

While the original Jawbone UP was quietly snaring tech enthusiasts embracing a new era of the quantified self, Nike was putting a globally recognisable face on the movement. You could sit at your desk waving your hand to ramp up your score and that built-in micro USB charging port felt like the genius moment from Nike until it stopped working and you had to get replacement after replacement. It felt personal, refreshing… revolutionary. While every device reports back on your activity, this was the first time we'd experienced that insight. It might have launched after the first ever Fitbit, but this was the fitness tracker that got people comparing Fuel Points, even though no one ever really knew what Nike's metric meant or how it was calculated. Despite leaving this mortal coil so soon (two versions, three years) the FuelBand fitness tracker was undoubtedly a pioneer.Īnd while the wristband won't be remembered as a sales juggernaut, its importance as a transformative product can't be understated.Įssential reading: How does a fitness tracker work? It's four years since the first Nike+ FuelBand went on sale in the US.
