German furniture manufacturer Moll has long offered ergonomic children’s furniture designed to improve posture and optimize study conditions. Last year, Roger Lin launched Moll’s first U.S. distributor to bring the coveted furnishings closer to home.
by JAMIE MORGAN
For those suffering from the worldwide ailment of bad posture, meet Roger Lin, owner of Posture in Style. He has delivered the cure—or rather, had the cure delivered from abroad. Turns out, some folks in Germany have had the answer all along.
Lin discovered the 1925-founded German furniture manufacturer Moll after searching for proper desk furniture for his then 3-year-old daughter. While she tended to her preschool activities, Lin noticed his daughter’s back slumped forward and her feet dangled above the floor. He could have immediately begun the familiar “sit up straight” parent-child cycle, but he opted out. Instead, he integrated posture-perfect practices into his daughter’s everyday life through ergonomic furniture.
“I searched far and wide, but in the United States there are really no ergonomic chairs and tables,” Lin says. “Finally I came across a company out of Germany that manufactured the furniture I needed.”
His order took a whopping six months to arrive. But this did not deter Lin. He knew what his child needed and was determined to get it. But still, six months?
Lin realized he could make the process easier for other parents concerned for their children’s posture, while kicking off an enterprise of his own. “I thought, here’s a great opportunity,” he says. “So, I started Posture in Style.”
Starting a company is always a daunting task, but Lin would benefit from the ready-to-go business infrastructure in place at Ocean Duke Corporation, the seafood importing business his parents launched in 1986 (its annual revenue is over $200 million). As chief operating officer of Ocean Duke and president and CEO of Posture in Style, Lin is no stranger to entrepreneurial success. But he is not just driven by dollars, rather, by something much greater: a father’s unwavering desire for his children to be happy, healthy and successful.
“I was truly concerned about my child’s well-being,” says Lin, who emigrated from Taiwan in 1986. “One thing I find surprising is that eight out of 10 adults in the United States suffer from back pain in their lifetime. One out of five kids suffers back pain, and two out of three children have bad posture.”
After a few weeks of negotiations with the German-based Moll, Lin opened a 900-square-foot showroom in Torrance, Calif., and became the first U.S. distributor of Moll ergonomic children’s furniture. In business for more than a year now, Posture in Style remains Moll’s only U.S. distributor.
“Business has been quite unbelievable from the beginning,” Lin says. “I was contacted very quickly by people who already know about this furniture from living in other countries.” In fact, Lin says most of his inquiries come from Korean Americans. “Korean Americans were the number one group interested in the furniture. They have seen the furniture in Korea and were looking all over the United States, but could not find it until finding me.”
Examples of ergonomic furniture are desktops that sit at the proper angle for reading and writing, and chairs that force a proper but comfortable sitting position (back straight, feet on the floor). Lin carries a line of desks ranging from $995 to $1,550; storage units ranging from $415 to $935, and a $755 chair. These prices may sound hefty, but the pieces can be adjusted to literally grow with the child.
“Our most unique product would be the desk,” Lin says. “What attracted me was that the height could be adjusted very readily. As a parent, I could have this desk at the perfect height for my child. She’s in preschool now, but I can adjust it as she grows up. It will still fit when she goes to college.”
As for his daughter, Lin says he never has to remind her to sit up straight and that she loves her ergonomic furniture. She’s even taken the message to the playground. “She loves it,” he says. “She tells her friends about it, too.”
