Customer Reviews

Nike + iPod Sport Kit - USA (OLD VERSION)[Retail Packaging]

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I just got back into running after a five year break. This was hands-down the best investment I made (after new sneaks of course.) My favorite aspect of it is the competitive nature of the website that is linked when you upload your runs to iTunes. (It's a Nike site.) On the site runners can track their progress, become "friends" with other runners to offer encouragement, and even challenge other runners to online "races." There are also customizable "goals" that can be set up such as, "Run 30 miles in the next four weeks," or "Go on 8 runs in the next two weeks" to keep runners personally motivated. (I used to do this with a paper/pen on my fridge!) Challenges (races) are broken down by levels so a newbie runner like myself, is not competing against someone who logs 30miles a week.

It took me a few runs to get the hang of the controls (I was constantly having to take my nano off my arm to check the screen), but now it's easy.

Why five stars:
-Nike's website is amazingly simple to use. I can't wait to get out for a run to move up a space (or two) in my races. Coming home and plugging in my ipod has turned into, "Ewwww, I wonder if I moved up a spot on the scoreboard?!"
-Easy to learn. Simply plug into your ipod - no advanced knowledge required. Lace up sneaks, and run.
-My husband (who's not into running) just bought a pair of sneakers because he was so impressed with my excitement over the online challenges. I think it brought out his competitive nature. (I give him three weeks before he has his own Nike+)
-At anytime during your run you can hit a button to get an update on your pace, distance and time. (Also automatically let's you know every 10 minutes - or by distance - and at the "halfway" mark.)

Note: You do NOT need to buy Nike+ shoes to use this system. Plenty of off-shoot brands make sensor cases that attach to shoelaces of any running shoe. I found mine for under $7.

The only thing that kinda bums me out is that there are no replaceable batteries, so when it's out of juice you have to buy a new sensor. (About $15, which isn't bad. A new battery would probably cost about that much anyway.)

Also - remember that while the sensor is in motion - it is using battery! Be sure to take them out of your running shoes if you use them for other activities. (Supposed to last 1000 "active hours.")

I don't work out, or I should say I didn't before getting this, the truth is I've been wanting this but refusing to buy it since it was announced. It works with the Touch 2nd gen + all the Nanos, but they can't make one that works with my 1st Gen Touch ARRGH! With that said, I broke down and bought a Nano 5g and the Nike + Sports Kit on Easter Sunday. I see some reviews where the people are complaining about how it's not very accurate. It's very possible some of them didn't put the sensor in right (I'll bring this up in next paragraph) I paid $29 for it, and honestly it does a pretty damn good job tracking my jogging. It's not spot on, but for $29 I don't expect something that will be accurate to the hundredth of a mile. I don't own the Nike + shoes (yet) I have some Reeboks and bought the Nathan pouch for the sensor. Supposively the sensor is even more accurate when used with a Nike + shoe, but I get within 3-4% which is good enough for me. I think it should get down to 2-3% once I go to a proper running track to calibrate it. While even 2% off might be too much for a lot of people to deal with. It's perfectly fine with me. I bought this for 1 reason, because I wanted to start walking/jogging and I thought it sounded cool and looked like it could be fun.

It delivers on the cool and fun part. It's VERY easy to set up, just make sure weather you use a Nike + shoe or a 3rd party pouch that you put the sensor in face up, that's with the Nike & Apple logo facing up. Before you start using it for real you need to calibrate it, walking and running/ Now I haven't worked out for ages (5'11 210'ish lbs) so I did the minimum distance for the running calibration, which is .25 miles. Not vert far but I thought I was going to stop breathing after I completed it lol. It's the best idea to calibrate it on an actual running track. Like at a high school or college. I don't have access to one, but when I do I'll re-calibrate it for 1 mile - hopefully by then I'll be able to actually run an entire mile :D After you calibrate you can start walking/running. When you're done, hook up your iPod to your PC/MAC and it will ask if you want to auto sync the data with the [...] web site. You create a free account on there and can start tracking your usage. You can also track it directly from your Nano/Touch and there's even some basic stats directly in iTunes - Distance, pace, calories burned, farthest workout and a few others. The Web site's where this starts to really shine. You can set goals and it tracks your progression, you can also join or even create your own challenges. This is another point where you really start to see just how damn cool this product is. There are hundreds of challenges out there, and if you don't see one you like, just start your own. There are hundreds of thousands of active users on the web site, so the challenges are definitely fun. And they have them for all experience levels. A beginning runner can join one where they'll run 20 miles in a month, or an advanced runner can join one where they run 5 miles a day. Thru the use of the pedometer there are step goals, yesterday was my first real day using it. And today I hit my first step goal "climb a 100 story skyscraper" (4500 steps) Each time you sync it updates your progression, and I must say it was cool to watch the animation go up each time I synced today. I hit 100% and felt accomplishment. There are dozens of these goals. The non pedometer goals are for distance/speed/number of runs. You can customize each and add as many as you want. Each shows your progression whenever you sync and have new workout data on your Nano.

