similar problem. they were sometimes leaking. but i really wanted one, and i still do, lol

[@MartijnPennings]

At the height of the water bed craze in 1989, more than 20% of beds sold in the US were water beds. That's huge! My dad had one, i found it really uncomfortable. Every move you make results in the whole bed moving. Imagine lying there with two people. Also, it needs a lot of power to keep the water at a certain temperature.

[@krisstopher8259]

@@MartijnPennings nowadays they're divided into several smaller water compartments and with more damping (is that a real world? lol) like some kind of jelly. it will not create waves or be too soft so that you sink into it and it will not move or even leak. believe or not but some companies are still making them and it's like the 10th gen now or something lol

[@Croz89]

@@MartijnPennings Cheaper memory foam mattresses have mostly pushed out waterbeds, you get the body conforming benefits without the "jiggling".

[@panqueque445]

This would've been awesome as a pool party accessory.

[@PeterSpacey]

Thanks for your Using My Music // Keep up the fresh & Spacey content ✊🏽✨🙏🛸

[@El_Pollo_Loco]

Videos like this always remind me of Fight Club, where Edward Norton, sitting on the toilet, ordering something from Ikea thinking of: ,,Planet Ikea".

[@Dragam1]

It looks like a nice temporary solution. Make it last longer: Just simply make more layers so it holds :) and for the love of god clue some nice fabrik on it. put a backflowventil on the airflow ❤🧙

[@billtheblackshrekblackshre8280]

keep the good work up getting over 600k subs in 4 months is an insane growth its crazy that you guys upload this much in just a month this kind of editing takes over a month each now thats true dedication!

[@maximiliandegarnerinvonmon6457]

I'm not over weight but I'm rather tall and heavy from gym. Imagine if I sat on this, whoever sat next to me will go flying 😂😂😂

[@woe_]

Keep putting out awesome videos! I can't get enough of this channel.

[@pietsmietz]

And even better, I follow the og Channel for years now

[@Einfach_Lucas]

iI love it with fern, simpli and hoog we get so much good content

[@peterdore2572]

I idea might have been a Good One, it's just so revolutionnary they should not have gone with the Traditional Couch Design... They should have started with the rubbery fabric itself. Understand how it folds, how it squeaks, and how it leaks. Then build a different design with the same basic couch fonctions such as being used to crash on comfortably. Make something round, but convenient. I dunno

[@picturemaker]

I don't own any Ikea furniture but I do have some kitchen utensils and storage tubs. I have however been to AirBnB's that consist entirely from top to bottom of Ikea items. Handy for that I suppose.

[@lotus-.]

as a swede, this truly saddens me.

[@user-ej8qt4ee4p]

Absolut

[@tackoo8677]

this channel definetly deserves more attention, you can tell he puts much work in it, i havent seen better animation and edits

[@kolick7547]

This channel is a collaboration of 2 channels (hoog and simplicissimus) with many people working on it.

[@MattBeardless]

I watched this in IKEA, that opening line caught me off guard.

[@cerox_exe]

HE SAID KÖTTBULLAR RIGHT OH MY GOD

[@daccrowell4776]

Odd...the reasons why the 1990s inflatable furniture flopped are pretty much identical to the reasons why 1960s inflatable furniture flopped. Shouldn't IKEA have considered this? A bit of research into the outcome of the previous efforts should've made it clear that this would end badly.

[@Fayanora]

A prime example of why rich people should never design stuff meant for poor people. Anyone who's ever been poor enough to use an inflatable mattress knows that inflatable furniture is a horrible idea, inflatable beds notwithstanding.

[@Folknox]

I have no Ikea furniture in my room. 1. I live deep in the Appalachian wilderness. 2. I cut my own logs and designed my own furniture.

[@GeneralKenobi69420]

"..but one problem with inflatable furniture remains" latex/inflation fetishists have entered the chat

[@ojascreates]

it's always a lovely day when fern uploads

[@mrnice4434]

I mean you could make them out of plastic/fabric hybrid plastic inside to make it air tide and some kind of fabric on the outside to reduce the sound problem. And to inflate them just sell a electric bike pump with them.

