With designs that include The Avengers, Star Wars, Disney princesses, and Mickey and Minnie Mouse – the Garmin vívofit jr. 2 fitness trackers for kids (or, you know, for fun-loving adults…no judgement at all) are cute, adorable and a really kid-friendly take on fitness bands. And now, everyone’s favourite friendly neighbourhood hero has joined their ranks – the company just announced Marvel’s Spider-Man themed bands for the vívofit jr. 2, as well as a Spider-Man mobile app that provides kids with an interactive experience where their activities unlock various adventures, thereby helping kids to form good habits for lifelong health and fitness.
The vívofit jr. 2 line is meant to be more than just a fitness tracker – the kids’ activity trackers deliberately don’t include features that all adult fitness trackers boast of, i.e. counting calories or tracking weight loss goals. Instead, the kids’ trackers focus on more appropriate things – like fun activities and games, rewarding the kids for being active and helping their parents around the house with chores. According to Garmin, children and parents alike respond positively to products like the vívofit jr.
The Spider-Man design comes in two ultra-durable, etched vívofit jr. 2 bands that are swim-friendly; they feature a customizable color screen and a battery life of over a year!
The accompanying app’s comic book-style experience is perfectly tailored for kids, encouraging them to attain activity minute goals to unlock new adventures, games, gems and step icons. There are enhanced animations that make New York City come to life, with fun fitness facts integrated into the story to further encourage building healthy habits. It’s all very cute and educational.
As if fighting Vulture and the Green Goblin alongside Spider-Man isn’t fun enough, there’s also the added excitement of seeing the story unfold as the kids meet and exceed more activity goals, as well as uncovering additional adventures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeUQD0TFZ2g&feature=youtu.be
On the flip side, just like many fitness tracking apps, to collect the gems and get more chances to play games, kids need to keep logging their active minutes, which is where parental guidance would come in. The vívofit jr. 2 is also a valuable tool for parents because it comes with a companion app that acts as a parental personal assistant. What that means is – parents can view their child’s activity, assign chores, and schedule reminder alerts that show up on their child’s device. Task timers help kids know how much time they have left for each chore. As added incentives, when kids receive and complete a given chore, parents can reward them with virtual coins that can be redeemed for agreed-upon rewards. All parents need is a compatible device.
In addition to tracking steps, sleep and active minutes, kids can also use the vívofit jr. 2 to engage in some friendly competition with their friends and family. For the ultra-enthusiastic and competitive families, the Toe-to-Toe step challenges are a wonderful way to let kids (and parents) sync with nearby friends and families for timed step competitions and compete in weekly step challenges, in case they need extra motivation to move!
The Spider-Man bands and app are a perfect extension of Garmin’s lineup of Disney, Avengers, and Star Wars bands and app story-lines.
The vívofit jr. 2 featuring Marvel’s Spider-Man is available for purchase at Garmin.com for $129.
