Older Fitness Band Buyers Major Market, Say Analysts

Research by PureProfile has claimed that baby boomers and seniors are emerging as a major market for fitness tracking devices.

PureProfile says these older demographics are taking up health technology and devices as rapidly as young people.

In fact, their survey found that users over the age of 60 make up the largest number of users of fitness devices, such as smart phone apps and wrist bands, “belying the theory and advertising showing predominantly young people are the majority of users.”

They say “the idea that new wearable technology scares older people and that the devices are only worn by the young and healthy is simply not true anymore.”

Fitness bands accounted for 85 percent of the wearable market in 2016 and experienced double-digit growth.

According to PureProfile, “retailers and tracking device marketers are all missing a major segment of the market by assuming it is only young people who want to use these technologies.”

They implore companies involved in the promotion of fitness band devices to shift the imagery of their promotional material away from exclusively focusing on young people “undertaking strenuous activities” and towards the more multi-generational reality of fitness band users.