"What we're working on right now is getting the software that measures and calculates all of that information," says Martin.

He predicts that by the end of the year, the chair will be ready for a formal research project and collection of data. The research team is getting in touch with obese and morbidly obese people in the state to test out the chair.


In 2008, the Franklin Furniture Institute published a report on the status of the bariatric furniture market and its research goals.

According to the report, "although still in the growth stage, the market for bariatric furniture is currently estimated to be $400 million."

"The driving force of the study was to make the furniture industry aware of a market opportunity," says Martin. "This report has garnered a tremendous amount of interest."

Martin hopes that the results of the research will eventually become an industry standard for how bariatric furniture is designed and tested.

"From a manufacturer's standpoint, if you're going to make claims in the marketplace, then you need to substantiate those claims," says Martin, "and if you can't, you're setting yourself up for liability."

The logic behind the research is also tied to Mississippi's population, the state with the highest obesity rate. Martin believes the needs of this population have been overlooked long enough.

"It's just the right thing to do," he says. "When you are an obese person, it's looked at as being negative and what we're trying to do is satisfy a customer's need."

Holmes of Bariatrics Unlimited is looking forward to the results of the institute's research.

"With the new testing standards, we're going to have chairs that not only say they can support a 1,000 pounds, but have been tested to do so in ways that big people actually sit down, and that's really exciting for the industry right now," he says.

Many bariatric equipment providers apply rigid standards to determine the quality of their product offerings. Medline Industries' division assigns a high safety factor to its equipment and goes through "a tremendous amount of testing, much more than minimally required by some of the international standards," says Derks.

TSK Products once dealt with a manufacturer that made false claims about its product. The company immediately stopped working with the producer.

"People buying equipment or furniture, if the manufacturer makes claims, they have to ask for substantiation," says Klein.

With the awareness of the testing standards on the rise, industry experts don't see the market for bariatric equipment dipping any time soon.

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