Is the Weeks Rocker® a Copy of the Maloof Rocker?

Mr. Sam Maloof was the designer and maker of a famous rocking chair and other furniture.  His work and the trail he blazed were singular.  I can’t imagine another woodworker achieving such status.  His reputation for craftsmanship and generosity is impeccable and well deserved.  He inspired woodworkers to higher levels of artistry and educated a large portion of the public to why it was important.  His brilliance cast a bright light.  We are grateful for the illumination.

The Maloof Rocker has become an icon, widely copied, usually stiffly, with versions for sale on many websites and at a large percentage of craft fairs.  This is a hard shadow to get out from under.

Occasionally we are asked if our chair is a copy or a derivative.  It is not.  It’s as original as the design of anything with generations of iterations can be.  I started with a "fitting booth" to take the measure of as many people as I could, and I used my particular experience and common sense to get from there to chair.  For a further discussion and illustration of our chair design process, please see Designing the Weeks Rocking Chair and Designing the Heflin Bar Stool.

Comparing the two rocking chairs, looking beyond the obvious and inherent resemblances, there are very different solutions to the problems presented by the requirements of comfort, construction, and decoration.

Maloof Rocker	Weeks Rocker®

Consider the arms:

I could compare and chart every part of the Weeks Rocker and the Maloof Rocker to the same result.  The differences exceed the shared elements, and the differences are fundamental, not superficial.  The differences result from different design criteria, different solutions to the inherent problems, and different aesthetics.

The character, not the furniture, of Sam Maloof I do aspire to copy, but this is more difficult.