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From Home Furnishing Business
HAY Introduces the Backflip Chair by Gudmundur Ludvik
July 31,
2026 by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry 
HAY is proud to introduce the Backflip Chair by Icelandic designer Gudmundur Ludvik - a foldable chair that reconsiders a familiar typology through a cleverly engineered folding mechanism.
Rooted in Ludvik’s fascination with how objects transform, the Backflip Chair was born from a determination to resolve a long-standing tension.
‘Folding chairs have long represented a unique challenge for me,’ says Ludvik. ‘They are objects full of inherent conflict, where functionality often comes at the expense of aesthetics, comfort, or both.’
Shaped by a clear focus on function and ergonomics, the Backflip Chair’s timeless appearance conceals a refined mechanism within the backrest, allowing it to fold and unfold in one smooth motion. The result is an effortlessly versatile chair that is easy to store, hang, bring out, and place as needed without ever compromising comfort or appearance. ‘It was essential to me that it should not feel like secondary seating or something of lesser value,’ Ludvik adds.
For HAY co-founder Rolf Hay, the Backflip Chair stands out for its ability to improve the user experience in a quietly original way. ‘Looks can be deceiving,’ says Hay. ‘There’s something intelligent and original behind it. If you can combine simplicity with originality, that’s when you really get something powerful.’
Crafted in solid wood with a backrest and seat in molded plywood, and available in natural beech across a range of colored water-lacquered finishes, the Backflip Chair moves easily between contexts - from homes to public and commercial settings, for daily or occasional use.’
A matching wall bracket, available in black or natural wood finish, offers a clean storage solution that holds one or two folded chairs securely on any wall.
Prices: Backflip Chair from 245 EUR / 229 GBP / 1.799 DKK / 2.999 SEK / 3.199 NOK Backflip Bracket 69 EUR / 65 GBP / 499 DKK / 839 SEK / 889 NOK All prices are recommended retail prices.