There’s a new fitness tracker on the scene and this one plays nicely with the rest of your jewelry collection according to FashionTimes. Mira is the sleek bracelet that keeps tabs on your health with band colors including gold, brown and even a coppery Satin Rosé. The big thing that sets this smartband apart from the rest is the fact that it makes tracking less obvious. At a glance most people would think this is just jewelry with a modern edge. You can even remove the bracelet and clip the “opal” onto clothing if you want to go smaller. The other thing that is different is the marketing approach. The company is geared to younger professional women and is doing pop up shops at boutique stores and hotels in major cities, as well as promoting on Instagram. They’ve got some cute advertising including suggestions about staying healthy while on the go, like which airports are most exercise friendly. So, they are really working at engaging their users in conversation.
Although the bracelet is nice (hopefully silver is coming soon), I’m actually more a fan of the app. It has a minimalist look and uses more of an artistic data visualization approach. So, you can quickly see where you stand during the day. It measures the standard steps, elevation, distance and calories. The app also provides fun motivational messages, but if you need more, you can just tap the bracelet during the day for a “boost”. Sounds like fun when waiting for some slow public transportation. Of course if you are wearing a Mira, you are probably walking to work anyway.
For those that are on the fence about trackers, Mira has partnered with Lumoid for a “try it before you buy” experience. So, they’ve really made it easy to reach out to the customer. It’s nice to see the full package here, a hardware product that has really considered all elements from their product to promotion, and I should mention that their team is mostly women. This seems like an appropriate time to bring up one of our more interesting learning guides here at Adafruit—How to Build a Hardware Startup. Perhaps you’ve got a good idea and don’t know how to begin, or you are stuck with the business model. This guide will give you some good basics like picking your co-founders, having a purpose, picking a brand name, and building retail distribution. It also includes some interesting tidbits about hardware metrics. So, if you are a hardware fan, add this to your reading list for the holiday, and don’t forget to take a break for a walk. Being well should always be part of the equation.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!
