Last week, I spent a day and a half walking around NeoCon at The Merchandise Mart and Design Days at Fulton Market. While I wish everything was still under one roof, adding Fulton Market to this annual June event in Chicago has definitely been refreshing.
Plus, I got to take a rickshaw ride back to The Mart from Fulton Market. That was really fun.
Although the focus of NeoCon (and now Design Days) has always primarily been on office furniture, furnishings, flooring, and fabric, there’s plenty of healthcare products to check out as well.
Same old good stuff
However, most manufacturers do not introduce new healthcare and senior living products at NeoCon and Design Days. They wait for Healthcare Design in the fall or Environments for Aging in the spring.
So I saw many familiar healthcare products from manufacturers like Carolina, JSI Health, Kwalu, Wieland, Stance, and Herman Miller: patient chairs, sleeper sofas/chairs, overbed tables, cabinetry, and seating for waiting areas.
Best of NeoCon
But there were some (relatively) new healthcare products introduced at NeoCon that won Best of NeoCon awards. Eligible products were those introduced by Mart tenants to the U.S. market since June 1 from the previous year and not entered in Best of NeoCon before.
Here are the healthcare winners:
- Etta from Keilhauer (Gold), Guest Lounge Seating.
- Odyssey collection expanded from Integra Seating (Silver), Guest and Lounge Seating.
- Shoreline flooring collection from Flora Materials (Sustainability Award), Hard-Surface Flooring Vinyl/LVT/Specialty.
- Hero rubber made with Nike Grind from Mohawk Group (Gold, Sustainability Award, People’s Choice Award), Hard-Surface Flooring Vinyl/LVT/Specialty.
- Wanderwood from Patcraft (Silver), Hard-Surface Flooring Vinyl/LVT/Specialty.
- Bloomscape from CF Stinson (Silver, Sustainability Award), Textiles
My favorite product
But my overall favorite product at NeoCon and Design Days was not a healthcare product at all. But it could be…some day.
Just like putting wheels on suitcases revolutionized shlepping your bag through an airport, KI’s Cognetic Technology introduced a new way to support sitting that could revolutionize seating.
Most office chairs do not have any movement in them, except for height adjustment up and down and maybe a forward and backward tilt. Cognetic Technology is unique in that it moves in multi-directional fashion — almost like a sitting Spirograph of random orbital motion that is very calming. (Check out this video of me sitting in the chair)
Even better, early studies have shown a 30% reduction in anxiety and improved cognitive performance.
It received a well-deserved Best of Competition Award from the Best of NeoCon judges.
Beyond office and lounge seating, there may be applications for this technology in clinical healthcare spaces, such as a maternity chair that improves upon the standard rocker. Or a chair for behavioral health.
It will be interesting to see where KI goes with this technology. Stay tuned.
See the original article as well as more insights on Sara Marberry’s Blog. This article originally ran on June 22, 2025. Marberry is a healthcare design expert with over 25 years of experience in the healthcare and senior living design industry, who has written/edited five books and is a regular contributor to Healthcare Design magazine. Marberry also is a former Executive Vice President of the nonprofit Center for Health Design.
