Fast Forward With Mike Lee, Under Armour's Chief Digital Officer

Mike Lee is the electric current Chief Digital Officer of Nether Armour (UA), an athletic wear company that has made some of the nearly innovative wearables to-date. Lee joined the visitor in 2022 after he sold his first-upwardly visitor, MyFitnessPal.

The buyer: Under Armour. The auction price: US$475 1000000.

At the time of the sale, MyFitnessPal had more than than eighty million registered users. It is safe to say user base has grown since and then.

I defenseless up with Mike Lee on the show floor at CES 2022 to talk nigh the future of wearables, digital privacy, and the undercover behind Tom Brady'due south Athletic Recover Sleepwear.

Mike Lee: Yes, we're announcing our Sleep and Recovery Organisation. There'due south a bunch of different components to it. The get-go is the TB12 sleepwear that we just introduced. It'south a pretty amazing piece of technology. Under Armour has always been a company that's been founded on innovation and how we can bring benefits to athletes, how we can make athletes better.

You've got a pretty great spokesperson for this product.

CES 2022 Bug That's correct! This product had been developed in conjunction with Tom Brady as a partnership. Tom, for years, has been using this technology to help him recover faster. The fashion it works is this is sleepwear. They're incredibly comfortable, but on the inside, they're printed with a bio-ceramic that takes your internal body estrus and reflects it, a portion of it back into your body equally far infrared.

[As is,] at that place are a lot of scientific studies that take shown the benefits of far infrared therapy. Information technology can regulate your jail cell metabolism better. It helps you lot slumber better. It increases your energy levels. If you article of clothing this sleepwear, it's like having a six- to eight-hour far infrared therapy session, all while you're sleeping, which is fantastic.

He obviously swears by it, then the technology'south been around. You are commercialising information technology and getting it in a lot more than people's hands.

[Right!] It's another thing that nosotros really honey to do [and that] is [to] think about the tools that aristocracy athletes accept, how do we democratise those and bring those to everyone in the world?

That's what we've done in partnership with Tom.

UA Smart Pajamas

It's interesting, because Under Armour's been talking about applied science for a while through a diverseness of technology initiatives, but in that location are a lot of companies that accept technology spin-offs. It seems like information technology's about part of your Deoxyribonucleic acid, information technology's office of the mission of Under Armour.

The company started through innovation. Information technology had been Kevin Plank recognising that when he stepped off the field in a cotton t-shirt, information technology had been soaked with sweat, literally 4.5kg of sweat that is hindering his operation, weighing him down. How could he improve his performance on the field through the compression shirt that nosotros developed? That's always been a role of the visitor. Today, that's the lens that we drive our innovation through.

How do we make athletes better?

Sleepwear is ane style we do that. We introduced a number of other things today, happy to talk to yous about, merely they're all centered around how nosotros help athletes better, become better.

Permit'due south talk virtually the connected sneakers. You've had connected sneakers in the past, but you've got more than options now.

That is right! We've introduced some new models and they all have the same engineering underneath, every bit the accelerometer is embedded inside the shoe. What has been really fun for us, though, is how as we have continued to work on the shoes, we're recognising more and more than the power that you tin can get from that information. The innovation that we're announcing here at CES 2022 is how we've developed a test to assistance you assess your readiness, to quantify your readiness to train.

What we plant is that when we're working with elite athletes, they are doing a similar test, but they were using US$30,000 pieces of equipment. There are light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation arrays that would measure in a very precise mode, then you use the equipment and exercise six quick jumps, and that would tell the trainer how prepare you were to railroad train, based on your cardinal nervous organisation reaction time, your ground contact time, et cetera, et cetera

Based on the work we did, nosotros realised that with this chip in the shoe, we could get the same level of accuracy or a almost equivalent level of accuracy effectually that test, simply with a shoe that costs US$160 that everybody tin can access.

Is information technology you're ready to work out because you're warmed upward, your blood is pumping, your muscles are loose?

