Misfit Wearables, which has sold roughly 600,000 metallic, quarter-sized activity trackers or Shines, has launched a more affordable fitness wearable called the Flash. The company, which was co-founded by an extremely experienced hardware CEO Sonny Vu and former Apple CEO John Sculley, has been building beautifully designed wearables in the health space.
Instead of the burnished metal finish that the Shine has, the Flash is made of soft-touch plastic in seven colors from lemon-line zest to fuschia. It will cost $49.99 or about half of the Shine’s roughly $100 price.
“We used to call it the Shine C,” said Misfit’s CEO Sonny Vu, referring to Apple’s naming scheme for the iPhone 5s and the 5c. “But it’s not that. It’s not the cheap Shine. It’s really targeted toward a different segment. There are some people who love the sleek elegant design of the Shine and are fine paying $100 for that product. And then there’s a segment that wants a more colorful presentation with something more fun that they can afford to buy for their kids. That’s what the Flash is for.”
The Flash basically does everything the Shine does. It can track your steps, your sleep, your calories burned and your cycling and swimming through a paired app. It’s available for pre-order today and will ship in mid-October.
The interesting thing is that both the Flash and Shine are not even the products that Misfit originally raised its $23 million in venture funding on.
That mysterious product — whatever it is — is coming out next year. Activity trackers were just a more practical product to build in the short-term, and it’s turned out to be very lucrative.
Vu said Misfit is profitable and doesn’t really need to return to the table for additional financing. The company’s backers include Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures and Li Ka-shing’s Horizons.
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The company’s ties to Apple have also helped tremendously via distribution partnerships in Apple stores.
