16,000 office chairs were recalled after 11 backrests came off mid-use

Branch, the direct-to-consumer maker of adjustable office chairs and desks, has recalled about 16,000 of its Ergonomic Chairs after eleven owners reported that the backrest separated from the frame while the chair was in use. The recall, opened by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on September 3, 2026, traces the failures to a narrow slice of production where the backrest anchor was fitted incorrectly at the factory. No injuries have been reported, but the agency and the company are asking anyone who owns one of the affected chairs to stop sitting in it until the anchor has been checked.

A Backrest Anchor That Never Locked Into Place

The Ergonomic Chair’s backrest attaches to the seat frame through a metal anchor bracket that is supposed to be seated and fastened during assembly, then reinforced by the chair’s tilt mechanism whenever someone leans back. On a subset of units, that anchor was installed incorrectly at the time of manufacture, leaving the connection weaker than it was designed to be. Under ordinary use, such as leaning back, shifting weight, or standing up while gripping the backrest, the joint can separate entirely, dropping whoever is seated. Because the anchor sits beneath the upholstery, the flaw is not something a buyer could have caught by inspecting the chair on delivery.

CPSC’s recall notice describes the hazard simply as a fall risk, and Branch has published side-by-side photographs showing the difference between a correctly seated anchor and one installed out of position, since the defect only becomes visible once the seat cushion is removed. The company has not said what changed on the assembly line during the affected period or how the error was first caught, only that it traces back to a manufacturing step rather than a design flaw across the chair’s broader run. That distinction is part of why the fix is a repair kit rather than a full chair replacement: the frame, base and seat are unaffected, and only the backrest attachment itself needs to be reworked.

Eleven Reports Surfaced Before Anyone Was Hurt

Branch says it has received eleven reports of backrests detaching from the chairs, and that no injuries have resulted from any of them. That distinction matters for how the recall was handled: the company and CPSC moved to pull the affected units from use before the failure pattern produced an injury claim, rather than reacting to one after the fact. Because the Ergonomic Chair is height-adjustable and marketed for extended desk use, the backrest sees repeated leaning and tilting pressure over months of ownership, which is likely why a manufacturing-date-based defect surfaced gradually through scattered reports rather than all at once.

A Six-and-a-Half-Month Production Window

The recalled chairs were manufactured between September 10, 2025, and April 22, 2026, a date range printed on a label underneath the seat cushion. That window is the fastest way for owners to rule a chair in or out before contacting the company, since the defect was confined to that stretch of production rather than the entire product line. Branch’s chairs are made in Thailand for Bureau Office, Inc., the New York company that operates as Branch, and the recall applies only to units carrying a manufacture date inside that span. Chairs built before or after it, even in the same colorway, are not included.

Sixteen SKUs Across Branch’s Color and Base Lineup

Because the Ergonomic Chair ships in multiple finishes and two base styles, the recall list runs to sixteen separate SKUs. Affected combinations include the Black/Black, Pebble/White, Black/White, Sand/White, Graphite/White, Light Blue/White, Poppy/White and Baltic/White colorways, each sold with either a standard base or a knock-down, or KD, base that ships flat and is assembled by the buyer. The SKU is printed on the side of the original product packaging, giving owners who kept the box a quicker way to check than pulling the seat cushion to read the manufacture label. The recall is limited to this single chair model; Branch’s desks and other seating are not part of the notice.

Sold Through Branch’s Own Site and Major Retail Partners

The chairs were sold for between $320 and $350 from roughly December 2025 through July 2026, both directly at BranchFurniture.com and through Amazon, West Elm, the Container Store and Office Depot. Branch built its business selling ergonomic furniture aimed at home offices and the hybrid-work market that expanded in recent years, positioning the Ergonomic Chair as a mid-range alternative to traditional commercial office seating. The retail spread on this recall shows how far that distribution now reaches beyond the company’s own storefront, into general retailers that do not specialize in office furniture. It also means the recall notice alone will not reach every buyer. Someone who purchased the chair as a gift through a third-party retailer, rather than creating a Branch account directly, is less likely to be on the company’s own customer list and more likely to depend on seeing the recall through the retailer or the news.

A Photo-Verified Repair Kit, and a Parallel Action in Canada

Branch is offering a free repair kit containing a replacement backrest, installation instructions, three bolts and an Allen key, and says it is contacting all known purchasers directly by email. Owners who are not reached directly are asked to check their chair against the manufacture-date and SKU criteria, then submit photos of the manufacture label and the removed backrest before a kit is shipped — a verification step that lets Branch confirm a chair is actually affected before mailing replacement hardware. The recall was issued jointly with Canada’s recall authority, which covers about 180 additional chairs sold north of the border under the same defect description. The full SKU table and manufacture-label photos are posted in the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recall notice.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.