The neat, round POLO armchair was discovered by Ingvar Kamprad at a furniture fair in the mid-1960s. It was made by M Wincrantz Möbelindustri AB in Skövde, and was soon added to the IKEA range under the name POLO.
The 1967 IKEA catalogue cover featured four POLO in different colours against a black background. The catalogue read: “The sensational armchair on the cover, POLO has an extraordinarily durable frame in fibreglass-reinforced plastic. Sensational quality for such a pleasantly low price. This ultra-strong frame gives POLO a simple, beautiful design, soft and rounded, and makes it easy to place anywhere. … The comfort of POLO is enhanced in that it can rotate on its chrome frame.”
POLO became a big seller, especially with orange fabric and black imitation leather. In 1968 it was given MYRTEN cretonne fabric, by designer Sven Fristedt. But by the 1970 catalogue, POLO had been discontinued. Maybe it was too costly? Was fibreglass plastic too hard to produce? The minutes of an IKEA meeting from May 1967 show that one co-worker was tasked to find out “if we can get POLO with fibreglass also moving forward”. But it never did happen, and POLO was discontinued.
POLO did, however, reappear twice in anniversary collections at IKEA. First in 1993 under the name ORSA, and most recently in 2003 under the name SKRUVSTA. And now it was not only rotatable, but also height adjustable.
