Made In Nevada: Gary Platt Manufacturing
RENO, Nev. (KOLO) — Think of the very best most comfortable chair you have ever sat in. It was nice wasn’t it?
This Made in Nevada report is revealing three chairs that are probably just as good if not better that the one you tried. Tens of thousands of these chairs are made close to where you live.
Casino’s think of all kinds of ways to keep people in their seats for hours.
“How long have you been playing today?” asked KOLO 8 New’s Noah Bond. “Probably three hours,” replied tourist Mike Czarnik. “How much credit would you give that chair for sitting there three hours?” Bond asked. “A lot of credit,” Mike replied.
This chair called the Monico is a staple at Tamarak Junction along South Virginia in Reno. It’s made by Garry Platt Manufacturing workers in Reno at 4643 Aircenter Circle.
Joe Esposito is the CEO, “When people say, ‘So you guys make casino chairs and there’s a business for that? Like that’s all you do is casino chairs? And there’s enough business to make a business’. And I say, Yeah we make about 90,000 chairs a year for the last several years.”
The Monico is the top selling chair in the casino industry. Gary Platt Manufacturing made 30,000 last year alone.
“It’s got the same comfort. The same unsurpassed comfort. The same lumbar support. The same seat as all of our main chairs, but it also has a new cooler interesting kind of design that brings us into the 21st century,” Joe said.
Gary Platt Manufacturing will reveal two new chairs at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas in October of 2019. One of the chairs is called the Tesla because of its sleek design.
The Sport Book Club is designed for sports books and is complete with an arm gamblers can use to write on and two USB plug-ins to keep electronics charged all day long.
Ed Abadie is the design engineer. He dreams up the chairs and makes them become reality through a careful process.
“The start of something is to look at a shape, a general shape that you’re trying to get,” said Ed. “The ergonomics of this seat is really important. Having someone sit in it for the first five seconds you can tell whether it’s a good sit or not,” he continued.
Once the design decided upon it’s shared with the 86 workers on the manufacturing floor.
First the fabric for all the chairs is cut on a large machine able to quickly cut patterns of fabric that will be used to line the chairs. A worker uses a computer to program the cuts and with the push of a button it starts cutting making hundreds and hundreds of patterns a day.
“It’s basically a strong vinyl that’s going to last forever and withstand your casino hazards like cigarette smoke and other things drinks things like that,” said Joe.
One by one the freshly cut patterns are removed from the machine and brought to a team of 18 sewers. The members of this group work between eight and ten hours a day. They even work some Saturdays to keep up with demand.
The fabric is ready to be stretched on the proprietary support and cushioning structure. It all comes together in a warehouse and at last the chair comes together.
Richardo Vasquez is an assembler. “I’m putting on an outside back and from there once I get this outside back I’ll throw a handle and the handle will be kind of what you see right here with a Charley Brown handle,” he says as he assembles a chair. 00:13 / 00:30SKIP AD
Finally, the chairs are set out where they will wait to be shipped. This is a small portion of a 1,600 Monico chair order going to the Hard Rock Fire Mountain Casino in Sacramento for its big opening on November 2nd.
“It’s unsurpassed comfort and it’s durability. These people will spend a lot of money on their chairs and casino environments are very harsh and we want those chairs to last forever,” said Joe.
“When you sit in a chair for an hour, two, three hours you tend to have issues with your back so with these chairs– it’s fabulous,” said Mike.
The workers at Gary Platt Manufacturing tell me they are the top chair casino chair producer in the world. Most of the chairs they make are sold across the United States and in Canada, South America, Europe, and Australia.
