Love, devotion and sex are capable of anything together, even gifting the world with a work of furniture art that breaks the barriers of sexual dysfunction. That's the story behind the Archer Bowchair, a bouncy, beautiful piece of sex furniture that was built on passion, broken down by family tragedy, and then re-born on teary-eyed memories.
Bob and Lisa Kaczmarek, the makers behind Archer Bowchair, started their brand with a soulful mission: to outdo even the worst cases of sexual dysfunction and medical trauma with the world's first bouncing lounge chair made just for sex. They debuted the Bowchair to rave reviews and the likes of transgender activist Buck Angel and pop-sex education queen Zoe Ligon of Spectrum Boutique became fast fans.
For me, it started as a personal project to give my wife the freedom to have pain-free sex again in the manner she wanted.
In a nutshell, the Archer Bowchair is a handcrafted, luxury lounge chair that doubles as a rebounding sexual enhancement tool, thanks to a flexible frame and twin carbon fiber springs. Couples can use the chair as a positioning aid to explore new sensual possibilities while the leaf springs take the annoyance of gravity out of the equation.
Company co-founder Lisa Kaczmarek was the inspiration behind her husband Bob's invention. When she was plagued with a seemingly un-treatable pelvic floor disorder, Bob put his woodworking and fabrication skills to work and created the Archer Bowchair.
“Lisa struggled with a hypertensive pelvic floor plus arthritic knees, and the frustration it brought her to not be able to ‘perform’ like she used to on top of me,” says Bob Kaczmarek. “For me, it started as a personal project to give my wife the freedom to have pain-free sex again in the manner she wanted.”
Bob designed the Bowchair by taking his engineering mindset into the bedroom. As the couple attempted to work around Lisa's pelvic floor issues, Bob began putting together the pieces that would ultimately solve their sexual puzzle.
“I was laid up for six months recovering from a table saw accident. Lisa was on her fourth or fifth different treatment attempt for her pelvic floor disorder,” says Bob of his a-ha moment. “She was doing her prescribed daily stretches on the living room floor while I was confined to the couch and starting to go a little stir crazy.”
“During one of the stretching poses,” he continues, “she noticed a significant reduction in the tension of her pelvic floor and wanted to try having sex that way. The pose she was in wasn’t very conducive to much motion, and what was generated came from Lisa having to strain to lift her body upwards, negating the relief she felt in her tense pelvic floor.”
But Bob's wheels started turning, thinking back to a time when the pair had sex on a bouncy exercise ball. Now the trick was to combine the stability of a flat surface with the bounciness of a ball or spring, and in a shape that form-fitted to the body.
“I completed all the design, engineering, and fabrication details during the rest of my recovery and got started building the prototype once I could handle power tools again,” says Kaczmarek. “The original prototype went through a few modifications to get something that really worked as we envisioned.”
The Bowchair would become the Kaczmareks' full-time business and ultimate passion until tragedy struck in late 2018. Just as sales were taking off, Lisa suddenly passed away of heart failure at only 47 years of age.
Though utterly devastated, Bob was determined to continue the Bowchair mission in Lisa's memory.
Before her untimely passing, Lisa enthusiastically promoted the Bowchair to anyone with two ears. It was truly her calling, and her gift to other couples struggling to create a healthy sex life.
“For Lisa, once the chair ‘worked,’ there was no stopping her from sharing it with the world,” recalls Bob. “She had such frustration with all the treatments and therapies she tried over the years, and hated knowing other women were suffering the same way.”
Lisa worked tirelessly to obtain the skills required to run an online business, running full force into an unfamiliar industry fueled by her own success with the chair. She spent hours scouring marketing and social media tutorials to learn promotional tips for sharing the Bowchair while husband Bob led manufacturing efforts and helped design images and content for their website, BestSexChair.com.
“We believe the Bowchair gives users a tool that will better their sexual health and improve communication, therefore building trust and increasing intimacy — a connection that naturally leads to a more fulfilling relationship and sex life,” said Lisa in a press release published in the spring of 2018.
“The Bowchair is meant to be a beautiful addition to your décor,” she gushed. “It’s elegant and comfortable, but when company leaves, you’ll be beckoned by its sleek curves and thoughtful design.”
Shortly before her passing, the couple was working on enhancing their existing designs with Lisa as the driving motivational force.
“There were several improvements and luxury upgrades that evolved as I designed our lower-cost aluminum version, and I had toyed with for our personal wood chairs,” recalls Kaczmarek. “Designing and building the molds and jigs necessary to reliably reproduce it cost effectively was a big task, and let’s say her ‘encouragement’ motivated me to get it done. I completed the first prototype about three months before she passed.”
While Lisa may be physically gone from this plane, her passion for helping couples lives on through Bob and his memorial Bowchair line, called the Moaning Lisa collection. Though Lisa's death slowed Bob's work for a majority of the following year, he pressed on and has since come back to the business in full force.
“Lisa had a sketchbook of designs and concepts for chairs she wanted me to make [and] I've been building her designs,” says Kaczmarek. “All upgraded chairs receive a special branding as part of ‘The Moaning Lisa’ Collection, and for any of Lisa’s exact designs that are purchased, 10 percent of the revenue is donated to help prevent female heart failure deaths, being it’s what took her from us.”
Bob Kaczmarek says his healing process, and often the game plan for his business, is still touch and go, but as he puts it, his mission remains anchored in Lisa's memory: “To have the opportunity to improve the sex lives of more couples.”
