Make Direct is a new manufacturing and selling process that takes middlemen distribution and storefronts out of the picture to reduce costs but also only manufactures the products ordered for lower costs all around.
Ease of Use, Performance: 3/5
Look & Feel: 4/5
Features 4/5
How much I enjoy 4/5
Total: 3.5/5
While the direct to purchaser or whatever you would like to call the factory to customer solution for keeping costs down may not be new this company seems to be making it work. Make Direct is a new company that keeps costs down with import/export, stores and distribution being cut out entirely along with a unique manufacturing process.
The company only manufactures products it has sold in the past 7 days so there is not a warehouse of products waiting for a consumer to order it. This may lengthen the order process by a few days but it will also hold the cost down so that you pay less for what you want.
To actually see if their costs are lower I asked for a simple teak and stainless steel arm chair that has several comparable products on the internet and at local stores. Once receiving the chair I looked at local stores and found a couple of chairs at local stores that are close but one that was this exact chair design for sale online but for a higher price.
I asked for the Make Direct Teak and Marine-Grade Stainless Steel Arm Chair because I found a design that looks to be the same at Home Depot from a company called Vifah. The chairs at Home Depot cost $162 each while the same chair, the chair looks identical but I am not sure, at Make Direct costs $100 each.
Other similar chairs made of teak and aluminum or stainless steel cost from $130 to well over $500 per chair depending on the company you are buying from. The higher end sellers of chairs easily sold theirs for $1500 for a set of four which is quite expensive for outdoor furniture.
The Make Direct Teak & Marine-Grade Stainless Steel Arm Chair that I received was in great shape from shipping considering the box it came in was damaged. It looked like the box had been squished by other boxes on top of it but the chair itself was excellently packed so it was not damaged.
The chair was packed with a four layer cardboard box and padded with bubble wrap extensively so I was not too worried once I started opening the box to see all that packing and layers of cardboard. The chair itself was not top quality I am sorry to report with two defects that I feel were not sufficiently caught before the chair was shipped but one defect may be due to the sample I requested or shipping damage.
The chair seemed to have been used before arriving at my front door so this may account for the feet not being squarely on the floor when I set the chair down or it may have been damaged from that squashed box. Two of the four feet were slightly longer when I first used the chair but the chair is solidly built so no amount of twisting or bending would make all four feet contact the ground.
I used some rubber feet bought at Menards and some washers to level the chair out which is just fine for my chair and in my opinion because the cost is lower than other similar chairs. A set of four chairs from Make Direct costs $398.96 and shipping would add $105 for me which is about the same for all other sites I found similar chairs at.
The other problem however should have been caught at the factory during some kind of inspection, a few of the screws did not fully screw into the teak pieces near the chairs edge where your knees rest. The boards on the first two pieces were not held down well to the frame because the frame was bent slightly at the weld so I had to find longer screws to hold the pieces on securely.
This was also not that big a deal, for the price you buy these at a few small defects are not a problem and I can certainly live with something like this considering the savings. If I had paid that $162 each for ones at Home Depot I would certainly bring the chairs to the store and want them to be corrected or returned but for a saving of $60 per chair I can live with another three dollars in rubber chair tips, a couple screws and washers.
The chair is comfortable enough to use in my living room, several people I have had over as guests commented on the nice looks and how comfortable it was. The chair has also stood up over recent heat and rains but not just simple gentle rains; we have a couple of thunderstorms that left inches of rain in hours.
The teak and stainless steel chair does make a nice piece of outdoor furniture and even though it did have a few problems during initial use it was easily correctable. The teak chair from Make Direct does offer a low enough price to make this an affordable piece of outdoor furniture that will last for years and look good.
Teak is a natural outdoor wood for furniture and should last a lifetime without any care other than occasional washing with just water. Teak is a tight grained high oil wood perfectly suited to boat decks and outdoor furniture so a teak chair with marine grade stainless steel will last for years.
I highly recommend the Make Direct Teak & Marine Grade Stainless Steel Arm Chair even though it did have a couple of defects, the price is definitely right.
