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In 2013, investors put $458 million into wearable technology across 49 deals. “Wearables” fit into the “healthcare” tech industry — and 20% of American Adults already own one as they enable personal, micro health monitoring and influence positive behavior. While tech companies are running the wearable market, high fashion brands are starting to embrace the trend (for instance, Ralph Lauren designed a shirt that connects with an app to monitor heart and breating rate, and Tory Burch teamed up with Fitbit this year).
There’s a new niche wearable company coming out of Chicago called Mira Fitness, that's primed to help woman who see the current bands as less than fashion-forward. The company offers a more trendy wearable fitness tracker designed specifically for women.
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The tracker has a sleek design fit for a 4 a.m. gym sessions or dinner at the Four Seasons. It comes in two finishes (Brushed Gold and Midnight Purple) and can be worn as a bracelet and clipped onto a pocket or jacket. The stylish black oblong circle does everything from count your steps to ping you when you’ve been inactive for a while. It’s touch-enhanced too — when you do a non-step related health move like “yoga” or “drinking a glass of water” you can tap a reminder to log that activity later.
Accompanying the device is an app which serves as the fitness database. The device and app work together, storing data and even sending witty encouragements called “Boosts”. A Boost might read: “The incline button on a treadmill is there for a reason, and that reason is to get you a healthy body” or “Here’s a booty-friendly boost: Start your next walk with 20-squats.”
An “Activity Card” is generated within the app. It’s laid out as a circle, showing the time of day, steps taken at that time and rate of intensity of those steps. By the end of the week you learn how many total miles and steps you walked, calories consumed and review your diety inputs.
[ibimage==42882==Large==none==self==ibimage_align-center]When it came to designing the product, Mira Fitness called upon a number of women from across the country for input. Rob DeMento, the CEO of Mira Fitness said, “User feedback has been the most important and ever-present input to our design process.”
That said, the final hardware, mobile application, and cloud/content system and function are a result of many industrial designers, creative designers, hardware and software engineers, content specialists and manufacturers.
DeMento called Chicago the "place to be" for digital technology startups, noting the talent pool and growing number of resources as factors in launching Mira Fitness here. The company is based in 1871 and holds local investments. DeMento said that aside from one organization, Mira works solely with Chicago and Midwestern firms on product development and launching.
An extension of this ideology is the Mira Fitness Kickstarter campaign. The company launched it’s Kickstarter with the intention of involving the community from the start. “Our hope is that our initial backers will become an extension of our community and advocates for our brand,” said DeMento.
The campaign, which has raised just over $5,000 at press time (halfway to their goal) is intended to get early adopters who will drive its innovation in the future.
The product is projected to be released in January 2015 and, like the tablet in 2012, wearables are the hottest Christmas item, so make sure to pre-order your Mira Fitness Tracker now.
