< As Fitbit Goes Public, It Will Have To Outrun Competition

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Fitness trackers are getting a workout. A lot of people wear them. And tomorrow, the most popular brand - Fitbit - is going public. Here's NPR's Aarti Shahani.

AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE: Fitbit recently got a shout out, sort of. President Obama was being interviewed by technology journalist Kara Swisher.

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KARA SWISHER: Do you wear any wearable shirts or health devices or...

SHAHANI: The leader of the free world said he plans to, and he dropped the name.

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BARACK OBAMA: I don't have a Fitbit yet, but I work out hard.

SHAHANI: But then, in the same breath, President Obama jumped to another brand.

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OBAMA: Word is that, you know, these Apple watches might be...

SWISHER: You going to get one right away?

OBAMA: ...Might be a good companion for my workout. So I'm going to see. I'm going to test it out.

SHAHANI: It's not clear yet if Fitbit is seen as a generic term or a brand that inspires deep loyalty. And household names like Apple are beginning to jump into the wearable industry. That's one reason the San Francisco-based startup founded in 2007 is turning to Wall Street.

BEN WOOD: I think they're doing absolutely the right thing. The wearables market is only going to get more competitive.

SHAHANI: Ben Wood is an analyst with CCS Insight.

WOOD: Having the money now is a great opportunity to take the business to the next level.

SHAHANI: Fitbit is already the leading fitness band though it's under attack. The Apple Watch could take off and leave fitness trackers in the dust. Rival Jawbone recently sued, alleging Fitbit poached employees. Chinese vendors are making cheaper bands. Regardless of who wins, Wood makes the rosy prediction that the wristband market will triple in three years.

WOOD: This year, in 2015, we expect in excess of 60 million units to be sold. By 2018, we expect that to reach over 150 million or around that mark.

SHAHANI: It's unclear, however, what will drive that growth. There's the conventional wisdom over at Lake Merritt, a popular jogging spot in Oakland. People who are not hard-core fitness junkies, like Deborah Hubbard - they're wearing trackers.

DEBORAH HUBBARD: Because it helps me stay fit. It reminds me that I need to work out every day.

SHAHANI: You need the reminder?

HUBBARD: Yes I do.

SHAHANI: Really?

HUBBARD: Yeah because you get caught up in work, and, you know - and you just won't do it. But every time I look at this, it tells me, OK, you got to do it.

SHAHANI: It could also be that employers become the important new customer. Companies already track workers emails, hours, output. Chris Brauer, a senior lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, studies tracking in workplaces. He says Fitbit could give managers a biometric dashboard.

CHRIS BRAUER: A simple example would be an employee that comes into work at 10 o'clock instead of 9 o'clock because he or she has kids.

SHAHANI: The boss wants to decide if that's OK.

BRAUER: Now, using wearables, we can map her productivity against her movements and make certain assessments around that.

SHAHANI: Fitbit already gets businesses to buy its wristband for workers under its wellness program and plans to recruit more. Shortly after President Obama's comments, news broke he got a Fitbit, not an Apple Watch, after all. In the future, it could be a whole new tool to audit him.

BRAUER: President Obama's fitness data emerging from his Fitbit could easily be mapped to his productivity, his performance, his job satisfaction, his alertness.

SHAHANI: Fitbit begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow under the three-letter ticker FIT. Aarti Shahani, NPR News, San Francisco.

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