Digital goggles for a better swim
For those of us who enjoy swimming, closed pools were one of the many regrets of the global pandemic.
Imagine our surprise (and delight) when we discovered that FORM’s Open Water features let you track your performance while swimming outdoors. Although we do have an Olympic Training Sized pool at our River Green masterplan community for residents, swimming in the embrace of nature is a unique and challenging experience.
The buoyancy of the ocean water, the colder temperature that stimulates the muscles, and the sharpness of the fresh air as you power through the waves are all reasons to take your training to the sea. With the Open Water feature on FORM’s digital swim goggles, swimmers can view real-time GPS performance metrics and heart rate no matter where they train.
We had the pleasure of speaking with FORM Founder, Dan Eisenhardt, to share the inspiration behind the brand and the product’s Open Water features. As with many successful products, Eisenhardt’s personal passion is the motivation for FORM.
What was the driving force behind your decision to launch FORM?
I swam competitively for 14 years. I’ve felt the pain of not being able to access my metrics in real-time. I had the idea for swim goggles with a display in my MBA program back in 2006. For several reasons, it couldn’t be done at the time.
You have integrated smart digital features into your products that are unique to FORM. What are these features?
You can boil the features in the FORM Smart Swim Goggles down to three key components.
We use a waveguide display with freeform optics built right into the goggles lens. It’s see-through, and you don’t have to refocus your eyes to read it, so it’s like the data is floating in front of you.
The onboard computer detects what you’re doing as you swim and feeds data to the display. It’s highly miniaturised and very low power, so we have excellent battery life.
The phone app syncs with the FORM goggles so you can review your workouts, share them with friends, and customise what you see in the goggles.
What was the rationale behind the launch of the Open Water capabilities for FORM last year?
Open water has always been part of the next stage of development for FORM, as we have been consciously looking to complete the experience provided by the FORM goggles by giving swimmers the ability to access performance metrics in both the pool and open water. With many pools still closed due to COVID, the timing just seemed right to bring this experience to our customer base.
What is your long-term vision for FORM?
Our vision is to make swimming a source of joy for everyone. Not just serious swimmers who compete at the college level or do triathlons. We believe everyone is born with the love of water, and we want people to come back to that feeling of wanting to spend time in the pool, using our goggles to help them stay motivated, engaged and help them fulfill their potential quicker.
Photo Credit: FORM
