Fitbit Ionic: adidas edition offers a new guided training program called Train.
Fitbit announced an Adidas-branded special edition Ionic smartwatch on Tuesday with built-in coaching tools and workouts targeted specifically at runners.
At $329.95, the watch, initially teased last summer when the Ionic was released, features the advanced health and fitness features of the Ionic with the addition of Adidas clock faces and Train, a coaching experience with on-device workouts designed to improve cardio, flexibility, form, power and speed.
Other features familiar with the Ionic include five hours of battery life, GPS, swim- and sweat-ready watch bands, and continuous heart rate and exercise tracking, including a swim lap counter and a sensor that automatically detects when runners have started and paused their workout routines. It’s similarly compatible with Pandora Music and is water resistant up to 50 meters.
Train comes with six guided workouts.
Developed in collaboration with performance experts at Adidas, Train includes six on-screen workouts — two five-minute warm up and cool down workouts and four others ranging from five to 15 minutes — with step-by-step coaching to guide.
The workouts focus on foundational movements, such as stride lengthening and burst training, which Fitbit says have been proven to help runners and athletes achieve performance goals.
“As the leading global wearables brand synonymous with health and fitness, partnering with a sports industry great like adidas to develop an exclusive version of our first smartwatch provides athletes of all kinds with the ability to be their best through a unique coaching experience,” Fitbit Chief Marketing Officer Tim Rosa said in a statement.
The new Fitbit smartwatch is branded similarly to Apple Watch Nike+, which also has a guided coaching feature, GPS tracking and accessibility to music through Apple Music. The cellular version of Apple Watch that enables users to get texts and take calls retails at a starting price of $399, while the GPS-only edition, which is a more apples-to-apples comparison with Apple Watch, retails for $329.
Fitbit Ionic: Adidas Edition is available for presale on Tuesday and will hit retailers globally on March 19.