[@saltedbarofbutter]

I never had a piece of IKEA furniture in my life

[@cocojambo2330]

Heathen!

[@Scouse.Malinois]

The price of ikea furniture now is mad. Its all tripled in price over the last couple years

[@User-rka_zykx76]

Blow up couches will make it someday. I remember the early 2000’s my dad had a friend who used them(not ikea version, really cheap walmart version)😂 weird guy but they somehow held up. 5:03 these feakin things, he had like 6. These could work Ikea doesn’t want to invest the time, AND they can’t charge stupid amounts.

[@matthewmathis62]

I've never been to Ikea, and I don't think we have a single thing from them in our house.

[@squarepusher645]

i bought this with the ex back in the day .. thanks for the vid.

[@Corpsecrank]

I have never been in an ikea or owned any ikea products. I absolutely love hearing about the disaster from the outside though.

[@Sheir01]

There food court is pretty good. You should just go for that

[@Corpsecrank]

@@Sheir01 This is a great idea. I didn't know they had food cuz I will go in for that. I'm always looking for different stuff to try thanks for the suggestion :)

[@zackphy]

Nope, no IKEA in my house. There isn't a store within 100 miles of me. I don't personally know anyone who has any IKEA stuff, either.

[@theadvocate4698]

The idea was brilliant, it was the execution that sucked. Give it its own computer driven fan, plug it in the wall...i use to have a cheap inflatable couch and the idea of it was really cool...and you get to choose soft or firm, can take it out and back inside...i would buy another one! Not for a thousand buck tought....

[@robin123robin1]

They also had Uri Geller cutley to feel and test in the store: it was so cheap that the metal would bend if you looked at it. (4 sets for 4 dollar)

[@celebrityrog]

An inflatable couch research leads to different types of plastic that can be developed to be stronger, it can lead to what type of stitching or thread works best for it or if melting works best for sealing the seams. It can also be researched if this is sustainable, ecological or if the material is better served not for couches, but maybe for cushioning or another need.

[@frankreynolds445]

What they could do is have a hybrid version The sofa frame is inflatable but the cushions, back cushions and optional side pillows are made of the traditional materials.

[@tranmthu]

If they ever make a good inflateable armchair, I'd love to buy one. I got all my bedroom furniture from IKEA as it's easy to mix and match stuff and everything is fairly easy to assemble (plus taking apart and reassembling when I last moved was possible as well). Sure, the quality isn't the best and some products even suck (STOPP FILT left a sticky residue on my floor which I spent 2 h scrubbing clean) but I feel like you have to either shop vintage or comission a carpenter for actual good quality furniture nowadays anyway...

[@Alex-ng1ts]

Nice to hear your voice again

[@bryanpuddles8402]

had a cheep brand single seater one it was amazing lasted about 10 years, would buy again

[@TheOneWhoKnocks70]

Lol the 5 minutes of exposition was perfect for the comedic effect.

[@rey273]

it seems like a good idea? but it really isn’t good in practice. if they could make a super light sofa it would be really useful.

[@nairbvel]

Never mind the occasional funny noise... If you have a household with pets -- you know, animals with claws -- inflatables aren't a great idea. If you have a household that gets dusty easily, plastic -- with its amazing ability to hold a static electrical charge -- inflatables aren't a great idea. If you have a household with people who have problems sitting and/or getting up -- you know, needing a solid surface to push off from -- inflatables aren't a great idea. Not to mention the "fly out from under you as you're sitting down" problem. The tech still needs a LOT of work to be suitable for true mass-market sales.

[@4est19o]

The fuckin whispering lady at the beginning had me bursting in laughter 😂

[@tazandalsoalastname]

I have an inflatable mattress with its own internal pump that you plug into an outlet and it inflates automatically. It also has some kind of flocking on the top side so that it doesn't squeak or make you sweaty. I think this is a great idea and someone should try it again.. I freaking hate moving furniture

[@FitzChivalryFarseer2]

The most dumb idea here is not continuing with such damn brilliance. Inflatable it a phenomenal idea and 150% out of 100% sound. In the ideal world solid furniture would be illegal for being so damn wasteful. All problems with it are fairly easy to fix with the first notion being that it don't need to be entirely solid or entirely inflatable

