We are very happy to welcome Oxstren as one of our exhibitors at our WT | Wearable Technologies Show 2015 ASIA in Hong Kong on October 12th. We talked to Pratik Saraogi, CEO of this innovative company which developed Smart Gym gloves – used for tracking your exercise.
1. Why did you choose this particular form factor – a glove for your product
I’m not a big fan of jewellery or accessories, especially when I’m working out. All the existing smart wrist bands are intrusive from a comfort point of view. Besides no fitness trackers existed for gym or indoor workouts when we started building this and the estimated calorie burn and step counting is the least of the worries of a gym goer.
The first things any user going to the gym would look for is probably protein and gym gloves. Being a big fitness enthusiast and an early adaptor of fitness bands, I felt it’d only be logical that technology found its way into something as natural as a gym glove, something a user would wear regardless while working out. We wanted to make it as seamless and non- intrusive as possible, while still providing innovative, comprehensive functionalities, which made the difference.
2. What is the most important thing you have learned while being involved in the topic of wearables?
Wearable technology is fusion of industries. We’ve needed an amalgamation of skills and talent right from textiles, hardware, design, bio-medicals, mobile apps, embedded systems, fitness, and so much more. The complexity of the entire journey so far has been humbling, learning what goes into creating a product first hand – which has only brought us closer as a team. This industry is so nascent that finding directly relevant experienced talent is next to impossible. We’ve been lucky however, to have built a strong core team early on – which wasn’t just well qualified but also passionate enough about the idea.
3. How can your company help bring the world of fitness and the world of technology together?
Nature has blessed us with amazing bodies. A majority of us want to exercise, yet only 3% of the global adult population is documented gym members and more than 50% of the gym members are not regular. Technology has started playing such a pivotal role in influencing our generation, right from having kids play Wii more than real sports, or most of us more active with friends on social media. Then why can’t we use some technology to get more users to go to the gym and more importantly go back for the next session. With changes happening all around us, the gym industry has relied on the simple underlying principle of our willpower to push and motivate ourselves to achieve our goals. If all our innovation, advanced tracking, auto logging, crucial alerts, analytic could come together jointly to help the user motivate and push oneself, to make their sessions more fun, safe and rewarding, I would say we’ve done our jobs and increased & improved the world of fitness by integrating it with tech.
4. What is your favourite wearable tech product (besides your own) and why?
I love when sports, tech and fitness are fused together. Not a big fan of any of the glorified pedometers (sorry!). I like more real data coming through. I tried some of the smart T-shirts that give real time heart rate and more, and they’d be my favourite if only their fitting wasn’t tight enough to actually use them. If I had to select I’d say Garmin watches since they don’t do a lot, but are good at what they do. As a user when I wear something, it has to comfortable & stylist first and then smart.
We like the fact that more and more companies are trying out different form factors to make it interesting for the consumer to use. WT team is always supporting innovative ideas and companies that are willing to try different things. If you want to know more about this interesting product please visit their website: http://oxstren.com/
