Adidas Runtastic

adidas Runtastic, formerly Runtastic, is a mobile fitness company that combines traditional fitness with mobile applications, social networking and elements of gamification as a logical reaction to the Quantified Self movement.[1] Runtastic develops activity tracker apps and services such as training logs, detailed data analysis, comparisons to other users, and many more functions to help users improve their overall fitness.

adidas Runtastic
Type of businessPrivate
Type of site
Social Networking
Available in14 languages
FoundedPasching, Austria
Area servedWorldwide
OwnerAdidas
CEOScott Dunlap
RegistrationRequired
LaunchedOctober 2009 (2009-10)
Current statusActive

On 5 August 2015, adidas bought Runtastic for €220 million ($240 million).[2][3]

On 25 September 2019, the Runtastic channels were rebranded to adidas Runtastic.[4]

History

The first owner in history was Sovar. The initial idea was born during a project at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria for tracking sailboat races.[5] As the target group was too small, the founders decided to focus on more popular sports, such as: running, biking, or walking. Subsequently, Florian Gschwandtner, Christian Kaar, René Giretzlehner, and Alfred Luger founded the company, Runtastic, in October 2009 in Pasching, Upper Austria.

In August 2015, it was announced that adidas had acquired Runtastic for €220 million ($240 million), this included the 50.1% stake Axel Springer bought in the company back in 2013, making Runtastic entirely owned by adidas.[6]

At the beginning of 2019, Runtastic turned away from its multi-app strategy and focused on developing its two most important apps. These were rebranded in September of the same year. The “Runtastic” app became “adidas Running,” and the “Results” app became “adidas Training”.[7]

Products

The company provides optimized tracking solutions for collecting, managing, and analyzing running and training data, as well as curated content.

Apps

Adidas Runtastic offers two apps that track outdoor and indoor fitness activities: adidas Running and adidas Training. The company now offers its apps in 14 languages to cover a large part of the global market.

Reception

The broad acceptance of multi-functional mobile devices generally helped reviews of products that make good use of all the extra functionality (e.g. GPS-tracking, audio and video recording and playback, web-syncing, social sharing). This can be seen in reviews of company products, for example from The Verge,[8] TechCrunch,[9] VentureBeat,[10] or The Next Web.[11]

Bibliography

Runtastic and its products have been covered in books and articles, some of which have been listed and commented here (APA 4th Ed.):[12]

  • Andrea Zajicek. (2011). Social Comm. Norderstedt: BoD. Page 228.
  • Hubert Beck. (2012). Das große Buch vom Marathon – Lauftraining mit System. München: Stiebner Verlag. Page 307.
  • Reiner Wichert, & Birgid Eberhardt. (2011). Ambient Assisted Living. Berlin: Springer. Page 287.
  • Stefan Bölle. (2012). Joggen mit dem Handy: Zur Eignung von Smartphone-Apps als Trainingsbegleiter. München: Grin Verlag. Page 44.
  • Stephan Verclas, & Claudia Linnhoff-Popien. (2011). Smart Mobile Apps. Berlin: Springer. Page 22.
  • Tom Rosenkranz. (2012). Marketing im Outernet: Was kommt nach Social Media? München: Grin Verlag. Page 9.

See also

References
  1. Courtney Boyd Myers (17 September 2011). The Future of Health and Fitness. The Next Web. Retrieved from https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/09/17/the-future-of-fitness-and-health/ (21 February 2013).
  2. "Athletic Apparel Producer Adidas Buys Fitness App Maker Runtastic For Over $200 Million". Android Police. 5 August 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  3. "Adidas acquires mobile fitness company Runtastic for $239M". VentureBeat. 5 August 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  4. "Runtastic becomes Adidas Running four years after acquisition". Android Police. 25 September 2019. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  5. Ralf-Gordon Jahns. "Interview with Runtastic team in 2013". research2guidance. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  6. Natasha Lomas (5 August 2015). "Runtastic Acquired By Adidas For $240M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  7. "RUNTASTIC AND ADIDAS GIVE ATHLETES UNIQUE REWARDS AND BENEFITS WITH NEW ADIDAS RUNNING AND ADIDAS TRAINING APPS - Runtastic Mediacenter RUNTASTIC & ADIDAS GIVE ATHLETES UNIQUE REWARDS AND BENEFITS". Runtastic Mediacenter. 25 September 2019. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  8. Bryan Bishop (28 July 2012). "Runtastic Pro for Android turns your running routines into movies courtesy of Google Earth". The Verge. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  9. Rip Empson (30 October 2012). "Aiming To Be A Full-Service Fitness Platform, Runtastic Launches New Indoor App Suite; Hits 14M Downloads". TechCrunch. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  10. Rebecca Grant (1 August 2012). "Runtastic Pro lets you see and feel the burn with 3D video footage of workouts". VentureBeat. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  11. Paul Sawer (30 October 2012). "Runtastic sprints past 14m downloads, and launches four new fitness apps for homebodies". The Next Web. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  12. Please see Google Books for more results. Retrieved from Google Books Search Page (25 February 2013).
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