NIKE+iPOD

15th July, 2006

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Nike+iPod Sports Kit

First Impressions
By Rob Hancox

Picked up the new Nike+iPod
Sports Kit this morning from the
Trafford Centre for the paltry
sum of £19. The chap at the
Apple Store was most helpful
but quizzed me when asked if I
had a pair of Nike+ training
shoes. Since my training shoes of
choice are New Balance
naturally I wouldn’t be getting a
pair of Nikes. My feet have been
tuned and accustomed to New
Balance why change?
The little sensor is about the
size of a £1 coin (20mm x
15mm x 3mm deep) and is
designed to fit under the inner
sole of a Nike+ trainer. Armed
with a suitably sharp knife there
is no reason I can see that you
can’t do this mod to any trainer.
I decided to follow forum become self explanatory and
members advice and sew the allow you to tailor a workout
sensor in the lining of the tracking regime based on the
tongue of my running shoe. It category selected.
would be a neat idea if someone
would create a little pouch for it For my first run I selected a
to sit in and be strapped to the female voice, changed the
laces so that you can transfer itdefault units from kilometres to
from shoe to shoe. miles and preselected my “Power
Song” more of which later.
The whole assembly of When the workout begins the
components is simplicity itself. voice prompt asks you to start
With the sensor installed you walking to activate the sensor.
simply plug the receiver unit in This is accomplished very
the bottom of your iPod Nano (it quickly and when you’re ready
doesn’t work with any other iPod to start your runner proper you
by the way), a Nike+iPod option press the centre button and
is added to the menu system and you’re off. A really nice feature
you’re ready to go. The menu is the auto-ducking of the music
offers you a list of selections; as the voice prompt kicks in.
Basic, Time, Distance, Calories, Pressing the centre button at any
Settings, History. These options time gives you a very pleasant

1
 vocal readout of your running
status, ie. 18 minutes, 23. 2.28
miles completed, your current
pace is 7 mins 20. and then the
music volume increases
automatically. Very well
polished.
When you return to your
computer you simply plug the
unit in to sync with your Mac/
PC in the usual way. However,
the slight twist that adds the
cream to the top of the cake is
the way in which the “run” data
is transferred to the Nikeplus
website. If you’ve already
created a Nikeplus account the
iTunes dialog will prompt you
for your Nikeplus user identity
and password and if you’d like
to upload your data immediately
or at a later time. Options are
also available to create an
account if you’ve not already got
one.
Future syncs are handled
much quicker of course without
excessive prompts.
The Nikeplus site is
wonderfully created and uses
clever use of Flash scripts to add
visual appeal but also simplicity.
There are some nice “Apple”
touches such as “reflections” and
rounded edged tabs and so forth.
On this website they’ve
offered the best of the features a
lone runner or even a group of
runners would want from a
‘training’ and monitoring
perspective and created a site
that offers a community of tools
that are a boon. Click here to
2
view some of the screen shots
from my Nikeplus account.
You’re offered the straight
forward historical view of your
“Runs” and can view these as
individual runs, runs by distance,
by time, by week, month and so
on.
You can set targets and
“Goals” for your own personal
achievements. You can “invite”
friends to “Challenges”. For
example, there is a route I and
some neighbours run regularly
called the Croft Block and my
“challenge” to my neighbours is
to run this 10 times. The first to
complete is the winner. Simply
adding their email address to the
list, which you can add/delete at
any time during the challenge
sends an email prompting them
to set up a Nikeplus account
(makes them consider buying all
the Nike+iPod stuff too - nice
marketing) and they ‘confirm’ to
take on the
challenge and
you’re off. Progress
is tracked via the
website. Neat.
Another nice
community feature
is the “How am I
doing compared to
the rest of the
World?”.
Currently I am
232nd but I’m 3rd
in the UK !! It
makes me wonder
how “hackable”
this whole idea is
though since all
you would need to do is put the
sensor on the end of a
Black&Decker garden shear
device to rack up a fantastic
distance in no time at all!!.
As for accuracy of the
sensor itself I was quite
impressed though I’ve not yet
‘calibrated’ my device. This is
done by running and walking a
set distance though Nike say that
out of the box the unit will be
90% accurate and to be fair I
would say that from the first runs
I’ve done I would say that mine
is about 95% and good enough
for me. This prompted me to
think what would happen if I
ran with a group of friends that
were in possession of a Nike
+iPod unit. Well, Nike+Apple
have sussed this out too since the
sensor is the unique element and
you train the receiver at the
bottom of the iPod to only pick
up any trained sensor. But this is
the cool bit. The iPod can only
record from one sensor at a time,
but you can train any number
(don’t know what the limit is) of
sensors to the iPod and this info
will be recorded and stored
separately for when you sync.
The receiver will also store the
‘sensors’ PowerSong, calibration
and user settings. Neat.
And finally onto that Power
Song feature, and belive me this
is a nice functional and real
feature. Your Power Song is
preselected in your user settings,
this is the tune that you would
feel gives you that motivational
spurt, normally towards the end
of your 6 or 8 miler. When
you’re ready to “go for it” you
simply press and hold for a
second the centre button, a
simply audibly beep confirms
 that the Power Song is about to
play and the song starts, the
adrenalen surges into your legs
and the speed piles on. The
graphs on the Nikeplus site
indicate when you selected your
Power Song and gives you a
visual clue what happens to your
performance. All very neat and
simple.

For those runners were

money is no object then their
Garmin GPS tracking unit will
not be thrown away just yet, but
for the weekend runner and
serious marathoner like myself
this device will be a boon to the
lonely hours pounding the
streets and offer up a new world
of targets way over and above
my expectations for £19. A
most worthy contender for
“Product of the Year” award in
my humble view.