 Hey guys, it's Lauren Good with The Verge reporting from CES in Las Vegas and I'm here with James Park. He's the co-founder and CEO of FitFit. Hey James, thanks so much for being here with me today. Yeah, thanks for having me. Early on a Friday morning. Yeah. Kind of a lot, I think we're at the last day here. Towards the tail end for sure. Yeah, so people are pretty tired. I really appreciate you being here this morning. No problem. Let's get right into it. The most serious question I have to ask you about this week is how many steps have you taken? It's interesting because I was actually doing a step challenge with Gary Shapiro who runs the CTA and I think this week I've been averaging between 20 and 25,000 steps a day. So yesterday I hit about 25,000. How many miles is that? You know, 2,500 steps. So yeah, 10 miles a day. That's really impressive. But in all seriousness, you did have a pretty big week here at CES. You introduced a new smart fitness watch called the Blaze, you're wearing it right now. Yeah, I'm wearing it. Yeah, we announced this Tuesday morning. So this is the Fitbit Blaze. So I'll take it off at this point. So it's what we call a smart fitness watch. It's really focused on fitness first. It has the right set of smart features such as caller ID, text notifications, calendar reminders, music control, etc., the right set that don't really overwhelm users because I think the common knock against general purpose smart watches today is that they're very overwhelming, they do too much, etc. It cuts in their battery life. The device is actually modular so you can actually transform the entire look of the device. So we have different frames, different frame styles, colors, etc. that we'll be launching. Personally, we've talked about this, I wear and try a lot of wearables and I saw it and I thought it doesn't support third party applications, it has much longer battery life. So I didn't see it in the same category as Apple Watch. But what is your response to that when people say that's where you're going with this? I think that's a very logical, superficial observation. But I think there's been a lot of trade-offs for the product and balances that we've made to really cater towards our core audience, which again is that active user who wants a little bit more smart capability. And it's not a general purpose device. I mean obviously as you said there's no third party apps, but the trade-off there is we get five days battery life, which is what our active users really like because look, they want to wear a device 24-7, including when they're sleeping and this device really allows them to do that. Did you consider making something that would support third party applications? The hardware on the Blaze actually is pretty capable. So I think for us is we do expect Blaze to get smarter features over time, but we still want to be a little bit selective because not just from a power perspective, but I think people appreciate the simplicity and ease of use of the Blaze and our other products and we don't want the device to be too overwhelming. That makes sense. But it's possible in the future. You're saying the hardware is powerful enough that technically it can do it. Yes. Interesting. Okay. So let's talk about heart rate because also on the heels of you introducing this watch, Fitbit was hit with a class action lawsuit from some consumers that were complaining that the heart rate accuracy of some of your other devices wasn't as accurate as maybe they'd hoped or they feel the company had said. What's your response to that? My response is we have a pretty extensive R&D effort around our pure pulse heart rate technology. We've done a lot of internal studies around testing and validation. So we really stand by our pure pulse technology. And for the lawsuit, we don't really feel that it has any merit for us. Look, it's a huge advancement in convenience for people. I mean before, really if you wanted to get continuous heart rate, the only way you could do it is wearing an uncomfortable chest strap. Exactly. So look, this is the logical progression of technology. You have to start at some point and then the technology always improves over time. But in general right now, look, we stand by our technology. We're going to vigorously defend the lawsuit. We don't feel that it has any merit and there's going to be continued R&D. But you do feel there's room for improvement or advancement in the software? Look, it's with any technology. I think if you look at the original iPhone and the camera on it, I mean it was okay but it wasn't fantastic and look at the progress that all the smartphone makers have made in the camera module to the point where a lot of people don't even think you need DSLRs anymore. So for us, pure pulse was a technology that we launched last year. And look, there's a lot of things in the pipeline R&D wise for us that we're really excited about. Interesting. James, I have one more question for you. What is the weirdest or just most bizarre thing you've seen here at CES so far this week? I'm asking everybody this. It's really fun to hear answers. I think for me, it's actually kind of useful but maybe not practical. And it's also very weird. It's the, I think it was called the Laundroid. It was the laundry folding robot. There actually is a laundry folding robot here? Yes. I've seen them on YouTube before. It was a huge cabinet and you put all your laundry in the big shelf at the bottom. And I think after some period of time, it just opens up and all your laundry is folded. How does that happen? It's mysterious. It happens in the cabinet. There's actually a human in there by the way. Totally. They're just hiding. That they're faking it until they make it. Right, right. Until the technology is perfected. And then they have this television running the, I think the benefits of how many hours in your lifetime do you fold laundry? And how many days will you recover? I was like, oh, that's a pretty interesting value proposition. But I think they got to shrink it down a little. Do you remember the name of the company? Laundroid. Oh, right. Laundroid. Well, Laundroid, James Park wants your product so you should send him a loaner if you can. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat this morning. For more YouTube videos on CES, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's at youtube.com forward slash the verge.
 Hey guys, it's Lauren Good with The Verge reporting from CES in Las Vegas and I'm here
 with James Park.
 He's the co-founder and CEO of FitFit.
 Hey James, thanks so much for being here with me today.
 Yeah, thanks for having me.
 Early on a Friday morning.
 Yeah.
 Kind of a lot, I think we're at the last day here.
