That’s when Ikea began prototyping the stool in various materials such as cork and wood. Wahl says the company did a lot of 3D printing, with different versions of the base’s radius. One had a completely round base, which made it very unstable, though Wahl thought it was fun because it required a lot of attention when sitting on it.
Ledbetter was surprised just how nice the thumbstick stool is to perch on. “Oh my, this is very comfortable,” he says. “It feels good, and it can accommodate multiple playing postures. I can’t tell you how many people are like, ‘I gotta have that thumbstick stool.’ It’s just a delighter.”
Wahl’s team added more Xbox details afterward, such as rubber rings for grip on the base that mirror rings on the top of swappable Elite controller thumbsticks. As you assemble the stool, there’s a surprise for the particularly observant.
“To gamify the collection, I like to hide elements of surprise in my products,” Wahl says. “Xboxes hide ‘Hello from Seattle’ written somewhere on the console. We hid a similar message that you only see once when you assemble a stool, ‘Hej from Älmhult.’”
That’s the small Swedish town where Ikea’s HQ is based. Looking beyond the stool’s hidden hello, Ikea has added Easter eggs throughout its new gaming collection, which will drop in stores and online this fall.
As for the possibility of future Ikea and Xbox collections, Ledbetter isn’t ruling it out. In fact, the teams have leftover ideas still strong enough to make the grade for a second range. “I’m hesitant to talk about some of the ones that are still on the table—because they’re still on the table,” he says. “All I can say is there’s a bunch of really good ideas that we just didn’t have the bandwidth to make. I don’t want to give those away, because they’re interesting.”
Ledbetter’s excitement for working with Ikea is refreshingly genuine in the world of collaborations. Dotted among the Herman Miller and Eames furniture in his home are numerous Ikea items, including shelving and pots for his plants.
“And here’s a little-known fact: When Ikea opened the first store in Renton, Washington, back in the late ’90s, my wife and I were the first in line to go there,” Ledbetter says. “The local news station even interviewed her because she was so excited. We are Ikea fans.”
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