RunScribe Footpods – The Gaitmeister Announces some changes
I produced a detailed RunScribe Review well over 2 years ago, perhaps the only major change that I’d noticed since then was that they changed their focus from the consumer space occupied by STRYD and Garmin’s RD-Pod to that of the more professional ‘clinic’ space, ie the space occupied by gait professionals. I don’t know if hindsight tells us that this made sense commercially but it seemed like a good idea at the time to me. There were more changes that slipped under my radar and you can read about some of them on RunScribe’s community board (here).
Why might it have made sense to focus on the professional space?
Mainly because RunScribe has an expansive platform to deeply analyse gait metrics with a pod on each leg. There is some great stuff there going from details of the footstrike all the way through to associating injuries with certain shoes or patterns of running behaviour. Sure they do ‘running power’ as well but perhaps not so deeply as STRYD. RunScribe’s running pods seem to be one of the more obvious choices for certain kinds of running coaches or physios where the competitive alternative can be seriously expensive pieces of kit.
To cut to the chase: RunScribe have just announced some new changes to their pricing, platform and future plans. Let’s have a quick look.
RunScribe – New Packages
RunScribe has split its single offering into a BASIC and PREMIUM as shown in the following screengrab from their site. The $299 price point starts to get more toward the realms of consumer pricing.
RunScribe – new PLANNED Software Updates
On the RunScribe forum, Tim has confirmed that he is working on the following new software goodies
- Lap Markers / Lap Metrics
- Profile Switching in App (iOS first) for direct to Runner/Client upload
- Real-Time ShoeRide visuals
- Swing Plots (similar to the current Ride Plots, but for Swing)
RunScribe – new Planned Hardware
Then finally we see a new Hip (sacral) sensor which looks like it provides metrics IN ADDITION to those that come from the shoes.
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Thanks for the update! I wonder what Sacral metrics can mean…
I guess it has nothing to do with religious things 🙂
It must be related with the “sacral” anatomy meaning, because I imagine that this sensor will be installed in the same exact position of the Garmin RD pod sensor, in the back of your shorts. Maybe a more understandable name would be “hip sensor”.
I’m curious to see which data will this sensor collect and in which way it will complete the actual Runscribe metrics. Will it have a “check function” to check that the metrics that the footpods are giving have the same results with the hip sensor, for example related to simmetry? Or it will be able to deliver new metrics?
wobbly hips and maybe upper body bounce
Wobbly hips? Given my poor knowledge of physiotherapy, I never have thought that weak hips could be a problem for a good running form.