Thirteen months ago Renee and I spent a whole afternoon on a bare metal bench at a road game, and by the fourth quarter we were both shifting around like kids in church. She said it out loud on the walk back to the Tahoe: we drove eight hours to sit on a shelf. The next week we ordered two Everlasting Comfort stadium seats with back support, one for each of us. We have used them at about seven games since, plus two of our grandson's high school games out on the bleachers. What follows is what those seats actually changed about a game day, in plain terms.
One thing about the gate before anything else. Many pro stadiums do not allow a seat with a back, and the rules differ from one place to the next and they change from year to year. Check the stadium's own website before you leave the house. When a back is not allowed, our seats stay locked in the Tahoe and we carry the flat cushions instead. We never bring both on the same day. That is the whole policy, and it costs you five minutes at the kitchen table the night before.
A backrest that adjusts beats a cushion that does not
Two seats, 2.2 pounds each, folding flat with a built-in strap. Check your stadium's seat rules first, then check today's price.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →The backrest adjusts, so you are not locked at one angle all afternoon
The one thing that separates this from a cushion is the adjustable backrest. On a bench with nothing behind you, you find out fast that you want a different angle in the second quarter than you do in the fourth. You set it before you sit down and leave it. Renee keeps hers more upright. Mine ends up leaned back a notch. Same seat, two settings, no discussion. A flat cushion cannot do this at all, which is why ours now lives in the closet for the stadiums that will not allow a back.
Memory foam turns a metal bench into something you can sit on past halftime
The fill is memory foam, and the listing calls it high density. What that means in practice is that the seat does not go flat under you by the third quarter the way a cheap pad does. A metal bench has no give in it at all, and one decent layer of foam changes how the afternoon feels. It is not a couch, and I would not tell you it is. It is a seat you can stay in for three hours without spending the last hour thinking about the seat.
It folds flat and hangs off a shoulder at 2.2 pounds
The Everlasting Comfort seat folds flat, weighs 2.2 pounds, and has a built-in carrying strap. Renee carries hers on her shoulder from the parking lot to the gate and does not think about it again. Mine rides in the clear bag on some days and on my shoulder on others. That weight is the difference between a thing you bring and a thing you leave in the truck. Two and a fifth pounds is light enough that you quit resenting it somewhere around the second season.
Seventeen inches wide is the number to know before you buy two
The seat measures 17 inches wide, 13 inches tall and 10.5 inches deep. On a tight bench that width is the honest complaint I have. Two of these side by side take up real estate, and the person next to you loses a little of theirs. At a packed game you will notice it. On a high school bleacher with room to spread out, you will not. If you are a big man, 17 inches is comfortable. If you are squeezing onto a narrow bench between strangers, look at the bench before you sit.
Bleachers, benches, concrete, and the cheap seats
The listing puts the recommended uses at bleachers, stadium seats and sporting events, then adds parks, concerts, tailgates, camping trips and school activities. We have run ours on aluminum bleachers at the high school and on the bench seats at pro games, and it behaves the same in both places. It is a rectangle of foam with a back on it, so it does not much care what it is sitting on. What it does care about is whether the venue allows it. That is a rule question, not a seat question.
Wipe clean with a damp cloth, because stadium concrete is stadium concrete
The cover is polyester and the care instruction is wipe clean. That is the right answer for something that lives in a parking lot and gets set down on whatever is already there. Ours have picked up dust, a little spilled soda and one smudge of unknown origin. A damp cloth handled all three. Do not put it in the washing machine. Wipe it down when you get home and hang it on the shelf in the hall closet with the rest of the gear, and it is ready the next time.
The storage pocket earns its keep in the parking lot, not at the gate
There is a storage pocket on the seat. In the parking lot it holds a phone, keys and a program, and it keeps you from digging in your pockets while balancing a sandwich on your knee. At the gate, the guard will want to look inside it, so we empty it before we walk up. That is not a defect, that is how the line works. Pack it at the tailgate, empty it before security, and it does exactly what you want it to do.
Two seats, one each, is the right way to buy them
We bought two of them thirteen months ago, because Renee asked for them after that long afternoon on the metal. Buying one and sharing is not a thing. If you go to games with the same person every season, buy the pair and be done with it. The Everlasting Comfort seats live on one shelf in the hall closet between trips, next to the clear bag and the cooler, and they come out together. Thirteen months in, both are still in use and neither has been replaced.
It stays in the Tahoe when the stadium says no, so plan for that
This is the part I would tell a friend before anything else. Many pro stadiums do not allow a seat with a back, so some afternoons these never leave the truck. We keep two flat foam cushions in the closet for exactly those games, and we carry one set or the other, never both. Check the stadium's own website the week of the game. If the rules say no back, leave the good seats locked up and take the cushion. It is a five minute check that saves you a walk back to the parking lot.
Thirteen months, seven games, and nothing has come apart
The Everlasting Comfort seats have been used at about seven games where a back was allowed, plus two bleacher afternoons in the sun. The strap is still attached, the foam has not gone flat, and the cover still wipes clean the way it did the first week. I will not tell you they look brand new, because the edges have picked up a little parking lot gray. I will tell you nothing has failed. For something that folds and unfolds in a lot and rides in the back of an SUV, that is the report that matters.
What I'd Skip
What I would skip is the folding chair with legs, and the inflatable seat cushion. The chair is heavier, it is a bigger argument at the gate, and you spend the whole line worrying about it. The inflatable cushion is comfortable for about twenty minutes and then it is a plastic bag with your weight on it. I would also skip buying one seat for two people, and I would skip carrying any seat into a stadium without reading that stadium's rules first. One more thing, and I mean it: if you have real back trouble, this is not medical advice and it is not a fix. Go see your doctor about that. A seat is for comfort at a long game, nothing more.
Seven games, two bleacher afternoons, and the strap is still attached. The adjustable backrest is the part that changed the day.
Read the gate rules first, then put two seats in the Tahoe
Many pro stadiums allow a seat with a back and many do not, so five minutes on the stadium's website decides your afternoon. When it says yes, these are the two that ride in our second row.
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