Exclusive: 'If we're going to do it half-assed, let's not do it at all' — Co-founder reveals how a Batman chair changed Secretlab forever

Founded in 2014 by competitive Starcraft 2 players Ian Ang and Alaric Choo, Secretlab has steadily grown from one of Singapore’s countless plucky start-ups to one of the most recognizable gaming chair brands in the world.

The award-winning Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 is its flagship product (named one of the best gaming chairs on the market in our review ).

The brand also manufactures a successful line of desks and this year branched into the productivity-focused task chair market with its new Atlas model .

Special edition gear has steadily become a key part of the offering as well.

Shoppers can scoop up officially licensed products tied to some of the biggest games like Overwatch and Cyberpunk 2077 , massive multimedia franchises including Pokémon and Warhammer, popular esports teams, or even luxury car brands McLaren and Lamborghini.

But it all began with a certain caped crusader.

The Batman blueprint Future Future Future “I chose Batman at the start,” Choo, who also heads the company’s partnerships, explains as I relax on a sofa in his corner office at the brand’s HQ.

A pile of material samples amassed over years of research and development sits on the glass coffee table in front of me: strips of bright orange fabric designed to look like Dragon Ball hero Goku’s iconic robes, a moulded plate inspired by the front of a supercar, a detailed print of the Marauder's Map from Harry Potter , and countless other items.

“We were much smaller back then, so we didn't have many options, but Batman was such a huge IP, and I just felt like it made sense for us,” he continues.

This was nine years ago and, although other gaming furniture brands have embraced similar collaborations in the years since, Choo says a crossover gaming chair was a novel idea at the time.

“DC was kind of like, 'we have a lot of license categories.

We have everything.

We have figures, we have statues, we have cups, we have shirts and bags, but we've never done a chair.’" In such uncharted territory, Choo reckons that it took a whole year to work out how to approach the product’s design.

“It sounds obvious now: a Batman chair is black, right? But do you go with the iconic Batman, where it's a yellow logo and retro? We were coming off the armor and whatnot — the [ Dark Knight] movie was out at the time, so we went that direction.” (Image credit: Future) “We were thinking about what Batman would sit in; what chair would he have in his bat cave?” reveals Choo.