Harvard Professor Crafts $50 Standing Desk That Can Fold Into Your Laptop Bag

The revelation that so-called ‘standing desks’ yield positive upshots in both productivity and overall wellbeing has spawned a handful of uncanny creations -- including this human-sized hamster wheel and a desk that elicits breathing sounds in order to remind users to switch positions.

But the StandStand -- a Kickstarter creation care of Harvard professor Luke Leafgren -- aims to fill a void in the workstation market that is as affordable as it is portable. At $50, the StandStand is composed of three wood pieces that can easily fit into a laptop bag or backpack, weighing in at less than two pounds.

While a wide majority of standing desks can set users back several hundred -- or even thousands -- of dollars, Leafgren, an Arabic professor, dreamed up a thriftier alternative while in the throes of a meditation one morning.

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Available in both Baltic birch plywood and bamboo, the desk was created with the same woodworking techniques that were used by the ancient Egyptians, Leafgren says. The three parts, once locked into place via dowels, can hold up to 900 pounds.

And as a result of its unique design scheme, the mortise-and-tenon joints on the top of the StandStand form a smiley face with dimples -- an image which has been mimicked on the product's playful packaging.

Sustainably manufactured in Wisconsin, the contraption will be available in three sizes -- 9-by-9, 9-by-12 and 9-by-14 inches -- depending on users’ heights. And the fact that the StandStand has nearly quadrupled its Kickstarter goal of $15,000 with 2 weeks to go would seem to indicate that the devices should ship, as Leafgren had initially hoped, well in time for the holidays.

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