[@TheVivlia]

Love your animation 🔥🔥

[@yourfriend5144]

I am a swede (student) and would say 90% of my furniture is from ikea. One of the things that are not is an inflatable mattress believe it or not😂, i use it when i have someone sleeping over. It has a built-in pump and takes like 3-4 minutes to inflate or deflate(like 40usd). And since i liked the mattress so much i thought about getting a soffa as well for my small studio, but the sounds deterred me from doing so xd

[@frequencysquared]

Freshman year my roommate had one. The best was throwing it at each other as you entered the room

[@xander9460]

They'd have to step away from the plastic. Maybe use something similar to the material they use on airbeds for camping. The dense fabric stuff. Heavy, but sturdy, non static and durable.

[@DrifterD]

The video starts at 1:50

[@SincerelyFromStephen]

Almost every piece of furniture in my room is from IKEA

[@Tess791]

"they ran out of steam" lol🤣🤣💀

[@give_me_my_nick_back]

it would be a perfect fit for a japanese style flat!! my dream doing over my flat into a japanese style, empty room with a gigantic tv o nthe floor and a kotatsu in the middle

[@Axel...]

Just imagine having a cat that likes to use the couch as a scratching post.

[@Leo-qn8rw]

Nobody: People in Ikea, when there is a inflatable couch: yeeet

[@UndercoverDog]

Haters would say its stolen from Simplicissimus

[@WatchWitMe]

The idea of having a summer house in Sweden is fascinating to me

[@vffncl0]

they should make a sofa that you can fill with some foam blocks or something; easy to take apart and put back together

[@Respekt690]

Black Rock and Vanguard would be good topics for your channel. Your contents are top notch professional 🤙🏾

[@matthewmathis62]

It's not a bad idea. I think it's interesting, but I think that instead of having to goal to replace everyone's comfy traditional (wood, cloth, and foam) couches with inflatable ones, that they should try to find a market that has a need for this kind of furniture. Think about "Who wants a couch in 'x location', but doesn't have one because it's not weather resistant, easy to move, or inexpensive?". If you could find who needs and wants one, and market it to them, then I think you have a good product on your hands.

[@zacharyhenderson2902]

Whenever I had my apartment, and for several months when I rented a house, I slept on an air mattress. I loved it, but they, like all inflatable furniture pieces, right down to pool rafts always get holes and deflate. ALWAYS.

[@SevenDeMagnus]

We must learn. God bless.

[@nathanbuster8428]

Would a cloth layer or two around the plastic solve or at least reduce the squeak?

[@GlassesnMouthplates]

I like the way the title of the video is written with wordplay on a big furniture company being "broken" by one of their most lightweight and squishy product.

[@KnakuanaRka]

All I have from them is a mattress; we had to go there a couple months ago after my old mattress finally went flat.

[@fiklego_pl]

I have 2 of inflatable ikea squares And they keep air for good over 10 years now

[@0therun1t21]

How did they not know about inflatable furnitue? It's been around forever and everyone knows how crappy it is. Having said that, I think the furniture at 6:02 looks really cool.

[@djsatane]

I actually have this couch in every of my rooms, love it. Ikea the best

[@nineonegaming]

looking forward to a swiss german dubbed channel:D

[@NeighborhoodOfBlue]

I loved my inflatable furniture as a child! So retro-futuristic! The problem I ran into was sheer incompatibility due to cats.

[@isohora]

That's a funny portrayal of leadership in 1995 - 3 men and 3 women 😂😂😂

[@silluete]

Just see on set up in front of camping tent. Maybe inflatable stuff like this good for short term use.

[@stefan25769]

Skip Ad 1:49

[@porkcutlet3920]

Funnily enough, we used to have Ikea furniture in our house, until they got too expensive. No reason to get them when they don't last long either.

[@thegameres816]

It's always sunny theme song started playing when he said the couch was inflatable...

[@nbrown5907]

Memory foam furniture lol. Need a way to recompress it to move though. I have a memory foam mattress and turned down a free air mattress. They are nice but I prefer foam. You can adjust the air mattress but foam never deflates.