Secretlab CEO on copycats, patents and the cost of innovation

Ian Ang, who co-founded Secretlab with Alaric Choo around 2014, traces the company back to their days as semi‑professional esports players playing StarCraft II. They started by building a chair to complete a gaming setup rather than pursuing a Twitch strategy, and the business grew from that esports foundation.

Secretlab rose to prominence with the Omega, then the Titan and Titan Evo, chairs now familiar on many streamer setups. As the company expanded it faced imitators and began protecting designs more aggressively, filing patents from around 2021 for products and accessories developed by head of industrial design Vincent Sin.

Sin led work on features such as the InfinitePrecision armrest, which required convincing a supplier to produce a custom gas piston and having Secretlab underwrite the capital expenditure. Ang admits some projects are loss‑making and aimed at professionals, but the company leverages its scale to develop proprietary foams and NanoGen leatherette, investing millions to set up production lines.

secretlab, ian ang, alaric choo, gaming chair, omega, titan evo, patents, infiniteprecision, nanogen, proprietary foam