As some of you know, the idea for RunKeeper came from when I was using Nike+ to train for my first marathon, which was Chicago 2007. I was amazed by how powerful it was to take a sensor, collect in-activity fitness data, and integrate it back to a web service that allows you to monitor your progress over time, get coaching so you continue to improve, and provide social features, community features, and competitive features that help make fitness fun.
I remember wondering why was Nike the only company doing this? Someone needed to carve this out and build an independent fitness technology company, across multiple devices, multiple data types, and multiple sports.
I quit my job in May 2008 to do exactly that. RunKeeper was one of the first 200 applications on the iPhone, and enabled iPhone-owners to do GPS-based fitness tracking, eliminating the need for a separate sensor or pair of shoes, and working for not just running, but sports like cycling and skiing as well. At the time, Nike was nowhere in sight, and everyone called us a great alternative for iPhone-owners looking to use their phones to track their fitness. Article like this and this came out, and this little company from Boston was on the map.
Then, in June 2009, Nike finally did show up, coming pre-installed on every iPhone & iPod Touch. Unfair advantage, right? That’s OK, their solution was still tied to a separate piece of hardware and shoes, as they stayed away from implementing a GPS-based application. After all, they are a footwear company that needs to sell shoes, so how could they untether users from the very shoes they are trying to sell?
Everyone, at the time, dubbed Nike as the ‘RunKeeper killer’. Which, by the way, was pretty cool for this little company from Boston ☺. But quite the contrary, Nike’s arrival did nothing but help RunKeeper. Nike poured their huge marketing budget into educating people on why to run with their phone, and as a result, RunKeeper’s numbers more than doubled. My blog post from this time period is here.
And flourish RunKeeper did. We gained more than 2 million iPhone users, we were named by TIME Magazine as a top 10 iPhone app of 2009, and this big, passionate, global community of runners rallied around the RunKeeper system on the social web, and at www.runkeeper.com. We also ported our solution to Android (where we are currently a featured app), enabled manual map creation on the web, and integrated with a wi-fi scale, so users could send their weight data to www.runkeeper.com as well.
Along the way, other footwear companies like New Balance tried to get in the game with the ‘NB TotalFit’ app, but didn’t make a dent (white labeled from our ‘big scary’ competitor). Then, Nike’s arm got twisted even further when Adidas came out with their MiCoach system in August 2010, which is a GPS-based system. Here was another running shoe company jumping into the mix with a reasonable attempt, this one without tethering users to a specific pair of shoes. And Adidas came in with full guns blazing, running TV ads, sponsoring major races/events that featured MiCoach prominently, and investing heavily in trying to unseat RunKeeper as the go-to smartphone fitness tracking platform. So, one month in, what are the results so far? As of today, Adidas is ranked #18 in iPhone health/fitness and RunKeeper is ranked #14. Not bad for this little startup from Boston with zero marketing budget 
. In fact, MiCoach was #61 until last week, when Walt Mossberg’s column gave them a big (and arguably misinformed) plug in the WSJ.
So, what is Nike to do? Well, as of today, they have jumped into the game with their own GPS fitness tracking application. Bravo, it is about time Nike! Except for one problem. All of you big guys jumping in with major marketing budgets, you are doing this as a brand play. We are not. You are doing this to try to ultimately sell more people your footwear/apparel. We are not. You are big and slow moving. We are not.
So, before anyone asks, our plan is this: We plan to stay intentionally independent, and avoid aligning with any one major brand or equipment maker. Instead, we will integrate with everyone, so no matter what device/equipment you use to collect your data, you will ultimately be able to participate in the RunKeeper system. We will make bold moves with how we capitalize the company, and we will plow forward with a slew of new improvements, many of which are well underway. And in the end, our input-agnostic approach, our headstart, our ability to move quickly, and our ability to push the envelope in areas that would make big companies uncomfortable, will prevail. And while it is scary to have these big, well-resourced competitors jumping in, we believe strongly that our approach is the right one, and that the independent system will win in the end.
It won’t be easy, but if it was easy, everyone would be doing it! So, a year from now I’ll do a follow-up post and we can see where we are. But stay tuned! We have a slew of announcements coming that we think will catch a lot of people who have been under-estimating us by surprise . The game is just beginning!
Jason