La-Z-Boy Recliner

Edward Knabusch and Edwin Shoemaker invented the La-Z-Boy Recliner

Design Patent - La-Z-Boy.
by Mary Bellis
Mary Bellis, known by some as CalmX, was an experimental artist, film director and producer, video game content creator, and freelance writer for some 18 years. She specialized in writing about inventors and inventions, in particular. Bellis died in March 2015.
Updated March 06, 2017

Put your feet up, lean back, and relax.

Most of us either own a La-Z-boy recliner or know a friend or family member who does. The innovative chair design was invented during the spring of 1928, about the same time Dr. Fleming discovered penicillin, Mickey Mouse starred in the first talkie cartoon, "Steamboat Willie," and Lawrence Welk started intoxicating America with his champagne bubble band.

Edward Knabusch & Edwin Shoemaker Invent La-Z-Boy

In 1927, the cousins abandoned secure jobs, joined forces, and invested in their own furniture business in Monroe, Michigan. Suddenly, Knabusch, a woodworker, turned into a marketer, and Shoemaker, originally a farmer, became an engineer. The locals thought they were crazy, but the Floral City Furniture Company flourished.

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With only a brief slow-down during World War II, the La-Z-Boy Chair Company continued to grow, adding new furniture pieces and changing designs to suit the times. La-Z-Boy workers now make more than 30,000 chairs and sofas each week—that’s 6,000 a day.

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