The Stinson Chairs — a commission for HOKA
A Different kind of Commission
In November 2025 I was commissioned to design a pair of chairs for performance sportswear brand HOKA, created for the launch of their new trail runner, the Stinson One7. The brief was to interpret the shoe through furniture - to find the points where performance footwear and considered making might speak the same language.
It came at an unusual moment. The enquiry landed in my inbox just days after my daughter was born. I organised the project and started sketching during the sleepless nights on the hospital partner chair. There's something fitting about that - some of the best thinking happens when you're tired and distracted and your hands are doing something else.
The concept came quickly. I run most mornings from central Bristol, moving from concrete streets out onto the green hillside trails above the city. That daily transition - hard to soft, urban to natural - became the starting point. The chairs needed to hold both worlds at once.
The result is two versions of the same chair. One in ebony black, one in bone white. Both are made from locally sourced English ash, chosen for its open grain and connection to the landscape. The timber is wire-brushed on the heavy slab sides - textured, rugged, grounded - then offset by slender blackened steel and a laced technical cord seat, tensioned between the two sides so the sitter appears to float within the structure. The contrast between mass and lightness is the whole point.
The cord was sourced from deadstock material. The finishes were blended to quietly reference the colourways of the One7 without becoming literal. The chairs were exhibited alongside the shoe, the two objects in direct conversation.
This was a different kind of commission - closer to sculpture than furniture - but it drew on the same thinking I bring to every piece. Material honesty, considered proportion, making as a form of problem-solving. The brief was unusual, but the process was the same as always.
The Shoot
For the shoot we did something different. Most of our photography uses neutral settings - white backgrounds or room scenes - but these chairs called for something else. We loaded them into the car and drove around the neighbourhood looking for the right spots. We ended up under the M32, just down the road from the workshop, and on a trail that my partner and I use regularly for hill training. Urban and natural - the same two worlds the chairs were built around.
Our daughter came with us. She slept in the carrier the whole time.
Sam|Whyman Furniture
We also made a full process video for this project - see it below:
