First Step Personal Fitness Assistant (1-Unit)

When I first bought my SportBrain after seeing Oprah recommend it on her show I was thrilled with it!! I used it for about 6 months or more until the company suddenly went bankrupt and discontinued its online services. Like many loyal customers, I was terribly disappointed, especially since I had spent [that much money]on it which my husband thought was a ridiculous waste of money for a little pedometer that counts your steps and website access that records it for you. I disagreed with him though and held onto my SportBrain, hoping the company would find new investors and would be back in business soon.So again, I was THRILLED when I got an email that the company was back and services were up and running. I quickly put my SportBrain back on and started exercising more. That was the main reason I liked it, because it was a great motivational tool. I then got a notice that I needed to pay my membership fees (the original SportBrain did not require membership dues - but that is why the company went bankrupt) so paying dues seemed reasonable to me. I decided to pay the quarterly fees ...That's when the problem occurred. My SportBrain fell off while I was out walking and when I tried to put it back on I noticed the clip was loose. On the way home it fell off again and this time I noticed that one of the plastic prongs that hold the clip on was missing. When I got home I decided to try and reattach the clip with a little superglue. Well, that was a bad idea I realized because while it did fix the broken clip, it obviously did something to damage the sensor inside. My SportBrain stopped working and I was really upset since I'd just payed [the dues]and had only been using it for a few weeks.I wrote to customer support and told them what happened asking if I could send it for repair. They told me no. They do not repair broken SportBrains but that they did have a promotion for 2 new SportBrains for [one low price].That did not interest me at all, so I then asked for a refund of the membership dues since it had only been 10 days since I paid my quarterly dues. They told me they do not give refunds.So, here I was with my broken SportBrain and a membership that I could no longer use. They told me that I must have subjected it to unusual stress because normal wear and tear are not enough to cause the Sportbrain to break. Well, that was the reason I decided I no longer had faith in the product. I DID NOT subject it to unusual stress. I was just wearing it and walking along when it fell off. If that isn't the definition of normal wear and tear, then I don't know what is.So, if you're in the mood to gamble on a product that may quit working a few weeks after you pay for your membership dues, then go ahead and buy one. But if you expect a little more customer support from a company that expects you to shell out [money for] dues, besides paying ...for your unit, then I would not recommend you gamble your money on a SportBrain.

This product is a great idea,but if you buy it you are taking a chance. The company is in trouble right now and the web site could be shut down and day now and if you have to use a 800 number to dail up your data from your sportbrain you cann't even use the web site now. Maybe someone will buy the company and things will work out,but for now save your money.

The Sportbrain is a snap to use and provides some useful information such as peak times of activity. However, when I use it, it registers 1.7 miles on a distance of 2.0. Its too pricey for inaccurate results.

I bought this gizmo for my husband as a motivational tool, since all my low-tech approaches of excercise incentives had failed. He loves it and has made great progress in planning a more active daily schedule. The sportbrain is very easy to install and register. The cradle gets hooked up to the phone-line and you register your monitor via the free website. Then you clip it on and it starts recording every single step you take. At the end of the day you pop it into the cradle and it transmits your activity data to the website. The next time you log on, there is your updated "sportivity" profile. The website is free and well-designed, you have access to all kinds of graphs and information that help you keep track of your fitness level. After the success of our first sportbrain, my husband got a second monitor for me, it works with the same cradle. I have been using it daily and it works really well. My only complaint is that popping the monitor into the cradle takes a little bit of practice at first - not the greatest of all designs.

This is a nice little product. It is small and light. It clips to your waist and counts your steps during the day. The information downloads via a base unit connected to your telephone to a website where you can view your information in chart and graph form. There are no buttons to set on either the unit or its base. It really could not be any easier to use. All you have to do is register the unit on the website and you are set to go. It counts your steps, computes walking speed, distance traveled, calories burned and can even differentiate between walking and running. It is surprisingly accurate. The website is slick and you can measure your progress via all sorts of user modifiable graphs. The idea of this device initially struck me as somewhat silly, but being able to see my activity (or inactivity) in graph form really does motivate me to be more active. I've been meaning to lose weight for years but never really did anything about it. I've had this unit for a month and by dieting and increasing my activity, I've lost 10 lbs. It is a nice piece of technology and I love it.I have two caveats in recommending this device. 1. Although the unit is very nicely designed, the clip is a little cheap and the unit has a tendency to fall off the belt. Other reviewers have complained about losing their units and I have experienced this problem as well. The unit does have a string attachment and it's probably best to tie it on too (either to a belt-loop, or to a cell phone or beeper if you wear one as well on your belt). 2. The unit must be worn at the waist and doesn't work on "loose" fitting clothing as per the manufacture. I wear surgical scrub clothing at work, which is fairly loose fitting and has no belt, but the unit works fine for me. However, if you don't have a waistline to clip it to (i.e., if you wear dresses), it is not going to work.Clearly, you don't need this device to exercise or be more active. However, if you need a little motivation to be more active, you might the sportbrain to be helpful. I did.

My family and I have been members of SportBrain since 2000. Over the past 60 days, multiple service request tickets have gone unanswered. Save your money, the company appears to be out of business and the membership site is only running on auto-pilot. We're going to FitBit when that product ships later this summer.