Why Wearable Fitness Is Only Growing Post-Pandemic

Like many other industries, the health and fitness sector was majorly shaken up by the Covid-19 pandemic. The closure of gyms meant that the most common way for people to exercise was taken away. That coupled with a newfound interest in physical and mental health among the wider population meant that different types of training and health products increasingly become popular.

Wearable health and fitness devices such as Apple Watches, FitBits, Oura Rings, and more provide a way for people to not only track their workout routines, but also other elements of their health like blood pressure and heart rate throughout the day and even during sleep.

Whilst the concept of wearable fitness was hardly new during the pandemic, it is a sector that saw a big boom. In 2020, wearable device sales rose by 30%, which was highly unusual given the global economic situation at the time. The sector is expected to become a $70 billion market globally by 2025, according to executives of Samsung Electronics.

Admittedly, wearable fitness devices weren’t the only products to gain popularity during the pandemic, but they are what consumers have continued to stand by as the world emerged from Covid. According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), wearable fitness devices will still be the top fitness trend for 2025, despite being common for many years now.

"Considering the impact that technology continues to make on the world, it’s no surprise that wearable technology hasn’t left the top three trends since 2016 and holds the number one spot for 2024," says ACSM in a press release.

As the market continues to expand, the products are becoming more powerful and can collect more and more types of biometric data. Apple Watches even have an electrocardiogram feature now.

Reasons Health and Fitness Wearables Remain Popular

One major reason why wearable fitness has continued to grow during and after the pandemic is that the forced time at home caused many people to take a lot more ownership of their health and fitness. Those who may have been far too busy to do something about their physical state suddenly found themselves with empty evenings or even empty days. It was the perfect opportunity to improve your fitness and many felt they needed gadgets to help them do that.

As well as that, the fact that a virus was sweeping the world meant that people were hearing more about how their bodies work and how being healthier put you in a better place to fight off the virus should you catch it. With wearables, it is not a huge step to go from monitoring your heart rate and your number of steps throughout the day on Fitbit to seeing how well you’re actually sleeping at night and how prepared you are for the day ahead with an Oura Ring.

Another reason why wearable fitness devices did so well during the pandemic and continue to do well today is that it gives people the figures behind their workouts, which are ordinarily lost if you don't have a treadmill or exercise bike with sensor handles.

In deed, many trends and fads come and go but fitness wearables are withstanding the test of time. They were on the up during the pandemic and have accelerated post-pandemic with more and more people relying on them today.