Last cool feature, I mean really cool is the Power Song. It sounded neat to me when I first heard about it, but kind of corny too. Last night I was running and was starting to hit my wall towards the last few minutes of the jog. So I pressed the power song button, which will play a song or a playlist that you specify in the Nike+ Setup. When Gonna Fly Now (Rocky's Theme) came on, it really did give me a boost. I was abel to finish up the last .12 miles - don't laugh I'm out of shape and 35. I officially love the Power Song feature. Since I have a few songs I consider power songs I made a smart playlist in iTunes that will randomly sync a different song to my power song playlist every day I sync. Gonna Fly Now is kind of a de-facto "pump your ass up" song to most people. But you can use whatever floats your boat.

I know this review's long, but I wanted to break down everything about this, I know I've only been using it a few days, but I can already see how the goals/challenges on the web site are going to keep me motivated to push on. At $29 it's a great deal IMHO, even if you don't have a Nano or Touch you can pick one up for pretty cheap. I don't think I could bring myself to jog/run without this. It makes the workout interesting. Another cool feature, if you set a workout for lets say a mile you get a female (or male if you set it) voice telling you when you're 1/2 way and when you have 200 yards left. On longer runs it gives you voice updates more often, but I haven't done over a mile yet so I can't comment on them. Also the voice congratulates you when you've set a new distance/time/speed record. Which is very motivating, hopefully the lady won't yell and cuss me out if I have a crummy workout where I'm slow and pathetic lol.

I have a Touch & a Nano, and honestly as much as I wanted this on my Touch because of the big screen, the size/weight of the Nano is perfect and I'm actually no longer upset it doesn't work on my 1st gen Touch. Nike has really came up with a winner here, and I believe the ultra large community on the web site pushes it over the top. It also doesn't hurt that Nike seemed to put a lot of thought and time into the web site and hopefully will continue to update/add to it. I'm really curious to see where Nike+ is in another year. Hopefully I'll still be using it then.

I got my Nike+ sensor 2 weeks ago and am using it with an iPod Nano (1st generation, the squarish one). It was very easy to get started, I just skimmed over the instruction booklet, popped the sensor in my shoe and the receiver in my iPod. The menus were pretty easy to follow to start a workout session.

I noticed pretty quickly that the run distance was off by about .1 miles (it was recording a 1 mile as 1.1 miles). They are supposed to come preset to fit most people, but I recommend calibrating it if you are picky about the mileage like I am.
I calibrated it and now it is accurate over the course of an entire run.

One problem I did have was that while I could upload my runs to NikePlus.com through iTunes, the runs were not showing up on my iPod except right after I finished the workout. After I had turned it off, I could only see my workout totals, but the details of any of them. It was annoying but since I could still upload them to the site, I was ok with this glitch. Then a couple days ago my iPod randomly restarted and voila! my entire run history is now showing up on my iPod.

So now, after a couple glitches/adjustments, things are great and I'm loving this product. One of my favorite features is the ability to check your progress at any point in the run and it tells you the time, distance, and current pace. Also, you occasionally hear encouraging comments from famous athletes like Lance Armstrong when you reach milestones like fastest miles and longest runs.

I bought the Nike+ sport kit when I wanted to start running with my iPod nano instead of my iPhone. I had been using RunKeeper to track my walks with my iPhone, so I didn't want to give up the ability to analyze my runs.

The good:
- Periodic updates as to how far I have left and being able to get my stats (current pace, time elapsed, distance left to go)
- The variety of workouts I can set up (choose basic, distance, time, etc.)
- Power Song: This sounds silly, but being able to hold down the center button at any point and immediately hearing what I've chosen as my "power song" at the time I need it can be very motivating

The bad:
- The Nike+ website. It is awful. No, really, it sucks really bad. It's great to be able to upload my run and see how I've done, but there's a graph on there that nobody seems to be able to explain. Coming from RunKeeper, I thought the up and down orange line meant my elevation, but apparently it's tracking my speed. Except some people think it's not, that it just makes an arbitrary up-and-down graph no matter how fast I was going.

You're supposed to be able to choose the number of data points the graph shows, so I thought that meant I'd be able to see how fast I was running at any interval. Apparently not. Who knows what that's designed for, then, since there is no explanation on the website.

The website tells you that you can select Coaching or Training programs, except you can't. That part of the site, according to a Nike+ staff admin, has been down and they don't know when it will be back up. And when it does come back up, all you can do is print out a sheet telling you how to work to your goal. That's right, even though the programs are on the Nike+ site that interfaces with the Nike+ sensor, you can't load it onto your iPod and get any kind of audio support. You just PRINT OUT A SCHEDULE and try to remember what it said on your run.

