About 16,000 Branch ergonomic office chairs sold on Amazon, at West Elm and through other retailers are being recalled because their backrests can suddenly detach, dropping whoever is sitting in them to the floor, according to the recall notice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The chairs sold for $320 to $350 between December 2025 and July 2026.
Key Points
- Roughly 16,000 chairs are recalled in the U.S., plus 180 more in Canada, per the CPSC listing
- Branch has received 11 reports of backrests detaching; no injuries have been reported yet
- Sold at BranchFurniture.com, Amazon, West Elm, Container Store, Office Depot and other online retailers
- The chairs come in 16 color and style combinations, all manufactured in Thailand for Bureau Office, Inc., which does business as Branch, based in New York
What Happened
- The chairs were manufactured between September 10, 2025, and April 22, 2026
- The backrest can detach from the base of the chair during normal use, posing a fall hazard
- Recalled models include the Black/Black Standard (SKU 11-01-00-50-V5), Pebble/White Standard (SKU 11-01-00-53-V5) and 14 other color variations
- The recall was announced September 3, 2026, under recall number 26-735
An ergonomic chair failing at the backrest is a different problem than a wobbly leg or a squeaky wheel. The whole point of the design is to support someone’s back while they lean into it, often at a desk positioned close to a hard floor or furniture edge. That’s part of why a fall hazard like this one draws a full recall rather than a repair notice alone, even with no injuries logged yet.
What Consumers Should Do
- Stop using the chair immediately until the backrest is repaired
- Contact Branch at customersupport@branchfurniture.com or branchfurniture.com/recall to request a free repair kit
- The kit includes a replacement backrest, bolts, an Allen key and installation instructions
- Consumers must submit photos of the chair’s manufacture label and the removed backrest as part of the process
Office furniture recalls tend to move slower through public attention than toy or appliance recalls, but the underlying math is the same: thousands of units already sitting in homes and offices, sold through mainstream retailers that make the products feel implicitly vetted. Anyone who bought a Branch chair through West Elm or Amazon in the past year should check the SKU against the recalled list before sitting down in it again.
Branch built its brand around direct-to-consumer office furniture aimed at remote workers who wanted a Herman Miller-style chair without the four-figure price tag, and the company’s chairs became a common fixture in home offices during the years after the pandemic reshaped where people work. That popularity is also why a defect discovered now can reach so many households at once: a single manufacturing run spread across at least 16 SKUs and several major retail partners before anyone spotted the pattern in the backrest failures.