This month, Under Armour announced a full wearables portfolio to match its collection of聽fitness apps. The company's聽new聽hardgoods suite, called HealthBox, debuted at the聽Consumer Electronics show and includes a smart running shoe, and a聽heart-rate-monitor聽band,聽chest聽strap, and wireless headphones.聽
The running shoe is what caught most people鈥檚 attention. Dubbed the , it costs $150 and can track run duration, splits, and distance鈥攁ll without your smartphone (unlike Nike+, which is just an app since they discontinued the hardware). You run, come home, connect to the Under Armour Record app,聽and聽the data will聽upload automatically. There鈥檚 no GPS聽and Under Armour聽isn鈥檛 talking about measuring stride and gait, but we figure that鈥檚 coming in a version down the road.聽
The ($80) is straight forward and resembles all the other chest straps on the market. But the聽 ($180) is intriguing: Under Armour聽is marketing its ability to accurately track resting heart聽rate instead of activity-based heart-rate (for the latter you鈥檙e supposed to pair it with the chest strap for better accuracy).聽Most fitness trackers measure聽resting heart rate because it's聽a good way to monitor stress,聽recovery, and general cardiac fitness, but few emphasize that ability.聽Focusing on the need for a chest strap during real exercise is a good move (chest straps are still generally more accurate than聽wrist-based monitors), but it might dissuade buyers who want the convenience of just the band.聽The聽 ($250) also track heart聽rate: in my testing, I've found聽that heart-rate tracking headphones are almost as accurate as聽chest straps and much聽more accurate that watches.聽聽
Under Armour partnered with multi-billion dollar electronics giant Harman to build the headphones聽and cell maker HTC to build the band, which allowed the company聽to pump their trackers out quickly and ensure high-quality products right from the start.
The next logical step, of course, is for UA to start embedding fitness sensors in its clothing. No word on when that will happen, but we expect sometime soon.聽