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Fitness tracking for kids? Meet the Nabi Compete
Even if you don’t have kids, odds are you’ve at least heard of Fuhu, or at least its fairly popular range of kids tablets under the Nabi branding. Now Fuhu is expanding into the wearables scene as well with the Nabi Compete, a fitness tracker designed with kids in mind.
Fitness trackers have risen up to be the most commonly used type of wearable device on the market, as evidenced by the many people I see on a daily basis that wear a Fitbit or something similar. With that in mind, it’s not a huge surprise that the trend is now reaching the kid-friendly devices market, especially as child obesity continues to rise in major markets like the US, where more than 20% of children age 6-11 are said to be obese (as of 2008– has likely risen further), a figure that was only around 7% in the 80s.
The Compete comes with two bands, allowing for two children to wear them and have a friendly competition of sorts to motivate one another.
The Nabi Compete aims to introduce fitness and healthy eating concepts to children and pre-teens in a “fun” way. To this end, the Compete comes with two bands, allowing for two children to wear them and have a friendly competition of sorts to motivate one another. The trackers are designed to fit tightly and take a fair amount of abuse as well.
The Nabi Compete connects to Android (and iOS) devices using Bluetooth, and has an app that attempts to translate fitness tracking into an experience kids will actually care about. Whether or not the app succeeds at this remains unseen, though the app allows for things like step counting and has plenty of challenges for kids who like the idea of “beating challenges” and competing, or teaming up with, friends and family. The app also teaches kids basic ideas about calories by having challenges where you are asked to burn off the amount of calories in a pizza, a buffet, etc.
Some of the more interesting extras found in the app include a kid-friendly social network called Nabi Konnect, and a point system that is rewarded for activity and allows kids to “buy” virtual pets and the food needed to care for them.
The Nabi Compete kit, which comes with the 2 bands, is priced at $39.99 and the bands are offered in multiple different colors. What do you think of the idea of Nabi Compete? A great way to get inactive kids moving, or should fitness tracking remain more of an “adult” thing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.