The wearable space has a problem: people just don鈥檛 like using activity monitors. They鈥檙e fun and cool at the start, but they end up in drawers collecting dust.
That鈥檚 why听the San Francisco-based听Spire wants to make them disappear. , a thumb-sized sensor that attaches to your clothing with adhesive and measures everything from breathing to heart-rate to sleep quality.听The tags are sold in packs of three, eight, or fifteen: stick them to the clothing you wear most often, and forget about it.
Like the Apple Watch and most other high-end fitness trackers, the tag has an optical heart-rate sensor (read: it doesn鈥檛 require an additional chest strap monitor) to measure heart rate and heart-rate variability. And like the Stone, Spire鈥檚 first product, it uses proprietary sensors and algorithms to monitor your breathing. Most of all, it鈥檚 designed to be stupidly听easy to use: simply attach it听to your clothing (bra or boxers, ideally) once, and that鈥檚 it. The battery lasts for 1.5 years, the adhesive about two years, and the device itself is washer and dryer safe.听
The tag links up to an intriguing-sounding app built around your health and wellness goals. If you鈥檝e ever used the meditation app Headspace, you鈥檒l understand the vibe. Pick an outcome鈥攂etter sleep, staying active, reducing tension鈥攁nd the Health Tag will create a tailored training program to help you achieve it by suggesting an exercise or breathing routine.
Because the device is听on 24/7, it can monitor activities like exercise and sleep over the long-term to provide actionable takeaways. It鈥檒l spit out readings and advice like, 鈥淚t took you 26 percent longer than usual to fall asleep last night. Got time for a quick breathing exercise before bed tonight?鈥
To be clear, I haven鈥檛 yet gotten my hands on the Health Tag and can鈥檛 confirm the company鈥檚 claims. But I had the chance to speak with Spire CEO and co-founder Jonathan Palley before the product launched. 鈥淲e are taking wearables to next generation,鈥 he told me. The Health Tag 鈥渏ust makes the device disappear. It鈥檚 no longer about the device itself but what the device does. You don鈥檛 have to remember anything.鈥
As an avid consumer of wearables, I鈥檓 genuinely excited about the Health Tag鈥檚 promise. If this product works as advertised, it will rightfully shift the focus on outcomes鈥攚hat tech can do for you.