There's also an option to "Map It," i.e. map your route that you want to run. Except... You guessed it! There aren't any audio cues or any kind of interaction between that and the actual Nike+ sensor. So basically you just draw a map of where you ran, or where you want to run, and you can manually link those routes to your uploaded runs... Except there's really no point since there's no way for the sensor to know if you actually ran that route or not.

Also, I had read that the voice of the trainer you hear while running is also supposed to say stuff like "Good job!" or "You need to run faster to make your goal!" or stuff like that, but so far all she tells me is how far I've gone. But maybe you need to run a marathon to get the voice cues.

Bottom line: Only get this product if you just want to track your time on your runs. Otherwise, like me, you'll be disappointed.

I have had this product for 4 months and I enjoy using it. I have two sensors, one for each pair of shoes I use to run with. I calibrated the sensor at a local track to get the best accuracy. The one hang-up I have found is that on longer runs it doesn't transmit very accurately. For instance, I calibrated the sensor using a 2.2 mile distance at a local track (8 laps in the outer lane). Weeks later I ran in a half marathon race and when I finished the race it said I had only run 11.7 miles. This affects your overall pacing and timing if you run long distances. My suggestion is to use the longest and most accurate run to calibrate the sensor. I used the half-marathon to re-calibrate and my unit has been much more accurate.

I received the iPhone 4, and was intrigued by the Nike + iPod app. I'm not really a runner, but mix walking and jogging with the dogs. I had no clue how far I was going, or whether I was improving or not. The Nike + iPod sport kit appeared to be an inexpensive method of finding out.

The iPod sensor is reported to have a battery life of over 1000 active hours. The sensor remains on, but goes into standby mode when stationary. If your workout shoes are worn for other activities or left unused for long periods of time, you may want to turn off the sensor to conserve battery life. To turn the sensor off, use a pen or a paper clip, and hold down the Sleep/Wake button for three seconds. Repeat the process to turn the sensor on again.

The iPod wireless receiver included with the sport kit is used on the iPod nano and older devices, as the 2nd generation or newer iPod touch, and the iPhone 3GS or more recent models include internal receivers making the adapter unnecessary. If your model has an internal receiver, the sensor can be purchased without the wireless receiver for about $10 less.

The Nike + iPod Sport Kit is an inexpensive method of tracking a jogger's, runner's, or walker's stats. Since I didn't need the wireless receiver, I could have spent less and purchased the sensor by itself. Otherwise I am happy with its performance.

PROS:
Should have 1000 + hours of active use
Can turn off sensor when needed
An inexpensive tool for recording stats

CONS:
Must remove or turn off when using shoe for non stat tracking activities

Recently signed up for my first 1/2 marathon. I needed something that measured my distance, the nike plus is exactly what i was looking for and the right price range. You can set it by how many miles you want to run or just run and it will calculate it for you with the pace, too! I didn't even have to calibrate mine because the default setting was already accurate.
NO problems and HIGHLY recommend it!

Overall, this product rocks! It is easy to set up and use, the feedback during my runs keeps me focused and I enjoy charting my progress online. The only downside is the mileage but its only off by 0.01 per mile. I'd recommend this product to anyone, both beginners and advanced.

I've had the Nike+ sport kit for about a year, and I've recorded over 100 runs on it and uploaded those to the Nike site. With the exception of a handful of workouts that for some reason didn't upload and I lost, it has worked well. I think the problem with the ones that didn't upload is with the Nike+ site rather than with the sensor. That particular problem has been mentioned many times on the Nike+ site forum. Some complain about the life of the battery, which can't be consumer replaced. Mine is almost a year old and is going strong. The readings it transfers to my iPod are accurate (I run on a measured track), which is important for this kind of device. I've been very happy with it, and when the battery wears out, I'll buy a new sending unit, about $20.

This is a much cheaper alternative to a GPS to track your running, so it shouldn't be compared on the same grounds. The system does have a margin of error to it, but you can calibrate it to your running motion to make it as accurate as possible (mine is within .01 to the mile on good days.) I don't personally have Nike+ shoes, so I rolled the chip in a small ziplock bag and tuck the ends of the plastic bag under my shoelaces for a tight, waterproof system on the cheap.

Aside from getting realtime feedback on your runs via clicking the center button on your nano, the results are also sent to the nikeplusdotcom website where you can track your progress, set goals, create a training program, and interact with an entire community of runners (you can register for free and explore the site before buying the sports kit.)

My only real gripe with the system is that it only seems to want to send your most recent workout to the site, so if you had a syncing problem and want to send a previous workout to the nikeplus site, the software doesn't allow for it. A great way around this it to go to nikepluseditdotcom, where you can replicate workout files that you can drop into a hidden folder on your ipod and force sync it to nikeplus next time you plug in your ipod.

This is great system for beginner runners or for people like me who like to track their improvement when they exercise.