Nike+ FuelBand

I just heard about the new Nike+ FuelBand that was launched in the US just a couple of days ago.

– New Nike+ FuelBand –

– Nike+ FuelBand Fact Sheet –

The Nike+ FuelBand is designed to be worn by the user all day to track daily movement.  It has an LED dot matrix display and it uses accelerometry to provide information about different activities through movement of the wrist. Four metrics are available: Time, Calories, Steps and NikeFuel.

What’s NikeFuel?  They say that, unlike calorie counts, which vary based on someone’s gender and body type, NikeFuel is a normalized score that awards equal points for the same activity regardless of physical makeup.

Users set a daily goal of how active they want to be, and how much NikeFuel they want to achieve. The NIKE+ FuelBand displays a series of 20 LED lights that go from red-to-green as the user gets closer to their goal. Basically, the more active you are, the more fuel you earn.  Nike hopes that the Nike+ Fuel Band will help motivate and inspire people to be more active.

What do I think about this? Hmm, honestly, I’ve been scratching my head about this.  I can imagine it being the cool, new, must-have gadget for young (think teens!) active and health-conscious individuals since its got the Swoosh on it, it looks hip, and it has that new unit of measure invented by Einstein Nike called NikeFuel.  I agree that earning NikeFuel can be a motivating factor to being more active and getting fit, especially if you upload your activities regularly and find healthy competition online.

BUT…and these are two big buts:

1) It feels like a downgrade from the Nike Sportsband. Remember the Nike Sportsband?  Way back in 2009, I tested the Nike Sportsband 2.0 and I was quite happy with it for beginner runners.  While the Nike+ FuelBand was probably not designed to replace the Nike Sportsband, I wonder why Nike didn’t just incorporate new features such as counting steps and NikeFuel into the Nike Sportsband which could already measure pace and distance?

2)  Pricey. For a product that works like a pedometer with the added feature of NikeFuel, I feel that the Nike FuelBand is a bit too expensive at $149 or almost P6,500.