Meet the a.i.r. sofa, an inflatable sofa that IKEA's global design head Marcus Engman described as "one of the biggest mistakes in IKEA's history. An amazing fiasco."
It's such an amazing failure that IKEA actually created the product twice in its history, decades apart:
That idea became the a.i.r. sofa. It solved a conundrum for the company which prided itself on its flat pack products. But the complex design of sofas and chairs meant most were sold to customers full size.
So why not an inflatable sofa, Ikea thought, that would be sold flat and then inflated at home? Once blown up, a material cover could be draped over it to make it seem just like an average sofa.
Find out why the a.i.r. sofa turned out to be a horrible product over at this article by Benedict Brock of News.com