Women: You Want Me To Put That Wearable Where?
Tech July 12, 2024 Damon Mitchell
Perhaps better to call them where-ables… three newer wearables aim to help women manage through one of the less comfortable times of their month. You guessed it… that time.
(Source: hexjam.com)
Alright, let’s keep this blog as grown up as possible.
These wearables are designed specifically for women, but may ultimately benefit all of us.
That was not intended to be a sexist joke. If you believe that we are all connected, then what improves the quality of life for our sisters, improves the quality of life for all of us (just as it would be the other way around, right fellas?).
To create a successful wearable, you have to tap into the lifestyle of your potential customers. If they don’t see a potential for improvement in said lifestyle, making only tolerable sacrifices (like wearing a puny wristband that buzzes), then they simply won’t buy your product.
By this logic then, it’s either the craziest or most genius idea to create wearables that focus on the most private of human parts.
Here are three that could reduce anxiety for women, with cascading benefits. These technologies are so hot, as of this writing they are either only in pre-sale or just recently for sale.
It seems like suddenly menstrual cups are all the rage, but they’re nothing new. The first ones were invented in the 1930s. By the sixties, they were mass produced, but the tampon took center stage.
Tampons seem to have jumped the shark. I mean, how much can we improve on cotton?
The Looncup isn’t much different than a traditional menstrual cup, except that it works with an app (of course) on your smart device to tell you more. It will let you know when it’s time to empty, which I understand is much easier than one might imagine, but the Looncup goes further. It will also give users a slew of related health data.
From a marketing standpoint, the Looncup is brilliant. In sales it’s called flipping the script, when you take an otherwise negative and make it a positive.
In this case, Looncup wants us not to view a woman’s period as a monthly curse, but a monthly bio-check-in only granted to the fairer sex. As a man watching the pitch video I even found myself feeling a little inadequate. I want a monthly health check-in too.
(Source: boards.weddingbee.com)
Good news, of the three products listed, this one is currently available. The not-so-good news is that of these three, this one is the least specific. Oh, it’s definitely for women, that’s for sure, but it does more than help with visits from Aunt Flow.
The Bellabeat Leaf also measures activity levels, helps manage your smart device notifications, develops your meditation practice, measures your sleep, and finally… tracks your period.
It’s not just a calendar for keeping track of the past, but combined with the companion app aims to advise wearers of upcoming periods, which is helpful if she is taking birth control pills.
So what is it, exactly? The leaf is a simple metal clip that will fit over the edge of your pants or shirt collar, wherever you want to wear it. It seems the value is more in the app than in the jewelry, but to get the notification, you need to wear the leaf.
My Flow is a tampon, connected to a small clip worn by the user. There are no wires to the tampon; it merely has a conductive thread running through the string, connecting to the circuitry that is contained in the belt clip.
The clip is able to measure data and tell the wearer via the companion app. The goal is to not only advise her about flow, but to avoid toxic shock syndrome, prevent early [read: wasteful] removal, but also prevent embarrassing leaks.
This is arguably the most invasive of the three, but for a woman who isn’t comfortable with the menstrual cup, the tampon is familiar ground.
(Source: forbes.com)
As for a healthy market, there are over 3.5-billion women in the world. While not every one of them is a candidate, most of them menstruate.
That’s not bad by any measure.
Cornering this market is probably close to what marketing Sildenafil (Viagra) was like. The conversation is uncomfortable at first, but then it’s just part of the landscape.
This is the future.