By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Toronto- Under Armour, in partnership with HTC, has made the first connected fitness system available for pre-order. The UA HealthBox is composed of the UA Band wearable, the UA Heart Rate and the UA Scale, all of which were developed in tandem with HTC who build the hardware and integrated the software to the UA Record App which is available for iOS and Android.
"Today's launch in Canada is a true testament to Under Armour's global commitment to changing the way athletes live," said Jason LaRose, Senior Vice President of Digital Revenue at Under Armour. "Through our strategic brand partners and key retailers, we'll continue to grow our global community and empower athletes worldwide with the tools they need to help them perform better and exercise smarter."
Support and motivation extends beyond the ecosystem, as explained in the video above, there are ways to have challenges among friends and co-workers to work towards goals such as burning the most calories.
The entire line of connected devices can be purchased at participating North American retailers including Academy Sports, Best Buy, DICK'S Sporting Goods, Scheels, Target, The Sports Authority and specifically in Canada at Sport Chek and Best Buy. UA HealthBox, UA Band and UA Headphones Wireless will be available for purchase at Sport Chek stores on June 13th and this summer at Best Buy (Canada). Pricing and information are as follows.
- UA HealthBox™: The world's first Connected Fitness system made by athletes for athletes. The complete system includes UA Band, UA Scale, UA Heart Rate and retails for $549 CAD.
- UA Band: A sleek sport band packed with advanced technologies in a uniquely adaptive form-fitting design. UA Band automatically tracks steps, distance, resting heart rate and sleep and retails for $229 CAD.
- UA Heart Rate: A compact heart rate monitor that features an innovative micro snap technology designed to provide comfort during workouts. UA Heart Rate retails for $99 CAD.
- UA Scale: A Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled scale with an iconic circular design that measures weight and body fat percentage, and recognizes up to eight individuals. UA Scale retails for $229 CAD.
- UA Headphones Wireless: UA Headphones Wireless and UA Headphones Wireless Heart Rate, both engineered by JBL®, are built for durability and guaranteed to never fall out. Available for pre-order now at JBL.com/under-armour and UA.com, the UA Headphones Wireless retail for $229 CAD.
First impressions
Under Armour hosted a media event last week at the Hard Candy Gym in downtown Toronto.
The idea was to see how all the wearables and apps work in tandem with the UA Record app. Under Armour has acquired various fitness apps and services to refine the potential for targeting better fitness. UA currently has 165 million registered uses across its various apps.
Participants were given a chance to try the latest Under Armour apparel and shoes as well as the UA Heart Rate, UA Band and the UA Record app.
I installed the app on my HTC 10 which enabled me to quickly pair with he heart rate monitor and the UA Band.
We were then put through an intensive 45 minute workout with UA Trainer Todd Durkin who came all the way from the US for the event.
Once the workout started, we didn't need to have our phones, the UA Band and the UA Heart Rate worked independently to track activity as well as give visual clues as to where we were in terms of activity level.
The UA Band is an impressive wearable because it is small, has a time function, does simple notifications and alarms but also features a heart-rate monitor and sleep tracking features. It is the kind of wearable some would consider to wear independently of the HealthBox system.
The UA Heart Rate is your basic chest mounted heart rate monitor and seems to be quite accurate.
The UA Scale is a smart scale that allows multiple user profiles, the ability to synch to your UA Record account via Wi-Fi and has a digital readout that gives you weight, body fat content and how much more you have to go to reach your goal. The HTC produced UA devices are impeccably deisgned with high quality materials and intuitive feature sets.
"Following the outstanding response in the U.S. to UA HealthBox, we're excited to now bring the world's first comprehensive connected fitness system to consumers in Canada," said Wolfgang Muller, Executive Director - Connected Products, HTC. "UA HealthBox contains everything a consumer needs to better manage their health and fitness in one beautifully designed, easy to use system."
UA Record exclusively powers the UA HealthBox experience and will serve as the hub for Under Armour's performance and fitness data. UA Record now provides a holistic view of your wellness and fitness based on four quadrants - SLEEP, FITNESS, ACTIVITY and NUTRITION - through an intuitive single-view dashboard. This snapshot view of your daily progress is set towards individual goals and calculates insights based on your performance, including a brand new metric, "How do you feel?" To get connected, download the UA Record app from the App Store or the Google Play™ store.
Under Armour and HTC have really managed to create a fitness ecosystem that integrates hardware wearables with the best tracking software available and that integrates activity, nutrition, fitness and sleep into a wholistic and targeted approach. With a great cloud component, including analysis by IBM Watson, which offers cognitive coaching and insights which brings state of the art analytics previously available only to world class athletes.
Under Armour says they have the data of 165 million active users that is updated 6-7 times a day. The UA HealthBox is available for pre-order today, it will begin shipping on May 23rd.