Nike Plus iPod Nano Equals High Tech Running
My wife bought the Nike Plus kit from Apple this weekend and a pair of the Nike Plus running shoes. She seems to be really enjoying listening to music while she runs, and I’ve been enjoying seeing how the system works. I’ve actually been a bit impressed with it.
The Nike kit consists of a wireless sensor that fits inside specially manufactured Nike running shoes and relays foot impacts to a receiver that fits into the docking port of an iPod Nano. The receiver interacts with software also included in the $29.99 Nike Plus kit (available at the online or local Apple store) to calculate the distance run (or walked), calories expended, and pace (minutes and seconds per mile). At the end of your workout, you upload the data into the Nike Plus website so you can track your progress. It’s a pretty neat scheme, and a very pricey one.
The linchpin to making it all work are the Nike Plus shoes you have to buy, and you can count on paying in the vicinity of $100 or more for them. If you don’t have an iPod Nano, then you’re going to have to spend at least $150 more for one of those and $30 for the Nike plus electronics. Note this doesn’t include an armband of some sort to hold the Nano, and they generally run about another $30. So, to put the system together from scratch would cost $310. You can do the same thing with a pedometer and a spreadsheet for a lot less money, though I won’t argue that it would be as much fun.
I have to admit that, despite the expense, I think the system is pretty neat. Certainly, it’s really kicked my wife’s motivation to exercise into high gear; so, I consider it all a worthwhile investment at many times the cost. Of course, it helped greatly that she already had an iPod and an armband she could make work. All she had to buy were the kit and the shoes.
I have two questions about the whole thing. First, how long can one reasonably expect Nike to maintain the website? Once this marketing scheme is past, I would expect them to drop maintaining it or charge folks for admission. I can foresee users at some time in the future having to manually input the data into a spreadsheet if the website leaves. Secondly, I wonder if I bought the Nike plus kit and shoes, would they work with the 30GB 5G iPod I own? I’m thinking about whether I want to risk both my iPod and wearing my wife’s shoes (assuming I can even get them on) to find out.
The Nike kit consists of a wireless sensor that fits inside specially manufactured Nike running shoes and relays foot impacts to a receiver that fits into the docking port of an iPod Nano. The receiver interacts with software also included in the $29.99 Nike Plus kit (available at the online or local Apple store) to calculate the distance run (or walked), calories expended, and pace (minutes and seconds per mile). At the end of your workout, you upload the data into the Nike Plus website so you can track your progress. It’s a pretty neat scheme, and a very pricey one.
The linchpin to making it all work are the Nike Plus shoes you have to buy, and you can count on paying in the vicinity of $100 or more for them. If you don’t have an iPod Nano, then you’re going to have to spend at least $150 more for one of those and $30 for the Nike plus electronics. Note this doesn’t include an armband of some sort to hold the Nano, and they generally run about another $30. So, to put the system together from scratch would cost $310. You can do the same thing with a pedometer and a spreadsheet for a lot less money, though I won’t argue that it would be as much fun.
I have to admit that, despite the expense, I think the system is pretty neat. Certainly, it’s really kicked my wife’s motivation to exercise into high gear; so, I consider it all a worthwhile investment at many times the cost. Of course, it helped greatly that she already had an iPod and an armband she could make work. All she had to buy were the kit and the shoes.
I have two questions about the whole thing. First, how long can one reasonably expect Nike to maintain the website? Once this marketing scheme is past, I would expect them to drop maintaining it or charge folks for admission. I can foresee users at some time in the future having to manually input the data into a spreadsheet if the website leaves. Secondly, I wonder if I bought the Nike plus kit and shoes, would they work with the 30GB 5G iPod I own? I’m thinking about whether I want to risk both my iPod and wearing my wife’s shoes (assuming I can even get them on) to find out.
posted by Andy Foster at
9:19 PM
4 Comments:
I just checked out http://www.nikepluseditor.com and its really cool. I downloaded the app and it allows me to edit and add workouts and upon resync my new workouts appear on my Nike + account. Just a FYI…
By
Anonymous, at 11:21 PM
yeah, I love the thing is well! I found a cool website that has software to edit workouts that didn't turn out right... pretty cool.. http://www.nikepluseditor.com
have fun jogging!
By
Anonymous, at 9:03 AM
I received the nike+ for christmas and love it. I lucked out on the ipod nano and use my daughters. I have found on the internet armbands that are made for the nike+ as well as sensor pouches for the sensor to fit in that you can use on any pair of existing running shoes that you have. These run about $5 or $6 dollars which is much cheaper than $100 for the nike+ shoe. The armband I ordered actually comes with the shoe pouch for the sensor. I am anxious to get this and see if I agree with the 5star reviews it received. I will say that the nike+ has really motivated me and I enjoy seeing if I am able to improve my time from run to run on the history. Happy running!!!
By
Jules, at 9:26 PM
Can I use Nike+ Ipod kit in my soccer shoes.
By
Petrick, at 6:04 AM
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