No. It'due south more about making sure that you don't overtrain. That'south one of the biggest dangers when you run, is that if you overtrain, you risk injury. You're not actually getting the maximum benefit out of your workout. It is very difficult in the past to figure out how set am I to train? That'south what the bound effectually test does, is it quantifies that for you lot, so that y'all can really get an authentic assessment of how ready am I to become today.

Information technology'll check on how hard should I become today and, as you start, information technology will collect that data over time. From information technology, you could rapidly see what things impact information technology. How does slumber impact my readiness? How does rest bear on my readiness? How does really difficult training sessions bear upon my readiness?

We think information technology's a really valuable metric that will really assist athletes take more control over their training in the same way that our aristocracy athletes do.

Talk a little bit about the two groups. In that location's the elite athletes that are using all this data, and frankly, there'southward a fiscal incentive for them to figure out and use it, and maximise their potential. How does that apply to the boilerplate consumer who is just starting off running or is trying to maintain merely a healthy lifestyle?

What we're finding is that we learn so much from how athletes railroad train, because, obviously, they're the pinnacle, they have very extreme employ cases. How they recall about nutrition, how they think most sleep, how they think well-nigh recovery. Every bit nosotros have studied those athletes, what nosotros've been finding is that normal people, yous need the same tools. They just use them in unlike means. For instance, nutrition. If you're an aristocracy athlete, you're thinking nearly your macro-food ratios, you lot're thinking about potassium and magnesium, et cetera, but you demand a meal program, y'all need to be told what to eat. Y'all need to swallow in the correct quantities, et cetera, et cetera. If you're an average person, yous may not care that much about potassium or magnesium, or whatsoever, simply you yet need guidance. You need that same meal programme. What should I swallow? What are the things that are skilful for me based on my dietary needs? The same tool prepare is useful for both customer segments, which has u.s.a. really excited about we tin take these innovations and bring them down to the masses.

As well, you had been the founder of MyFitnessPal, now owned past Under Armour. The dandy affair almost MyFitnessPal, and in that location are many bully things most the product, is how it created that social network and a community of people that use information technology. It seems like Under Armour's going to become in that aforementioned direction, try and build on that.

Absolutely...a large rationale for the acquisition is that we at present have a community of over 190 million people who we know are really engaged with their health and fitness, want to brand changes in their lives, want to lead better lives. That's the Nether Armour client, correct? The more we can help them achieve their goals, the more that we can help them lead ameliorate lives. Nosotros hope the more than brand affinity they'll have for united states, the more they realise how our products, our other products can help them succeed. That is definitely a big function of why we're in this space.

A year ago, since CES, everybody is toting wearables. Nosotros did share how it would to be the year of the wear. There'due south still a ton of wearables on the market and hither at the show. A lot of people are a fiddling disappointed, every bit they hoped the wearable market would exist heading into a different direction. Practise you call back it is just besides early? Expectations are too loftier? How do you see the wearable market shaping up?

I but think it'south early. Wait, there's a lot more innovation coming. Equally nosotros look around the market and see the types of sensors that people are thinking well-nigh, and besides I call up people are getting much amend at understanding how to interpret the data, and turn it into actionable insights. That's office of what we've created with the new sleep functionality that we're leasing on record, then nosotros've had a partnership with Johns Hopkins. The Hopkins slumber experts take helped united states figure out how to interpret the sleep information to really double-decker y'all around how to get better sleep, how to get meliorate recovery. Some things that we tin can see in the patterns of the twenty-four hour period are things like, are you sleeping at consistent ... Are you going to bed at a consistent time? Are you lot waking up at a consistent time? That's really critical to how you get improve sleep, become more than restful sleep. That is something that we tin now motorcoach you on through the new functionality that we've adult.

Under Armour Record Healthbox

Slumber'due south likewise a universal consumer problem, where you don't accept to be an elite athlete in lodge to maximize your sleep. Sleep deprivation is a huge problem. I call up yous said the verbal right thing, that it'south early days. Also, wearables are not a platform. Nosotros needed applications. A wearable's simply a ways to an finish. Now, we're starting to come up with those applications, like monitoring sleep that wearables enable, but information technology's not the core ... It's not virtually the device.

