Our Design Process

 

As a seating specialist, Via Seating has a creative spirit driven to innovate. The company’s creative energy is highly focused on all categories of seating, from indoor environments to outside open spaces. Via offers the broadest range of seating under one brand synonymous with quality, comfort and reliability. Experiencing Via’s online presentation creates the opportunity to wonder, to think differently and to have a sense of surprise at every click. Every product shown online has its own story and a reason for being that sets it apart in the market.

There is more than meets the eye with every piece, such as Via’s first-to-market, patented, self-sanitizing, copper mesh back seating technology. This award-winning innovation was inspired by solving a problem for a client. Another example is the interactive, lobby motion-lounge collections that support wellness and collaboration by encouraging playful movement. Each piece tells its own story and delivers an experience that encourages ongoing discussion and exploration.

Via Seating believes we are one step away from the next great discovery born from listening to clients and responding with great solutions to meet the challenges of our time.

It’s all in our DNA

Thoughtful Design

Thoughtful Design

As seating specialists, the Via Seating design team, Studio V, concentrates on every level of detail when it comes to design, performance and longevity. Every product we offer runs through a comprehensive Design for the Environment (DfE) process to ensure we deliver conscientious, sustainable solutions .
Strongest Warranty

Strongest Warranty

Via Seating delivers with the strongest warranty for executive, conference and task seating. This means 12 years on all components including foam and labor (for supporting dealer).
Leading Quick Ship

Leading Quick Ship

Via Seating offers quick ship on all seating solutions including lounge, with the only exception being outdoor landscape furniture. More here.

Design Team: Studio V

Via Seating's in-house design team delivers on everything from developing new solutions to testing products in our lab.

Meet the Team

Our Design Team

Via Seating has a full-time new product development team, Studio V , that consists of engineers, designers, ergonomists and market experts. This team is continuously working on research, development and improvement of products. At Via Seating, we don’t believe in leaving great products behind or holding back on progress. Studio V improves upon the ergonomics, the design and the use of existing product lines and the development of new, cutting-edge seating solutions.

 

Via Seating’s design team utilizes 3D printer technology to sculpt and test custom parts. First, the team shapes a part such as a new arm width adjustment bracket in a 3D modeling software. This is then printed by the 3D printer, which builds the part to spec in modeling plastic. Finally, the true-to-size prototype is tested for look, feel and functionality in its application. This results in thorough parts shaped exactly to function seamlessly with the final chair design and deliver a great seating experience.

Meet Studio V

Meet Studio V

The Lab

The Lab

Proprietary Comfort Foam

Proprietary Comfort Foam

Sustainability

Explore our initiatives & learn how we're working to improve our products, environment & support of our people.

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Sustainable Design

 

At Via Seating, we understand that great chairs are consciously built. This is at the forefront of our minds from the design phase to a chair’s end of life. Throughout the chair production process, we are consistently reducing green house gas emissions, reducing water use and reducing solid waste. We use materials that are environmentally-friendly and safe for use. Our result is safe and sustainable, great chairs.

Limited Water Usage

Limited Water Usage

Water is a precious commodity for everyone, especially in the high desert valley surrounding Sparks, Nevadaour home base. With this in mind, we figured out how to eliminate all H2O beyond the measured amount we use to steam wrinkles out of the final, upholstered product.
Use of Recyclable Materials

Use of Recyclable Materials

We intentionally use products, which are highly recyclable in nature. This includes those that contain all or majority aluminum, steel, polyurethane and nylon. This also includes our shipping materials: corrugated cardboard and a polyethylene bag.
Safe Product Usage

Safe Product Usage

We at Via Seating are committed to using products that are safe for the environment as well as the individuals who use them. As a standard practice in our DfE program, we work consistently to identify hazardous chemicals and eliminate them from our products.
Hazardous chemicals we do not use in Via Seating products include:
  • Hazardous phthalates
  • Hexavalent chromium
  • Ozone depleting chemicals
  • PBDE fire retardants
  • PVC

DfE Lead Design

All Via Seating products follow the Design for the Environment (DfE) design approach . During this process, all components are screened to identify and assess the human and ecosystem health impacts of chemicals of concern. We screen all product components to the ANSI/BIFMA e3-2019 Annex B- List of Chemicals of Concern and the California Proposition 65 List.

Environmental Impact

All Via Seating products are BIFMA LEVEL® certified. LEVEL® is an evaluation and certification system for environmentally-preferable and socially-responsible office furniture. 3rd party certification is achieved by conformance to a multi-attribute standard created by the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer’s Association (BIFMA) that evaluates product impacts across categories including Materials, Energy, Human Health and Social Responsibility.

Via Seating products qualify for various sustainably minded evaluation system point contributions, including:

LEED 4.1

LEED 4.1

Well Building Standard v1

Well Building Standard v1

Living Building Challenge 4.0

Living Building Challenge 4.0

Health Care Without Harm (HHI)

Health Care Without Harm ("HHI")

End of Life

Via Seating provides accessible care guidelines  that help maintain the quality of every product and easy-to-follow disassembly instructions  when a product reaches the end of its life.

The Via Quality

Via Seating is dedicated to maintaining consistent quality across every Via product through fostering a culture of reevaluation & continuous improvement.

Commitment to Quality

Via Seating’s Quality Assurance & Improvement Commitment

A robust network of checks and balances are built into the production of every single chair at every level of Via Seating, so that each product coming off the line is built correctly to the highest standard. Beginning with the vendor, parts are inspected upon arrival by the engineering team who compare them to diagrams and existing measurements ensuring conformance. When greenlit (ie. approved), parts move into the production warehouse where they will continue to be scrutinized by the kitter who gathers the parts, the cutter and sewer of the materials used for upholstery of the chair, the multiple assemblers who physically construct the final product, the leadership team who sit test and inspect it, the boxer who wraps and packages the completed chair and the shipping staff who label the box and load it onto an outgoing delivery vehicle.

High quality materials

High quality materials

Via Seating scrutinizes all incoming parts through a 2.5 AQL acceptable quality level inspection process, which is an industry standard for garments, textiles, and apparel. Materials found to be non-conforming or inconsistent with our high quality standards are pulled and documented so that they never make it into a Via product. Communication is then initiated with our supplier partner who is responsible for investigating and explaining the cause of the nonconformance. Together, we develop a lasting strategy to prevent future issues and receive consistent, quality parts.
Strong vendor relationships

Strong vendor relationships

Via Seating works very closely with our vendors to ensure the high quality and consistency of our components. Due to diligence in our Quality Assurance efforts, Supplier Corrective Action Requests (SCARs) are few and far between. When they are submitted, they are effective due to our hands-on collaboration with the vendor to develop a permanent solution. Via Seating sees itself as an advocate for the development of quality components by pushing for strong standards in its chairs & inviting our supplier partners to do the same.
Commitment to 5S

Commitment to 5S

Via Seating applies the philosophy of 5S throughout its production process, beginning with:
  • Sorting: determining the most necessary components needed to complete a task & removing waste.
  • Setting in Order: organizing those components into a flowing system which places complimentary items/tools together and reduces excess movement.
  • Shining: keeping a clean workspace allowing for max visibility, reliability of tools & health and safety.
  • Standardizing: training operators to use standardized processes, reinforced through consistent signage & documentation.
  • Sustaining: developing a culture of continuous improvement, which is reinforced through all levels of leadership.