Nike Sportband Redux

I’d hoped to follow up my earlier post with a more informative review, but I think fate has decided that the Sportband and I are not meant to be.  Because of the poor documentation that’s enclosed with it, I went online to figure out how to sync the wrist unit.  After getting through that, there is another part to the set-up before you can record a run.  The Sportband and the foot sensor will not recognise each other until they talk it over.

I couldn’t get the Sportband to receive transmissions from the foot sensor, no matter what I did.  I reset the Sportband to factory settings.  I re-charged it to full.  I put the foot sensor to ‘sleep’, and woke it up.  I flipped it around forward and backward.  Negotiations remain at an impasse, so back it goes.

To make this post slightly useful, I offer a few observations for consideration if you’re thinking about getting one.  First is simplicity.  The Sportband is really meant to do only one thing: record your run in terms of distance and time.  The watch aspect is very rudimentary so it cannot record laps, or lead you through workouts, or give you interval timers.  If you run long enough, regularly enough, this will eventually be very limiting.

Second, your data is not available except through Nike’s website.  While I like their community very much, I also like to analyse my own training logs with my own metrics, as I discover trends, successes or failures in my training.  Their interface doesn’t give you access to your own raw data, so this is impossible.

Third, it would be very simple to add a backlight to the display.  The lack of one makes the Sportband unsuitable for low light conditions.

In summary, I had intended to use the Sportband to measure out some routes and record some of my runs while I’m building base.  For this, at a price of $60, the Sportband is a decent value.  If it had worked.