Fitness trackers are everywhere. Even the kids want one these days and manufacturers are all to happy to fulfil this demand. Garmin have announced their new activity tracker designed for kids.
Garmin have joined forces with Disney to bring the new Garmin vívofit jr. 2 with Disney, Star Wars and Marvel-themed bands for kids. The bands include images of characters such as Minnie Mouse, BB-8, The Resistance, First Order and Marvel Avengers and come with an associated app to allow the child to complete missions in the form of activity which then unlock more character icons.
The three different app experiences include (but are not limited to) Mickey’s Birthday Surprise: A Disney Adventure, BB-8’s Adventure: A Star Wars Story, and Ultron’s Revenge: A Marvel Avenger’s Mission. Each leverages characters from each theme, encouraging children to be active to earn more icons and characters and complete the mission/story/adventure.
Garmin President and CEO commented on the new tracker:
The vívofit jr. 2 is all about making fitness fun for kids, instilling at a young age the joy of leading an active lifestyle. We are honoured to team up in such a unique way with Disney, tapping into the brilliance of their creative storytelling experts. Through collaborating across the brands of Disney, Star Wars and Marvel and infusing their characters and stories into our product and mobile app, we’re able to offer kids and their parents a gamified approach to fitness like no other.
In other words, making exercise and activities fun for kids.
The vívofit jr. 2 is designed for comfort and 24/7 wearability and comes with an app with the above adventure/story on it. This app also allows review of the child’s daily activities and can even be used to assign chores to the child. Alerts can also be sent to the child to remind them to do things, such as their homework or brush their teeth. The app allows for multiple profiles and can thus be used by more than one child.
The bands are interchangeable and can be purchase separately; once the new band is clipped on it unlocks the new adventure (the one associated with that themed band). The bands come in various sizes to accommodate different ages for your children with the smaller bands being stretchy bands that slip on and the bigger ones with a buckle.
The vívofit jr. 2 has a one year battery life and is “swim friendly” durable and resistant to staining or fading. It is available now at the usual retailers for $129 with additional bands setting you back $45.
Personally I know how difficult it is to get kids active these days (Roblox is killing me) and this is one way which may well appeal to many children. A similar type of adventure attached to an activity helped encourage my son to clean his teeth more.
If this is something you have been considering for your child head on to your local sports retailer or usual tech store and check them out. For more information head on over to the Garmin website for a look.
the first one was cool and this looks like an improvement. kids can wear when swimming and in the bath, no charging, battery lasts a year and then you replace the cell.
morning alarms if you want it, good step and activity level tracking and defaults to being a watch