Fort wants to fix what Garmin and Whoop still get wrong in the gym
Fort is looking to step into the fitness tech arena with its new screenless band designed specifically for strength trainers. Created by a team of former Tesla engineers and backed by Y Combinator, this device is set to provide insights that traditional fitness trackers often overlook, especially for those who lift weights regularly.
Design and features
We’ve seen quite a few wearables over the years, and most of them mainly track heart rate, steps, sleep and other broad metrics. Garmin and Whoop both do this well, but strength training is still treated as a secondary activity. Fort wants to flip that priority.
The upcoming fitness band focuses on the specific demands of people who lift weights. Instead of relying mainly on heart rate trends, it combines motion data with heart rate to understand what is actually happening during a set. The band can automatically recognize over 50 exercises, including barbell lifts and cable movements, removing the need to manually log reps and sets.
Fort also goes further than post workout summaries. It generates a session score that reflects how hard the workout really was, then breaks that down by muscle group. Users can see whether muscles were pushed just enough for maintenance, into a growth zone, or closer to overload.
Comprehensive health tracking
Fort is not limited to strength training alone. Alongside gym focused metrics, it also functions as a general health tracker, covering sleep stages, recovery trends, continuous heart rate monitoring, and daily activity. This allows it to stay relevant outside the gym, rather than becoming something you only wear during workouts.
The band weighs under 30 grams and has a minimal, screen free design intended for all day and overnight wear. Comfort and low profile seem to be the priority here rather than visual features. Fort claims up to seven days of battery life on a single charge, which reduces the need for frequent charging if you are wearing it continuously.
Pricing and availability
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Fort is currently available to pre order at around 289 dollars, with a planned retail price of roughly 349 dollars once it launches. The company says shipping is expected in Q3 2026. Early orders include one year of access to Fort Premium analytics and lifetime firmware updates, which frames the upfront cost as more than just hardware.
That pricing puts Fort closer to specialist wearables than mainstream fitness bands, and it clearly targets people who care about training detail rather than casual tracking. Whether that value holds up will depend heavily on how well the data holds up outside controlled conditions.
There are still open questions. Automated exercise recognition remains difficult even for dedicated gym wearables, and Fort has not yet shared much detail on how users can review or correct logged sessions. The companion app experience also remains largely undefined. Until the device reaches users and sees real world use, much of Fort’s promise remains theoretical.
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