It’s not just the familiar names like Apple, Fitbit, Garmin, and the like, as a new name pops up, and it’s kind of a big whoop. Kinda. Sorta.
Australians might soon get another fitness wearable to pick, offering yet another gadget to track fitness and sleep, but with a different approach to data. Essentially, it aims to give you more data than most other wearables out there, and that makes it very different.
It’s called “Whoop”, and it’s a little bit different from your typical wearable. While most of the wearables out there tend to offer the time or something else like payment functionality, Whoop appears without any of that. Rather, it’s a strap with a lot of tracking, and yet also no screen for you to check the time or your progress.
Whoop appears built to track and track alone, so you won’t be glancing down at your wrist for the time or even what song you’re playing. Instead, you let Whoop do its thing and provide insights into your fitness.
Founded in 2021 by squash player Will Ahmed, the concept was built initially for professional and university sports teams, before making its way to a consumer product a few years later, and insights appear to be the focus.
Throughout activities, the Whoop Strap will track movement, heart rate, respiratory rate, recovery information, strain, sleep tracking, and more, and send this over to your phone using Bluetooth LE. The strap is waterproof, and can use this information to provide an understanding of your fitness through regular insights and a data-filled app.
In fact, data is the name of the game here, so it’s something you pay for monthly, kind of like a gym membership. Whoop told Pickr that it uses a subscription model because “your goals change, so your fitness tracker and health monitor changes with you”.
As such, it’s not your conventional fitness wearable because it’s not a “buy it once” approach. Rather, you spend a little on the wearable and keep spending on the service, making it a little more expensive than other wearables, though it could potentially offer more insight.
Locally, Australians can expect to pay $264 for six months, $384 for 12 months, or $432 for 18 months, with the Whoop tracking band being free, but the accessories to make it look your own costing something on top.
That makes it something a little bit new for the wearable world, and is partnered with more than a few organisations in America that have to do with sports, including the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour for golf, Major League Baseball, the Premier Lacrosse League, and others, helping to prove its mettle.
However it may not be for everyone, thanks in part to its huge focus on fitness, and on data that can improve and optimise behaviour and results. We’re not quite sure what this will look like, and are especially intrigued by a fitness wearable going back to the old design of when there were no screens, making it unlike practically every other major wearable out there.
Whoop clearly isn’t an Apple Watch, a Fitbit, or even a Samsung Galaxy Watch, and that might just make it one of the more interesting wearables Australia is set to receive. We’ll let you know how we go with a review hopefully in short order.
