Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Nike+ Sports Band Revisited...


I first did a review on this product a few months ago, which can be seen here:
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At that time, I like it as a product as it is pretty light on the wrist and feels just like one of those baller bands we wear as part of fashion statement or based on things we support (Fight against Cancer, Fight Against AIDS, etc.).
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It is a good product in that it gives you time, distance, calories, pace and at a very affordable price compared to that of Garmin watch (at just 35% the cost of a Garmin). Loading data to a computer is quite convenient too. All you need to do is pull it out and insert it in a USB port and you will see a graph of your progress.
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But now, I don't like it anymore and hope that Nike would come up (and soon) with a better product. The recently concluded Nike+ Human Race shows how much sellable this product is to the running community so I hope they improve on this..
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What went wrong??
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Simply, it breaks down easily. I had my first one for a few months before the USB got damaged somehow and couldn't upload the runs I did. It was able to upload some data, then can't finish it. So ended up just charging battery of unit (with data error). Pretty soon, inserting device to computer again will not even charge the battery, much less transfer data to computer.
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I had it replaced just last week and found out last night that my second one is damaged as well via the LCD display this time. I went back to Nike store but found out that it is out of stock for all Nike stores. So, I am stuck with my Nike+ Sportsband whose reading display I can't read but can just use to upload data. As of now, that is still operable...
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Just to show that it isn't just me that this is happening to, my girlfriend had hers changed twice and so had my sister. Their problems revolve around the LCD display too and weird as it didn't get wet at any time.
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I hope Nike would order these things soon and more importantly, fix the glitches in this product. They are nice enough to replace it for you but if they don't have the product in stock, then you will still be stuck with you Sports Band.
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This isn't happening in the Philippines only because if you go to www.nike.com and search for Nike Sportsband, it only received an average of 3.4 stars out of 5 stars from 341 product reviewers. You can read some of reviews done by the people who bought this item in the United States.
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For those people looking at measuring their distance runs, it might be safer for you to go for Nike+ Ipod Sports Kit which had average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 stars from 57 reviewers or the expensive Garmin watch.
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For those people who already have this, I hope that you don't encounter the same problems I did with it as it is really a nice product to record your individual and weekly runs and see how well you did.
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And if anyone sees this at a Nike store in Metro Manila, please let me know where as still willing to give this product a third chance and see if this would be the Nike Sportsband that would last a looooooooonnnnggg time. Thanks!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oops. That doesnt sound good. And I was planning to get one na but there was no stock at the Nike stores in Glorietta. Pero are they willing to change the unit again?

Running Fatboy said...

hi Jinoe, I think they are willing to change it. Only problem is when (or if) the new stocks will arrive...

Anonymous said...

i agree with RFB! The Nike+ Sports Band is unreliable...you'll never know when it will breakdown

Anonymous said...

baka kaya nagkaubusan na... people weren't really buying it anymore, naubos sa kakapalit... go garmin! :D

- joe

Anonymous said...

Hi Dennis. I was a bit concerned about the sports band when I saw the reviews. I'm not trying to knock Nike here but I've heard too many people here in SF say the same thing that you're experiencing.

Hopefully, they'll change the unit for you.

Sounds like you have a busy schedule for October. Please take care.

Running Fatboy said...

hi perperoven, sadly this is the case for us...

hi joe, you are right. Although Garmin is a lot more expensive, you are paying for its quality and reliability and should be a worhwhile investment.

hi Wayne, I really didn't want to blog this but after all the times we had ours Sports Band changed, I feel obligated to let others know about the effectiveness of this product.

Stephen Chapman said...

I was really interested in the sports band - mainly because I love gadgets, but Nike isn't selling it in the UK any longer.

They say that a new product is being launched - perhaps its due to the problems customers have had????

Anonymous said...

Offical statement from Nike plus supporrt is that they will redraw all nike sportsband - you should get your money back from the store without any questions - and a new device will be released in the Q1 2009. I just spoke to Nike about this and got the statement by mail. I can forward it to you if you mail me:

spasm (at) home (dot) se

Running Fatboy said...

hi michael,
that is indeed good news for the consumer. Please email me statement at dquepeph@yahoo.com. Thanks for your help on this.

Running Fatboy said...

Final Update: Returned the Nike Sports Band at store here and got store credit which I used to buy other products. Idea is good but final product wasn't. I'm sure they will come with a better product next year...

TjB said...

I thought I saw somewhere that they are supposed to release the new sport band in the 1st quarter of 2009. Anyone know WHEN this is supposed to happen?

Tim Parker said...

According to amazon site it will be re-releaced on 1st April 2009

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nike-Plus-USB-Sportband/dp/B001AZLZO4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=sports&qid=1234705611&sr=8-2

ericat said...

Hi.
If you search for sportsband on the nike+ support site, there is a link to follow to get a free replacement once the new sportsbands are released this summer.

I did it and received an email confirmation that they would let me know when the new ones are available.

Unknown said...

Just received a new Sportband in the mail. I didn't even have to sign up for the program. I had to have three of the original models replace though. Hopefully they have fixed the display issues.