Adams Manufacturing Corp.'s stackable, injection molded rocking chair won the award for Best New Product at the 2015 National Hardware Show, held May 5-7 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Adams molds the Big Easy Stacking Rocking Chair at its factory in Portersville, Pa., a tiny town in northwestern Pennsylvania between Butler and New Castle, Pa. The privately owned company promotes its resin furniture as Made-In-USA.
The rocking chair retails for under $49.99.
Adams officials said the Big Easy Resin Rocking Chair is the first stackable resin rocker. The polypropylene chair is ASTM-rated to hold 350 pounds.
Rocking chairs can be expensive, and imported rockers also need to be assembled. Adams Manufacturing's chair is ready to go, at an attractive price. And you can leave it outside all year.
But the Adams rocking chair also represents a significant design and engineering effort, according to Dan Stainer, director of marketing.
A normal resin chair rests in a static, fixed position. A rocking chair has to bear weight as it moves through its rocking motion, at any angle, Stainer said.
Adams Manufacturing engineers used finite element analysis modeling to simulate the various structural strains, stresses and loads on the stackable rocking chair design.
The rocking chair is part of the company's broader line of Big Easy chairs, designed to be larger and easier to get in and out of the seat. Adams also is selling a Big Easy Stack Chair and a Big Easy Adirondack registrations or copyrights of their respective owners. Stainer said the Adirondack chair is larger than a traditional chair, with a raised seat and more upright design.
Just in the time for summer, the Adirondack also has a built-in cup holder.