A few weeks ago we went to Las Vegas to check out CES, and, to be honest, the most memorable product I found was the Under Armour HealthBox –– but not because of the revolutionary hardware or software. The ecosystem that they are creating is so smart for a few reasons: “Internet of Things” is such a broad topic that it covers almost every aspect of our lives, which is great…but also a bit confusing to know who will support what. With HealthBox, Under Armour is engineering its own fitness industry halo effect.
What do I mean by that? Let’s look at a past example of halo effect. In the early 2000s, people wanted to be able to add music to the iPod with software that offered the same great user experience delivered by the device itself. That meant giving oneself over completely to Apple products: iPod, iTunes, and a Mac computer, all working together in harmony right out of the box. The possibility of doing all this within an ecosystem that offered a coherent look and feel appealed to an incredibly large group of people, who started to trust in the product and the company, buying more Apple products as they were introduced.
Under Armour is creating a similar ecosystem for fitness, a sector that hasn’t seen a lot of innovation or thoughtful packaging since the push for built in optical heart rate monitoring. From serial marathon runners to people starting out new fitness programs, user experience is important when it comes to fitness wearables. Like, Apple, Under Armour has taken out the guesswork when figuring out what device talks to what, all packaged and ready to go straight out of the box.
The HealthBox has a wrist band, chest strap, and scale that connect to the UA Record app. Alone, these are neither new nor incredibly interesting products, but when packaged beautifully together they are a holistic unit. What draws me to them is that they do more than just connect to the UA app. Your fitness and health experience can also connect to a whole suite of tracking apps that are heavily used every day: MapMyRun, MyFitnessPal, and Endomondo. It’s a robust ecosystem that gives users a lot of options, no matter what kind of athlete you are or how active you are. The suite has mass appeal that can speak to a wide range of audiences.
The kicker? The first upsell product for the HealthBox suite is UA shoes. The SpeedForm Gemini 2 will connect to your healthsuite to make sure that your workouts are tracked, whether or not you have your phone or other devices with you on the run. Likewise, you will be able to work out without your phone or other trackers. They all function separately, but when added into this ecosystem can give you more information about how you are working out, living, sleeping, eating, and possible changes to make as you track your lifestyle choices.
Under Armour has really given a lot of thought and design not only to a product and suite of software that work with their products, but also ways in which users will be continuously drawn in throughout the year — not just after New Year’s resolutions are made.