Inflatable Furniture Of The Late 90s Was Inadvertently Symbolic

It looked shiny and futuristic, but was actually uncomfortable and your ass often hit the floor: just like most Millennials’ futures.

Found on Pinterest // There is no way a similar pizza party happened outside of this product shoot. That ottoman would be deflating like our purchasing power come 2008.

I distinctly recall the first time I ever saw an inflatable chair: it was the summer of 1998 and this catalog called Just Nikki, which appeared to be like the mailbox staple dELiA*s but on steroids, had an entire section of delightfully impractical home goods.

There was even an inflatable 3-seat couch and a whole-ass bed.

I didn’t actually know a single soul who had inflatable furniture. I remember going to the Jersey shore and practically wanting to live in this store that had a neon pink inflatable couch and orange chair, complete with Clueless-esque feather pens, faux fur covered journals, and a rug where I shudder to think how many Beanie Babies died for it. So it was a relatively rare sight in the wild that didn’t seem to exist in as many homes as those catalogs would have you believe.

But I saw that blue and purple chair in the Just Nikki catalog that would match my hair in a few years, and wanted one oh so badly. A shimmering beacon of blue Jell-O so much unlike the dull gray and floral wallpapered room I shared with my sister. Another…