The Nike+ Accelerator three-month program is drawing to a close. There has been great excitement in their space in downtown Portland and throughout the community as well as at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton. As the 10 selected companies make final preparations for Demo Day, we’re here to spotlight a few of the companies at the forefront of integrating technology into the athletic and outdoor industry.
Chroma
“It’s Exercise, with Customizable Fighting ROBOTS!?!”
Chroma is an indie game studio that specializes in activity based games. Chroma was co-founded by Marcus Estes and Mike Merrill, where they’re making games that reward physical activity. Their first title is Jumpbots; which allows a player to “spend” their physical activity on a customizable fighting robot.
Merril explains, “We’re making the game we want to play, and being a part of the Nike+ Accelerator tells us that we’re not alone.”
GoRecess
“Creating faster easier ways to discover fitness activities that fit your life”
For many of us exercising alone can be boring. Fitness classes make exercising fun, engaging and motivating but finding the right class can be a pain, especially if you have a busy schedule. This is where GoRecess lends a helping hand.
GoRecess, co-founded by Megan Smyth and Bill Arzt, makes finding the right class easier and more convenient, which is appealing to just about all of us including fitness class enthusiasts in search of something new, casual exercisers hesitant to commit to a gym memberships, and travelers looking for a workout while on the road. GoRecess also serves as a powerful, cost-effective marketing platform to help studio owners attract new customers and fill empty seats.
Cofounder Smyth proclaims, “The Nike+ Accelerator has been an amazing experience and the support we have received from Nike, TechStars and all of the mentors in the program has been invaluable. It has been an amazing three months in Portland and we’re grateful for the opportunity to have met and worked with so many inspiring people.”
Incomparable Things
“Creates activity-driven fantasy sports leagues”
Incomparable Things specializes in quantifying collective effort. There suite of products range from a relay marathon being run concurrently across the US, to an app that allows you to join your friend step for step as they climb a mountain halfway around the world.
Created by Alex Howell, Nick Park, and Veronica Velasquez they are focused on building uplifting, social and endlessly sticky experiences for users to engage with the fitness data coming off self-tracking platforms like Nike+, FitBit, Jawbone Up, MapMyFitness and Runkeeper.