Again, it'southward about how practice we take the information that we can collect and make meaning of it for you every bit a customer. How practice we make your lives better through that information? That's been our focus certainly for the past year, if non longer, around how do nosotros omnibus you around the things that we're collecting, and go far easier for you to atomic number 82 a healthier life.

What do you personally track? I imagine yous use all Nether Armour products.

I'one thousand a runner, then I rails my runs. I, of course, use MyFitnessPal. I've actually been engaged in sleep lately. I think I'yard not the best sleeper, so in some ways the sleep functionality that we have was designed for me. A lot of times, when we were doing product evolution, designing for yourself is really a pretty skillful muse and then y'all tin can really empathise with the client, and I'm learning a lot about my sleep based on the tools that we've built. I definitely was an inconsistent sleeper. I've go much more than consistent and it'due south actually made a big difference.

The main affair being able to bed the same time, wake upwardly the same time?

That'due south correct.

Create that pattern, lock information technology in.

That's right.

Keep it going on weekends?

That's right. That'due south right. Yeah. Weekends is a tough i for a lot of people, but if you can exist consequent, you end upwards sleeping through the dark more frequently. You have less wake periods. It's easier for yous to go to bed and wake upwardly when you demand to. That blueprint and consistency is really powerful.

I just read some research about NBA players and how sleep is really direct improving their performance if they got eight hours of slumber before a game.

If you lot talk to elite athletes, what they will tell yous is that information technology'due south not the two hours in the gym that leads to their advantages, it'south the 22 hours outside of the gym that gives them their edge. All the athletes that nosotros work with, they have been very focused on these things for years. What they're consuming, how they're sleeping, making sure that they don't over-railroad train.

I rails everything, upload it to databases, spreadsheets, just to have the information, but to access it. I've got my weight over the terminal xviii months, weight every day and then I tin can encounter nice charts. Doesn't motility very much. A lot of people are concerned well-nigh putting all that information out there, giving it to a company, fifty-fifty sharing it with their doctor over long periods of time. How do you address those privacy concerns?

Look, I call back that'south totally understandable and merited. I remember our perspective on information and privacy is that if we are not adept stewards ... our North Star as a company is how practice we help our customers succeed? Our core belief is if nosotros assistance our customers succeed at reaching their goals, and then we will succeed as a company. Information technology's easy to brand money, to abound and do all the things that you want to do as a business organization if people beloved your product and get a ton of value out of it. When information technology comes to privacy and data, nosotros have to be good stewards of our customers' data. We take to treat their data every bit if it is our own, because if they don't trust usa with their private information, they won't give it to united states and so we tin can't help them. Right? I think that is a mantra that we preach at the visitor all the time, that trust is built in drops, merely lost in buckets. Nosotros are very sensitive to making sure that nosotros are, once more, being good stewards of our customers' data. We have to practise that in gild to succeed.

Under Armour's got smart fabrics. You've got smart shoes. You've got the ... You're working in the slumber space. What comes next? Where do you expand to?

The North Star is how do nosotros make athletes better, how practice we aid our customers succeed, so we're continuing to look at ... there's a lot more than that nosotros call up nosotros tin can exercise around sleep and recovery, then we have a lot more than innovations planned on that. We're continuing to work on how we can make information technology easier for you to eat a proper diet, a counterbalanced one even, the correct foods at the right times in the right quantities. Again, it's all just about how do we help our customers succeed. We've got a lot of things in the pipeline that we're pretty excited nigh, that we think volition make it easier for people to practice that.

Long term, in terms of wearable technology and quantified self, what are yous personally nearly excited nearly?

I think, to me, what nosotros're really focused on is not so much new sensors or new types of data. It's how do we take the data that we already accept and get in more useful for customers. The more we've looked at that, it became clear that we need to focus on that and, thus, we are finding that there is a ton of value that y'all can leave of the information that yous already accept. We just have to reveal it to users in the right way, at the correct fourth dimension, in the right place. We think that there's a lot of improvements that nosotros tin make there. You're starting to see some of those in the functionality that we've been releasing lately, merely there'due south a lot more to come. I think that's what we're excited about.