Lafuma R'light Folding Recliner Chair with Wood Arm Rests

I researched Lafuma chairs before purchasing, as they were considerably more expensive than the other anti gravity chairs that were on sale at local big box retailer but there is a reason why. This chair is so much better made - its mechanics, while very simple, are solid and smooth functioning. The chair fabric is sturdy and taut. I look forward to many years of comfortable relaxing in this chair.

OK, here's the deal. This is a great chair. The price from STP is pretty good, but not amazing. If you get it on sale at STP, the price is improved. However, there is one major catch. The Lafuma chairs are sold as a high quality chair that will outlast some cheaper, imitation "zero gravity" chairs. Lafuma chairs have been critically acclaimed and historically easy to repair with easy to find replacement parts coupled with a very good warranty. The problem with the R'Light chair is that Lafuma chose to break away from their two typical fabric mounting schemes - the lacing method and the Clipper system - when they designed and manufactured this chair, and a different mounting method was used. As the chair was discontinued, no replacement parts are available for this style of chair. Now, if your chair happens to fail within the 2-year warranty window, I am told that Lafuma will work with a buyer to replace the chair with a similar chair, but I suspect it would not be of the same level as the R'Light, as this was billed as their 'ultimate' chair with a 4-legged design for improved stability and an aluminum frame to make it lighter. Well, if it breaks after 2 years, you have no way of fixing it with replacement parts and are better off going with another of the Lafuma chairs that can be repaired and run less money than this high end one. So now I feel the need to baby my R'light and make it last as long as I can. That is probably not a major deal, but the big selling point about being able to get replacement parts for these chairs is totally false in this instance. [...] So, bottom line is, spend your big dollars on a different chair, and if you HAVE to get a Lafuma, go with one like the Evolution model, which can generally be had for less money than this chair on sale, yet still offers similar comfort. This is a great, super comfortable chair that I will LOVE if I can get 10-12 years out of it. If I can't, I will unfortunately be unhappy with the purchase. I realize I am judging this product early on in the process, but I wanted to share my experience with Lafuma right now in case others were considering making a purchase of the R'Light. Buy it if you want the improvements the R'Light offers over other Lafuma chairs, but realize it is a one-shot deal and if there is a failure, you may be on your own for repairs.