With all the talk about how fitness trackers are revolutionizing the world of fitness and leading the way for the rest of the wearable tech industry, people tend to ignore the fact that the vast majority of fitness trackers—and wearables themselves, for that matter— are way too ugly for people to consider actually wearing in public. For the most part, they seem less inspired by high fashion aesthetics, and more by Astro’s collar on The Jetsons.
Tory Burch, however, the designer of the eponymous brand favored by Upper East Side moms and straight-haired girls who were mean to you in high school, is trying to change that. She’s collaborating with Fitbit on a line of accessories that are intended to transform the fitness tracker from, to borrow the jargon of countless marketing emails, functional to fabulous.
The line of accessories includes four items: a shiny brass bracelet, a brass necklace, and two colorful silicon bands which come in blue and pink. They all feature Burch’s trademark geometric design and “T” logo, and they’re all designed to house the FitBit flex tracker, which you sync up to your smartphone to track your activity during exercise.
On the plus side, Burch’s FitBit accessories are pretty effective at concealing the fitness tracker hidden inside; unlike most fitness trackers, it’s hard to tell whether the wearer has on a fitness-tracking bracelet or a garden-variety Tory Burch bracelet. In this sense, the collaboration offers some semblance of a solution to the eternal question of how to make a fitness tracker functional, while still making it sleek and stylish.
But the question is, what, exactly, is the intended audience for this collaboration? Judging by Burch’s usual clientele, as well as the lofty price tags of the items—the silicon bracelets go for $38, while the bracelet and necklace go for $195 and $175, respectively—I’d venture to guess they’d go over like gangbusters among the types of well-preserved suburban housewives who wear lingerie and makeup to the gym. Which is probably not exactly the demographic fitness trackers want to be catering to, but it’s a step in the right direction nonetheless.
H/T The Verge | Photo via Tory Burch For Fitbit