Under Armour seeks deep understanding of consumer fitness
Under Armour is undertaking an ambitious effort to provide extremely personalized health and fitness coaching, assisted by IBM.
Under Armour has entered a strategic partnership with IBM to create and provide data-backed health and fitness insights, powered by IBM Watson's cognitive computing technology. The partnership will combine Under Armour’s new UA Record personal fitness app with an IBM Watson Cognitive Coaching System.
The enhanced app will serve as a personal health consultant, fitness trainer and assistant by providing athletes with real-time, evidence-based coaching. Insights will include factors such as sleep, fitness, activity and nutrition, and also create targeted outcomes based on achievements of other consumers with similar fitness profiles.
For example, a person could compete and compare against other people in the UA Record database that are their same age.. The UA Record app will share comparable health and fitness insights including average weight, average resting heart rate and average steps taken per day. Additional insights could show how long an average workout is or how long a similar consumer is sleeping, down to the minute.
Watson’s weather domain knowledge and the Watson News Service API will also allow UA Record to modify daily fitness program recommendations according to real-time, localized weather and environmental factors.
"When it comes to digital health and fitness tracking, the past 10 years have been about data collection," said Kevin Plank, founder and CEO, Under Armour. "We're now at a point where a shift is occurring and consumers are demanding more from this information. This partnership will allow us to provide value back to the consumer in an unprecedented way, as we integrate IBM Watson's machine learning technology with the robust data from Under Armour's Connected Fitness community."
Retailers of health and athletic-related products, such as Under Armour, are in an especially good position to link their CRM and loyalty programs to the burgeoning mobile personal fitness app and device market. Dick’s Sporting Goods and Sports Authority also recently linked their mobile apps to personal fitness tracking capabilities, and more retailers in this vertical will surely follow.
Both Under Armour and IBM will allocate employees, technology and resources to further develop the Cognitive Coaching System, and will collaborate to develop the consumer experience.