Several years ago, I talked about my search for a new bean bag chair but I never reported out when I found it: the Sumo Sulton. To re-cap: I was looking for an adult-sized bean bag chair that could accommodate my 6’2″ frame. My budget was $200-$300, but I was willing to go a little higher than that to get the right piece of furniture.
Technically, the Sumo is not a beanbag chair; it’s a memory foam chair. Bean bag chairs simply can not hold up to the sort of abuse that adults (and kids) subject them to, so all of the higher end “chairs” are made out of memory foam.
Big and red (thus the nick name Betelgeuse), my Sumo Sulton fits me perfectly. The microsuede fabric that covers it is soft and tough, though not so tough that it didn’t pick up a small tear in 2 years of constant use.
Betelgeuse is a fixture of my game room, and I’ve spent dozens of hours in it reading comic books, playing video games, and otherwise just relaxing. One of my favorite things to do is to simply fall backwards on to it, close my eyes, and think about nothing for a minute or two. Yes, it’s that comfortable.
The memory foam works great — once I’ve snuggled may way into it, I’m usually comfortable for a few hours. If it gets too flat I flip it and we’re good to go.
There are, however, a few challenges associated with it. The Sulton is the perfect size for me … but it’s not the perfect size for my game room. At 60″ X 60″ X 38″, it dominates the room, and while I roll it out of the way for game days, it is too big to actually fit into one of the game room’s dormer spaces. My friend Cory has two of these Sumos in his basement game room and they fit perfectly, so it’s really just a question of knowing what you’re getting. To be clear, I’m happy with Betelgeuse — it’s big, but I’m big too; getting a smaller one probably wouldn’t have been nearly as comfortable.
The red microsuede is a good fabric, but it tends to pick up cat and dog hair. Fortunately the animals don’t spend a lot of time in the Game Room so it’s not that big of a problem, but I do need to vacuum Betelgeuse itself every few weeks. The red cover is washable, but I haven’t tried doing that yet.
The Sumo Sulton is an excellent bean bag chair for the money, and holds up well to heavy use. Just make sure your room — and your lifestyle — can fit such a big piece of furniture in it.