But no, it was just an older model from a discontinued factory.
I have been working on a portable N64 project and I needed some good chairs. At first, I bought some telescoping stools from Temu but those were crap. They had a sulfer-like odor, were super uncomfortable to sit on, and weighed over 2 lbs each.
I wanted something higher quality and lighter weight so I resolved to buy an additional Helinox Chair Zero, a chair I already own and love.
The chair is listed on Helinox’s website for $139.95 new. At first glance, that may seem like a lot of money, but I continually have to remind myself that it’s a bargain for the value you get out of these things. “Don’t think about the price, think about the value.”
Still, I’m on a tight budget so I wanted to spend some effort to avoid paying full price. So I went over to eBay and set up a price alert.
I specified I was looking for a used Helinox Chair Zero, at a listing price less than $90. It was only a couple weeks before I got an e-mail notifying me that one just went up for sale.
$69.99, with $9.20 shipping. What a steal! I bought it straightaway.
A couple weeks later I received the chair. Upon setting it up, I noticed some differences from my Chair Zero right away.
The chair I received from eBay had a lighter shade of blue anodized aluminum. The logo had less grippy material. There were silkscreened assembly instructions where mine had none. The logo was in the top left instead of the lower right. It had a tag saying the seat was made in China! Uh oh, did I just get scammed?
I went online and searched for Helinox made in China. Was hoping to find a forum post, a review, anything. I couldn’t find anything on the topic.
Let’s look at some differences I spotted. Firstly, let’s look at the “made in” tag on the chair I’ve owned for two years. It’s clearly made in Vietnam, not China. It’s also missing the “DAC Green poles” branding.
The thing that really threw me off was the seat comfort. The made in China seat felt uncomfortable to sit in, as if the design of the bucket was too high on my back.
I later realized that the pockets or frame sleeve holes are color coded. Silver side always on top!
I came across a youtube video review from 6 years ago. In the review, I saw the same silkscreened instructions that my China chair had, but my Vietnam chair did not.
Helinox Chair Zero - Full Review by Dan Goes Hiking
This gave me an immediate relief knowing that my chair was not counterfit, it was just an older version made in a different factory.
I weighed the two chairs, collapsed and stowed in their bag to see if there was any difference. Turns out the China version weighs slightly less, at 1 lbs 1.8 oz, whereas the Vietnam version weighs 1 lbs 2.2 oz. This made sense to me because the frame sleeve fabric seems ever so slightly less reinforced on the China version.
I put the suspicious chair next to my genuine chair and compared the differences.
Made in Vietnam version on the left. Made in China version on the right.
Here you can see what led me to mount the China version upside down— I incorrectly assumed that the instructions go upward, because that’s what I’m used to on the Vietnam version. Granted, the Vietnam version’s instructions are simply, “THIS SIDE UP” with an arrow, whereas the China version’s instructions are a two step assembly guide.
The thing that tipped me off to the fact that I mounted it upside down was the following youtube video, in which the reviewer Chris (best name!) displayed his Helinox Chair Zero in a way that put the logo in the same upper left that I was seeing on my made in China Helinox Chair Zero.
Helinox Zero Chair Review & Field Test by IGNITED BY NATURE
At first I thought Chris and I had the China version, because my made in China seat Helinox logo was on the upper left edge like his. However, his chair didn’t have the silkscreened instruction diagrams. That’s when I realized his seat was upside down, and so was mine.
We both made the same mistake! We both put the black pockets on top. And now we’re learning together. Silver side pole holes always go up!
Hole comparison. Made in Vietnam on the left, Made in China on the right. To be fair, note that my made in China chair has more wear.
When mounted correctly, the logo displays on the lower right side edge.
Seat compairison. Made in China version on the left. Made in Vietnam version on the right. Note the worn-through logo on the made in China version.
One final comparison of the back. The camera doesn’t pick it up great, but you can see a slight difference in pole hue. By the way, the poles are both labelled made in Korea so I didn’t focus on them much.Here you can kind of see the difference in pole color, with the older poles paired with the made in China seat having a lighter, less saturated blue.
I weighed my two chairs individually and saw 1lbs 1.8oz on the made in China chair, and 1lbs 2.2oz on the made in Vietnam chair. I think this difference is due to the wear and the visible loss of material on the backside Helinox logo on my instance of the made in China version. Had these chairs been straight from the factory, they would probably weigh exactly the same.
Another interesting tidbit are the fastening hardware (rivets?) on the bottom of the frames. In the older version frame shown on the right side, you can see there are 4 of them. On the newer version frame shown on the left side, there are only 2. I assume that change was made to optimize production, reduce weight, and delete unnecessary parts.
Conclusion
Yeah, I love this chair. And now I know some more of it’s lore! It has been previously produced in China, and there are old versions of it floating around on secondary markets. I was not expecting this when I bought the used chair from eBay, but now I know and I can take note in the future if I happen to want to buy more of these. I have two now, and I’m keeping both! Each has it’s own quirks and flaws, but neither of those things prevent it from being a great comfort when I’m off on another adventure.
