Nike Fuel

Anyone check out Nike's new toy yet? Available for purchase today, to be received by Feb. 22.

http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/?l=shop,fuelband&sitesrc=glfl_fuelband

I'm not sure I understand it. Isn't it a glorified pedometet? Does it track distance or pace? HR? I guess I need to research what the daily "Fuel" point actually is.

My Fleet Feet team met with Nike's tech department before the marathon to discuss what we looked for in a watch. They hinted at developing a new running watch/gadget that would reflect daily activity - as a way to compare hard v. easy v. cross-training v. off days. I'm not sure if the Fuel accomplishes that or not.

It's a wrist pedometer for the chic!

My chic quotient is just barely higher than Rick Perry's electability, even before he pulled out this morning.

Looks like its trying to compete with the Jawbone bracelet among others.

No way I'm paying $150 for a fancy pedometer but more options are certainly a good thing in the marketplace.

After reading more about the "Fuel" metric, I decided I want one of these. I think it can be helpful to compare your total "Fuel" - aka energy output - on given days.

Now I just need to get my hands on one.

Since you're considering the Nike Fuel, you may wish to compare it with the MOTOACTV. There are issues with the MOTOACTV [I could recite a litany], but even so, it does what the Nike Fuel is supposed to do [I think] and a whole lot more. It may not be as sophisticated right now on the 'Fuel' or energy metric as the Nike Fuel, but it does estimate daily calories from the internal accelerometer that counts steps and may [I say may because I don't know] also account for workout intensity. At it's heart it's an android - the combination of GPS and accelerometer give it a vast potential for monitoring things like this. Of course, you would have to wear it at all times for it to be accurate. And oh yeah, the music player is awesome [and part of the litany]. Here are some screen shots a a recent week of mine. The first shows daily steps. The second daily calories. Just sayin'.

Kevin is lazy on Fridays. So few steps taken! Slacker.

True. I am a slacker on Fridays.

On second thought, Dave, Nike Fuel looks like it is ready for prime-time. At least we can be assured it has been tested and is reliable.

The MOTOACTV, however, is not ready for prime-time even today. It was released prematurely ... in time for the holiday season and possibly as a piece of candy to dangle in front of Google as it was acquiring Motorola Mobility. Even now, five months after its release, it's barely at beta test stage. It's major components all work: GPS, accelerometer and music player; but each has their issues (mostly software-based) and all of the Motorola headphones tend to fail if they get wet (rain or sweat). So, unless you're keen to beta-test a promising technology, I do not recommend purchasing the MOTOACTV at this time.

KBFitz wrote:True. I am a slacker on Fridays.

On second thought, Dave, Nike Fuel looks like it is ready for prime-time. At least we can be assured it has been tested and is reliable.

The MOTOACTV, however, is not ready for prime-time even today. It was released prematurely ... in time for the holiday season and possibly as a piece of candy to dangle in front of Google as it was acquiring Motorola Mobility. Even now, five months after its release, it's barely at beta test stage. It's major components all work: GPS, accelerometer and music player; but each has their issues (mostly software-based) and all of the Motorola headphones tend to fail if they get wet (rain or sweat). So, unless you're keen to beta-test a promising technology, I do not recommend purchasing the MOTOACTV at this time.

Been waiting for a recommendation yay or nay from you. I guess I'll go get a 610.

Kevin, I'm confused. I thought you wrote a pretty good recommendation/review of the MotoACTV. This post seems to state the opposite?

Michael & John, my recommendation to Dave has one caveat. Since this is a thread about Nike Fuel, let's leave it there. I'll write some lines now in the motoactv thread.

Thanks for the thoughts, Kevin, and I agree the Motoactv is a more complete device. But I'm not sure I could wear it all day long. The Fuel I can wear on my right wrist with my watches (either nice watches or Garmin) on my left.

It has arrived.

Charging now, will be learning the ropes for the next few days.

Dave-O wrote:It has arrived.

Charging now, will be learning the ropes for the next few days.

Please post a review once you have had some time with it.

Nice that you could get one. I keep trying, every week, to no avail. They send out a tweet saying it will be available Wednesday at 5 pm. I get online, rush through filling out the billing info, etc., to order it, and by the time I'm ready to check out, at 5:04, it says "sorry, that item is now sold out." Seems like they're releasing them only a few at a time, although i can't figure out why. But they are starting to piss me off....

