Will Adidas rule the wearable fitness market with its new miCoach Fit Smart tracking band?

Today Adidas launched its latest digital fitness product, the Fit Smart, a wearable activity training device built for those who take their workouts seriously. The Fit Smart can measure all kinds of metrics, including calories burned, heart rate, distance covered and stride rate, all from a durable wristband that’s somewhere between a chunky watch and the Nike+ FuelBand.

Sure there are plenty of other devices on the market that can track your workouts, but the Fit Smart’s USP is that it’s built specially with training and fitness in mind. It can also accurately measure your heart rate response directly from your wrist without the need for separate (and not to mention annoying) chest straps, providing you with real-time information about how your body is responding to activity and how to reach for the right intensity for the results you’re aiming for.

It’s not the most stylish wearable I’ve seen, but given it’s built for workouts and not 24/7 tracking, I think it’s definitely built for the job. Ask me to wear it allll the time and I’d be pretty reluctant, but pair it with some of your favourite workout gear and it looks right at home (just take a look at the featured image above). It’s got a chunky silicon strap and a big LED light display, which is ideal for tracking your workouts while you’re on-the-go and sweating buckets – no one’s got time to squint at a teeny tiny screen after they’ve been running for 50 minutes!

The Adidas team is keen to not just help you track your workouts, but ensure you’re always improving them and challenging yourself, too. The Fit Smart launches this week with a brand new mobile app experience dedicated to helping you set and reach weekly targets, as well as commit to training programmes. The band can store up to ten whole hours of workout data and it’s all transferred over to your mobile and the app with Bluetooth.

We first heard rumours that Adidas would be launching a wearable fitness tracker to compete with some of the top devices already on the market, from the likes of Withings, Moov and Fitbit, back in June when a number of retailers accidentally leaked images of a product we now know to officially be the Fit Smart.

Fit Smart will be available in both black and translucent white (we LOVE this shade), and will be priced at $/€199 (we don’t have exact UK pricing details yet, but imagine it’ll work out at around £160). The Fit Smart will launch in the USA in late August and we can expect it in the UK from August 15th at adidas.com and adidas Sports Performance stores.

Psst… We got the great opportunity to speak to Simon Drabble, Adidas’ Director of Product Creation, about the new device, the thinking behind its design and the exciting future of wearables. Check out the insight piece here.