Good Riddance to Wristbands

Go back to basics for the next big thing.

An early mover in the wearables space (having introduced Nike+iPod in 2010), Nike made headlines this week after confirming dramatic cuts to their hardware team. While many existing customers are left wondering if their FuelBands are about to be relegated to the same drawer as those phone chargers and tamagotchis of yesteryear, I believe Nike is right to refocus on other platforms.

Whether a result of grand strategy or lack thereof, the seemingly imminent death of the FuelBand gives Nike the opportunity to step back and decide how best to utilize the torrent of data produced by wearable devices, which would provide a true competitive advantage to a company that ostensibly already understands kinetics. And while paring back on hardware shuts Nike out of the (already-crowded) wristband market, the company would be wise to focus on their original wearable platform: shoes.

Three-axis accelerometers are now inexpensive enough to embed into sneakers by default— one in each sole would provide a much better picture of bodily movement than a wristband— and if it also leveraged the sensors in that other near-ubiquitous platform, the smartphone (which users often carry in-hand or on-body), Nike could offer consumers a more complete picture of activity and a real value-add over its competitors.

I’ve been self-tracking for three years and for the past six months I wore five devices simultaneously while walking, running, and raving around New York City (guess which one is the best workout). My experience has revealed that wristbands are actually the worst available platform for collecting data on our movement, as everything from spirited typing to fist-pumping can count as ‘steps’ (in Nike metrics, ‘fuel’). Hip-worn pedometers are much better for counting steps, while only heart rate monitors can provide a realistic picture of calories-burned (the BodyMedia Fit does a decent approximation by combining data from four sensors).

But it’s the data that really matters. Translating data into illuminated patterns, captivating visualizations, and actionable insights is the real mission before the wearables industry. It was a (MYTRAK) pedometer and (Polar) chest-strap HRM combination that first ignited my passion for wearable tech— but the (relatively old school) gadgets themselves had little to do with it. The data they produced, and the visualizations they offered, which could correlate movement patterns with calorie expenditure and allowed a deep dive into the dynamics of different activities, were the real selling features.

And though that pedometer is now a useless hunk of hardware taking up space in my junk-tech drawer (Canadian company Medipattern discontinued the membership-based data service some months after acquiring MYTRAK), none of the devices currently on the market offer the depth of visualization and insight I was already seeing in 2012 without any newfangled gadgetry or smartphone compatibility.

Hardware or no hardware, companies like Nike have the opportunity to shape the self-tracking movement, effectively redefining what it means to be an athlete in today’s culture. We already know we need to move more. But data analysis can show us what we so often fail to see: the finer points of the bigger picture. Currently attempting to motivate me through small wins (progress toward a daily goal), tracking software will eventually be able to provide actual insight.

I imagine informatics that could advise me to get more Vitamin D in the winter (I moved 50% less in January than in October), to change mattresses (my sleep quality was markedly better while house-sitting in a Dux bed), and perhaps even when to buy new shoes (my jogging gait used to be more stable). For now, however, it’s up to me to connect these dots across devices and apps, some of which currently won’t even let me zoom out to compare more than one month at a time—let alone zoom in to get a detailed view of one activity (literally requires calculators and excel sheets). This type of insight into individual wellness is the big shift for a brand like Nike, but they’ll need to partner with others outside their industry to truly seize this business opportunity.

The wearables market has much to offer myriad fields, from healthcare to gaming, but as sensors integrate more seamlessly into our apparel, the wristband will quickly go the way of the wristwatch (forget about the smartwatch). I see (still nascent) modular designs giving way to electronic textiles, followed by skin-adherent and eventually ingestible sensors. APIs and data management platforms will proliferate where until now hardware has flourished. In the immediate, Nike has a real opportunity to rejigger its early mover advantage in the wearables space into best-in-class data analysis and visualization on the software side, while optimizing their original hardware platform for comfort, stability, support, and of course: data collection.
Sneakers never go out of style.