Remember when we showed you that proposed airline seating prototype created by Alejandro Nuñez Vicente? The…’unique design’ featured an elevated level of seats, designed to give taller individuals more leg room, with a double decker style. It’s a bit easier to understand when you see the picture.
When media outlets started picking up the story, the reactions were not exactly popular. [Thanks, we hate it.] Designer Vicente has been firing back at those critics. “You cannot judge a three-year project by an article,” Vicente said. He also claimed the angles in photographs do “not do justice to the design,” making it look smaller and more cramped than what it actually is.
Then, he went a step further with a post on Instagram. “I have seen a lot of reaction from the general public and the media about my seat concept, some of them have nice comments, others have constructive advice and tips, which I am very grateful for! But to those “haters” and “journalists” who just criticise (sic) and try to bring me down just from seeing a couple of pictures (or outdated renders), I can tell you that you just prove how bored, unprofessional or small you are, and that I would have loved to see you where you were at 22 years old.”
So, in the spirit of debate, we would like to take a moment for a rebuttal.
Let’s start by saying he does have a point- the internet does love to collectively hate on things. Journalists and members of the press, however, are not the collective internet. There are legitimate reasons why most feel this seat is a terrible idea. Ones that don’t involve jumping on a bandwagon of negativity, nor are we trying to bring someone down for the sake of negativity. We, as well as pretty much every other press outlet, pointed out issues that are glaring, even from a conceptual design.
Vicente’s design is all about leg room for tall people, since he in fact is a tall person. The design was so focused on that element, he forgot to design the rest of it around other traveler’s needs and comfort. As comical as it may seem, putting someone’s face butt-level with another human being is a terrible idea.
Seats that might look decent in a design and/or testing phase do not necessarily work in real life conditions. On a real aircraft, with real travelers, people do not stay still. They need to get up to use the restroom, access stored items, find a flight attendant- you name it. This design make all of that far more complicated. Were these seats tested in the event of an accident where every second counts? What happens if someone can’t leave the middle seat quickly enough? What happens if the top seats collapse onto the passengers below?
We can’t and won’t deny the problem with airline seats and comfort. Passengers are arguably larger today than they were several decades ago, leading some airlines to contemplate weighing them before boarding. So, one would think that would call for wider seats.
You’re right Vicente, we haven’t sat in those seats and tried them out ourselves, but sometimes a bad idea is evident from conception. This is not an attempt to bring you or your team down, it’s a valid criticism of an idea that does not present as feasible. We wish you the best in your endeavors but remind you of something Kevin O’Leary frequently says on “Shark Tank.” “Don’t throw good money, after bad.”
