Finally, A Fitness Tracker That Isn’t Ugly AF

The Mira fitness tracker comes in five different colors, and the actual tracker pops out.

When fitness trackers first came onto the market, I was skeptical. Some days, it’s hard enough to put one foot in front of the other without falling down, why on Earth would I want to know how many steps I took in a day (or worse, failed to take)? Then, I started seeing women of all ages—fit, fashionable women whom I admired—sporting that telltale black rubber Fitbit bracelet while I continued to pile on the pounds. So maybe I did need a tracker to help me, well, stay on track.

Two years, three broken Jawbones, and two dead Fitbits later, I was completely disgusted with anything made out of flexible rubber. I’d become a tracker addict, but I could not deal with how hideous they look. I did not want to announce to the world, “Hey, I’m not happy with my fitness level so I’m obsessively tracking my steps, which you can obviously tell because why else would I be wearing this gross rubber bracelet?”

A few months ago I ran into Butter London makeup artist and manicurist Katie Jane Hughes. She was wearing a very cool bracelet that couldn’t possibly be a fitness tracker because it was actually a cute thing that I wanted to wear. But it was; it’s called the Mira and I got one immediately.

The tracker component of the Mira is embedded in an architectural cuff bracelet made out of surgical grade stainless steel, which despite sounding totally unsexy, is really quite attractive. It’s available in five different colors: brushed gold, a matte bronze, polished black, and matte or polished “rosé.” I still love an arm full of bracelets, and it blends in seamlessly with the various metal and leather bracelets I wear regularly.

The Mira still looks like a bracelet, even when you’re working out.

Fitness tracker companies are fully aware that they have an aesthetic problem. Last year Fitbit teamed up with Tory Burch for a collection of accessories to try to cover up the hideousness. BaubleBar also just announced a jewelry partnership with Fitbit competitor Jawbone. While these options are better than the black bracelets the trackers come with, the aesthetic – lots of fake gold and bling – is not for everyone. (Like me, for example.)

Suzanne El-Moursi, the chief creative officer at Mira, explains why just covering up an ugly tracker isn’t enough. “The distinction where we’re different is that we allow jewelry to change the DNA of the tracker,” she says. “I’m not looking for something to cover the ugly black rubber band.”

I was nervous about wearing a rigid tracker, especially while running, but you can pop the actual tracker out of the bracelet. It has a small clip attached so you can attach it to your waistband or bra strap if wearing jewelry while working out is not your thing. The full system costs $169, and you can buy extra bracelets for $99.

Mira is the brainchild of a team at Omron, the Japanese electronics company best known for making things like blood pressure monitors. After months of ethnographic and market research, the company figured out a few things when it comes to women and tracker use, besides the fact that they want one that looks good.

First of all, women prefer to be discreet about trackers and fitness. “Women said, ‘I don’t want to be asked, How many miles did you walk? How many steps did you do?’ We took this insight and translated into a product,” says El-Moursi. In other words, make something that doesn’t look like a fitness tracker and stop asking me how many steps I took today. (12,477 for the record.)

Second, women wanted to know why they should care about tracking their steps. This is a problem with the tracker category in general. According to a recent article in The Atlantic, half of the people who bought a tracker stopped wearing them, and a third of these stopped wearing it within six months. I’d argue it’s because they clash with everyone’s outfits, but Mira discovered that women didn’t know what to do with the data. So you walked only 5,000 steps in a day. What are the implications of that?

The Mira, via an app on your phone, will tell you exactly. “Women are looking for deeper insight and connecting the dots. We don’t just say, ‘You burned 793 calories,’” ways El-Moursi. “We will say, ‘It’s the equivalent of three glasses of red wine.’ It connects the dots between activity and consumption. She learns the currency of what wellness is about.”

Mira also offers little nuggets of content on the app. When you’re syncing your tracker and logged into the app, you can click on a “Need inspiration?” button. You get little health and fitness tidbits like, “At the halfway point of a brisk 25-minute walk, stop and do 30 jumping jacks. That’ll get your heart pumping!”

There are a few caveats. If you’re an Ironman athlete or run regularly, this sort of encouragement might not seem like enough. That’s by design, though. According to El-Moursi, Mira’s target audience is basically the woman who’s trying to have it all—a career, kids, pets, a social life. It’s not necessarily for the woman who lives in her Lululemons and spends 90 minutes at the gym every day.

Second, the battery life could use a bit more oomph. With the Fitbit and Jawbone, I was able to get almost a full week out of the battery. With Mira, I’m getting four to five days tops, so you’ll need to get in the habit of charging it more frequently.

El-Moursi says that more Mira products will be introduced at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show. Mira will also open a pop-up shop in New York City from November 18, 2015 through February 2016. More pop-ups will follow in Dallas, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Now excuse me. I need to go walk 8,000 steps and then figure out how many mini Kit Kats that equals.