Fitness trackers are fancy, but are they worth the price?

By: Mykyta Sorochenko

History of Fitness Trackers

For almost two decades the world has been introduced to new technology, wearable fitness trackers. In 2007, a California-based startup, FitBit, made it to the world scene and introduced wireless health and activity trackers in order to collect data after performing  physical activities and how it affects your health. That year FitBit released their first model called “ The FitBit Classic”. The tracker itself could be attached to clothing or worn as a wristband. This new technology introduction would change fitness and sports for the next 17 years.  

Impact on Amateur Athletes

According to experts from The World Health Organization, ever since the release of fitness trackers, the amount of people committing to fitness and performing any type of physical activities has increased. That was due to people setting goals on the tracking device, helping them to track their progress and achieve their goal. Fitness trackers can be attached to your clothing, wrist, leg or shoe. The device grabs data such as how many steps have you taken during the day, the distance you ran, the amount of calories burned, your heart beat and many other features.  To clarify, fitness trackers were not made just for elite athletes. The product was made and exists to help anyone reach their goal or to improve their fitness and health. According to The Sports Journal, “The World Health Organization states that 25% of adults and almost 80% of youth do not reach their weekly recommended minutes of physical activity and also lack the participation in sports.” The World Health Organization in their later studies concluded that constant reminders from the device motivates and encourages them to get their work-out minutes in and set a new goal for the next day. Many people love the saying “The body achieves what the mind believes” and the device helps you with that. 

Impact on Sports

Being physically active and staying healthy is of course important, but what impact do fitness trackers have on sports? While the device is usually used by amateur athletes, the tracker provides a ton of valuable data for professional training regimens and instructors in order to help them analyze the data faster. Some of the top athletes, such as Lebron James and Patrick Mahomes purchased a fitness tracker. While it was around for a while, the device got the recognition from the super star athletes only around the time the pandemic and lockdown struck. 

Recognition by Top Athletes

“The reason for the late recognition was because the trackers could predict infections or diseases like COVID-19” (Sports Journal.) This gained a lot of popularity and the use of the device increased due to people being thoughtful of their health. The use of the tracker by athletes also increased since it provided data that needed to be monitored. Especially for professional athletes it is very important to keep track of the calories you consume and burn, and ensure the state of their heart and health overall is in top condition. 

FitBit is not the only company to make wearable tracking devices. After their release of the first fitness tracker many companies got inspired and wanted to top the opponent by making a better fitness tracker. Whether it was for style purposes or more features included. The point is, the device has been around for a while and gained a lot of popularity and recognition from people around the globe. The sports industry and elite athletes are using the product and amateur athletes and fitness instructors as well. In addition to the gain of popularity, the competition between companies has led to faster evolution and advancement of the product which caused great progress in the functionality of the device and designs. 

After the concluded studies of world organizations and opinions of star athletes and instructors as well as the history of the device, we can openly say that the fitness tracker devices have changed the sports and fitness industry as well as helped people achieve their goals and even attracted individuals towards sports. The product has a bright future and there are big hopes for advancement and changes as it is used by millions of people and professionals which will require the product to evolve even further and be used in other areas than just sports.