 Towards the tail end for sure.
 Yeah, so people are pretty tired.
 I really appreciate you being here this morning.
 No problem.
 Let's get right into it.
 The most serious question I have to ask you about this week is how many steps have you
 taken?
 It's interesting because I was actually doing a step challenge with Gary Shapiro who runs
 the CTA and I think this week I've been averaging between 20 and 25,000 steps a day.
 So yesterday I hit about 25,000.
 How many miles is that?
 You know, 2,500 steps.
 So yeah, 10 miles a day.
 That's really impressive.
 But in all seriousness, you did have a pretty big week here at CES.
 You introduced a new smart fitness watch called the Blaze, you're wearing it right now.
 Yeah, I'm wearing it.
 Yeah, we announced this Tuesday morning.
 So this is the Fitbit Blaze.
 So I'll take it off at this point.
 So it's what we call a smart fitness watch.
 It's really focused on fitness first.
 It has the right set of smart features such as caller ID, text notifications, calendar
 reminders, music control, etc., the right set that don't really overwhelm users because
 I think the common knock against general purpose smart watches today is that they're very overwhelming,
 they do too much, etc.
 It cuts in their battery life.
 The device is actually modular so you can actually transform the entire look of the
 device.
 So we have different frames, different frame styles, colors, etc. that we'll be launching.
 Personally, we've talked about this, I wear and try a lot of wearables and I saw it and
 I thought it doesn't support third party applications, it has much longer battery life.
 So I didn't see it in the same category as Apple Watch.
 But what is your response to that when people say that's where you're going with this?
 I think that's a very logical, superficial observation.
 But I think there's been a lot of trade-offs for the product and balances that we've made
 to really cater towards our core audience, which again is that active user who wants
 a little bit more smart capability.
 And it's not a general purpose device.
 I mean obviously as you said there's no third party apps, but the trade-off there is we
 get five days battery life, which is what our active users really like because look,
 they want to wear a device 24-7, including when they're sleeping and this device really
 allows them to do that.
 Did you consider making something that would support third party applications?
 The hardware on the Blaze actually is pretty capable.
 So I think for us is we do expect Blaze to get smarter features over time, but we still
 want to be a little bit selective because not just from a power perspective, but I think
 people appreciate the simplicity and ease of use of the Blaze and our other products
 and we don't want the device to be too overwhelming.
 That makes sense.
 But it's possible in the future.
 You're saying the hardware is powerful enough that technically it can do it.
 Yes.
 Interesting.
 Okay.
 So let's talk about heart rate because also on the heels of you introducing this watch,
 Fitbit was hit with a class action lawsuit from some consumers that were complaining
 that the heart rate accuracy of some of your other devices wasn't as accurate as maybe
 they'd hoped or they feel the company had said.
 What's your response to that?
 My response is we have a pretty extensive R&D effort around our pure pulse heart rate
 technology.
 We've done a lot of internal studies around testing and validation.
 So we really stand by our pure pulse technology.
 And for the lawsuit, we don't really feel that it has any merit for us.
 Look, it's a huge advancement in convenience for people.
 I mean before, really if you wanted to get continuous heart rate, the only way you could
 do it is wearing an uncomfortable chest strap.
 Exactly.
 So look, this is the logical progression of technology.
 You have to start at some point and then the technology always improves over time.
 But in general right now, look, we stand by our technology.
 We're going to vigorously defend the lawsuit.
 We don't feel that it has any merit and there's going to be continued R&D.
 But you do feel there's room for improvement or advancement in the software?
 Look, it's with any technology.
 I think if you look at the original iPhone and the camera on it, I mean it was okay but
 it wasn't fantastic and look at the progress that all the smartphone makers have made in
 the camera module to the point where a lot of people don't even think you need DSLRs
 anymore.
 So for us, pure pulse was a technology that we launched last year.
 And look, there's a lot of things in the pipeline R&D wise for us that we're really excited
 about.
 Interesting.
 James, I have one more question for you.
 What is the weirdest or just most bizarre thing you've seen here at CES so far this
 week?
 I'm asking everybody this.
 It's really fun to hear answers.
 I think for me, it's actually kind of useful but maybe not practical.
 And it's also very weird.
 It's the, I think it was called the Laundroid.
 It was the laundry folding robot.
 There actually is a laundry folding robot here?
 Yes.
 I've seen them on YouTube before.
 It was a huge cabinet and you put all your laundry in the big shelf at the bottom.
 And I think after some period of time, it just opens up and all your laundry is folded.
 How does that happen?
 It's mysterious.
 It happens in the cabinet.
 There's actually a human in there by the way.
 Totally.
 They're just hiding.
 That they're faking it until they make it.
 Right, right.
 Until the technology is perfected.
 And then they have this television running the, I think the benefits of how many hours
 in your lifetime do you fold laundry?
 And how many days will you recover?
 I was like, oh, that's a pretty interesting value proposition.
 But I think they got to shrink it down a little.
 Do you remember the name of the company?
 Laundroid.
 Oh, right.
 Laundroid.
 Well, Laundroid, James Park wants your product so you should send him a loaner if you can.
 Thank you so much for taking the time to chat this morning.
 For more YouTube videos on CES, please subscribe to our YouTube channel.
 That's at youtube.com forward slash the verge.