Under Armour Teams with IBM for Wearable Range

under armour wearableSportswear brand Under Armour has been expanding its tech presence for several years now, developing its own fitness tracking application as well as purchasing MyFitnessPal and MapMyFitness. The brand has kicked those efforts into high gear this week, with announcements of partnerships with HTC and now IBM.

The strategic partnership with IBM will see Under Armour working with the tech giants Watson supercomputers to add AI and computer learning to its fitness tracking offerings, providing meaningful data-backed health and fitness insights to users.

Using Watsons cognitive computing technology, Under Armours UA Record service will aim to serve as a personal health consultant, fitness trainer and more to amateur and professional athletes, offering evidence-based coaching around users sleep, fitness, activity and nutrition and generating goals based on other similar users.

Among the new capabilities Under Armour is planning to add to its Cognitive Coaching System over the next year are behavioural and performance management, fitness programs that modify based on environmental factors such as temperature and weather, and visual recognition technology for logging meals.

“When it comes to digital health and fitness tracking, the past ten years have been about data collection,” said Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Under Armour. “Were 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 customer in an unprecedented way, as we integrate IBM Watsons machine learning technology with the robust data from Under Armours Connected Fitness community.”

“As the first system of the cognitive era, Watson infuses a kind of thinking ability into digital applications, products and systems,” said John Kelly, senior vice president of IBM research and solutions portfolio. “We have already seen this capability begin to transform industries as diverse as healthcare, insurance and retail.

“We are excited to be working with such a leader in the health and fitness industry and now by leveraging the power of Watson, Under Armour will transform personal fitness, build a deeper relationship with its customers, and enhance virtually anyones performance in their path to achieving personal goals.”