Garmin Vivofit junior wants to get your kids moving
Garmin, an early mover and pioneer in the wearables market, is venturing into a relatively untapped market – fitness tracking for kids. Today, the company announced the vívofit jr – a motivator and activity tracker to encourage young ones to stay active.
Child obesity is a growing problem. Statistics show that it has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Today, more than one third of children and adolescents in the US are overweight or obese.
Essential reading: Top fitness trackers for kids
With fitness trackers all the rage, there has been increased interest in tracking children’s activity. The major benefit of using a fitness tracker is motivation. By setting goals, getting feedback and being rewarded, kids are encouraged to do more.
Garmin’s new fitness wearable is pretty much a re-imagined version of its popular Vivofit 3 tracker for adults. The device is durable, swim friendly and features a one+ year battery life for 24/7 wearability.
Just like the band for adults, the vívofit jr has a high-resolution, sunlight-readable display. The wearable will monitor kids’ steps, sleep and active time. There’s a move bar on the display, too, to remind them how much more they need to move to reach their 60 minute daily play goal. The watch face also tells the time and date and you can customise it with your child’s name.
There are various motivational features including educational mobile adventures, and family step challenges to get the parents off the sofa as well. As kids reach their daily 60-minute activity goals, fun facts and a mobile adventure trail are unlocked, inspiring kids to do their best every day.
Parents will be happy to know, they can assign their child chores to do around the house and the vívofit jr will alert the child when they need to complete them. These can be set up to recur daily or even weekly — perfect for children who need reminders to brush their teeth and make their beds. Kids can even earn virtual coins for every task you assign, which they can then use to redeem in-app rewards.
“We’re excited to announce our first wearable just for kids – the vívofit jr.,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales.
“The vívofit jr. was designed with kids and parents in mind, from its durable and comfortable band to its engaging app that motivates kids to get moving, while keeping parents involved.”
The tracker comes with an accompanying smartphone app for parents. You can add multiple children to the app to see all your kids’ daily activity in one place.
The vívofit jr band is designed for ages four to nine and is available in black, broken lava, digi camo, purple strike and real flower band patterns. You can pick up the tracker from Amazon.
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