Ken Mello wrote:Nice that you could get one. I keep trying, every week, to no avail. They send out a tweet saying it will be available Wednesday at 5 pm. I get online, rush through filling out the billing info, etc., to order it, and by the time I'm ready to check out, at 5:04, it says "sorry, that item is now sold out." Seems like they're releasing them only a few at a time, although i can't figure out why. But they are starting to piss me off....

I got lucky, going through the same thing you are. When I ordered it last week, I got the same message and assumed I didn't get it in time. But then the charge appeared on my online bank statement, and about 2 hours later, I got the confirmation email.

I don't get why they are releasing so few. I understand generating a buzz, but this seems to be going overboard, and depriving many interested consumers.

Lucky you. I will try again this week, but after that, might wait until they're more readily available. I just don't understand a company who is denying people the opportunity to give them $150!

OMG, are you kidding, anyone seriously considering this needs to see a therapist for some anal analysis. A Fuel Band? Really! SUCKERS!

fostever wrote:OMG, are you kidding, anyone seriously considering this needs to see a therapist for some anal analysis. A Fuel Band? Really! SUCKERS!

I have no problem admitting I am a sucker for the latest gadgets - and have no problem being teased for the same.

But I just want to make sure you realize that the purpose of the band is not to provide "fuel," but rather, to measure total daily energy output, right? Whether Nike has developed technology that accurately measures such a metric remains to be seen, but would you agree such a thing would be a useful data point?

Dave-O wrote:

fostever wrote:OMG, are you kidding, anyone seriously considering this needs to see a therapist for some anal analysis. A Fuel Band? Really! SUCKERS!

I have no problem admitting I am a sucker for the latest gadgets - and have no problem being teased for the same.

But I just want to make sure you realize that the purpose of the band is not to provide "fuel," but rather, to measure total daily energy output, right? Whether Nike has developed technology that accurately measures such a metric remains to be seen, but would you agree such a thing would be a useful data point?

Stay hungry, stay foolish. Stay hot.

Dave-O wrote:

fostever wrote:OMG, are you kidding, anyone seriously considering this needs to see a therapist for some anal analysis. A Fuel Band? Really! SUCKERS!

I have no problem admitting I am a sucker for the latest gadgets - and have no problem being teased for the same.

But I just want to make sure you realize that the purpose of the band is not to provide "fuel," but rather, to measure total daily energy output, right? Whether Nike has developed technology that accurately measures such a metric remains to be seen, but would you agree such a thing would be a useful data point?

Not sure, and by the way, I did view the advertisement. I just think we need to be gauging what our brains tell us about the feedback it's getting from our bodies instead of relying on some supposed gadget. Most of us seasoned runners/racers should have a decent gauge of our limits and boundaries, geez! What's next, implanting a computer chip that relays messages to a voice recorded band telling us how to live. har har!

fostever wrote:

Dave-O wrote:

fostever wrote:OMG, are you kidding, anyone seriously considering this needs to see a therapist for some anal analysis. A Fuel Band? Really! SUCKERS!

I have no problem admitting I am a sucker for the latest gadgets - and have no problem being teased for the same.

But I just want to make sure you realize that the purpose of the band is not to provide "fuel," but rather, to measure total daily energy output, right? Whether Nike has developed technology that accurately measures such a metric remains to be seen, but would you agree such a thing would be a useful data point?

Not sure, and by the way, I did view the advertisement. I just think we need to be gauging what our brains tell us about the feedback it's getting from our bodies instead of relying on some supposed gadget. Most of us seasoned runners/racers should have a decent gauge of our limits and boundaries, geez! What's next, implanting a computer chip that relays messages to a voice recorded band telling us how to live. har har!

Ha!! That is just around the corner...

For me, getting this only vaguely has to do with running. I'm more interested in the metrics of how I'm burning calories during the day, where the peaks and valleys are, analytics on total output and input, etc. I can't just use my brain to figure all of that out, nor could I keep days/weeks/months of that data in my head to access at any time, thus where technology comes in to offer assistance.

I would never buy something like this just for running (that's what my Garmin is for). Just to assume that people are "suckers" and don't know what the value of an instrument like this is seems rather short-sighted.

So I went to look at the Nike site based on this thread ... I can't even find it listed on the site??? Did they stop selling them already?

Very odd!

Looking forward to hearing how it's going!

--Reina

It has its own web site.

http://www.nike.com/fuelband/

Brilliant! Thanks!

Now I just need to know how it's working for Dave-O!

--Reina

Ken Mello wrote:It has its own web site.

http://www.nike.com/fuelband/