This Alberta mountain town plays a big role in the fitness watch craze

In a small town in Alberta, an eclectic group of engineers and athletes are helping fuel the explosive growth of fitness watches and wearables.

Just off the highway on the way to the Rocky Mountains is the Cochrane headquarters of Garmin Canada, where the company develops technology that pulls biometric data from a person’s wrist and feeds it into their watch.

Nowadays it is in great demand. Fitness tracking devices go on sale AboveAnd south of the border, US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has offered a vision of a future where every American is using the next wearable device. four years,

Garmin makes everything from bike computers to GPS devices for boats and airplanes, but it has carved a niche for itself among athletes and runners with an extensive catalog of ultra-specialized sports watches and wearables.

The company’s latest earnings released this week showed its revenue from fitness equipment increased 30 percent in the latest quarter and raised It has a 2025 revenue growth forecast for the fitness segment. the stock sank Little Broad sales were down slightly on Wednesday and its outdoor segment saw a year-over-year decline.

“It’s performing really well,” said Evan Fenseth, partner and research director at Tigress Financial Partners in New York, who sees the current stock decline as a buying opportunity.

But advancing in a particular field means pressure to maintain it. company, which owns made Its Canadian footprint in recent years has needed to keep coming up with new iterations of its devices, while defending lawsuitsStaying ahead of the competition and maintaining customer interest, especially when the slowing economy has caused many to tighten their spending.

local roots

Garmin Canada started as another company entirely: Dynastream Innovations. In 1998, four engineers in Cochrane’s garage started the company with a basic device that could clip onto a person’s shoe and tell them how fast they were running and how far they had gone.

In those days, says Dynastream co-founder Jim Rooney, if someone wanted this information, their only option was to get in the car and drive their running route while keeping an eye on the odometer.

From there, the company had to figure out how to get that data into the watch — and convince people that the watch was worth wearing.

“People stopped wearing watches; they used their phones for everything,” said Rooney, now managing director of Garmin Canada. “We had to give people a good reason to put them on their wrists again and use them.”

For years, Dynastream made products for other major players like Suunto, Adidas and Timex, Rooney said. Rooney said, Garmin went from being the company’s biggest competitor to its biggest customer and eventually acquired Dynastream in 2006.

Dynastream became Garmin Canada in 2018. Since then, the company’s Canadian headquarters has expanded significantly into a three-storey building in Cochrane, employing a staff of approximately 280 people.

Despite its growth, Rooney said it has chosen to keep its home base near the mountains so that many of its product testers can easily get to the mountains to try out the latest running or biking devices.

ever increasing demand

Whether you’re an ultramarathoner or a casual jogger, interest in fitness equipment is on the rise.

Year-to-date sales of fitness trackers in the US, according to market research firm Circana are above It is expected to increase further by 88 percent compared to last year.

The devices are also getting a boost from people using their workplace health spending accounts to purchase the devices, a trend analysts believe is likely to continue.

“The health care industry is slowly changing its purpose in life from addressing people’s diseases to trying to encourage wellness,” David McGregor, an analyst at Longbow Research, said in an interview earlier this month.

He said there is some speculation that the US is eyeing legislation that would allow people to afford these watches without a doctor’s prescription.

“If that happens, the total available market is going to expand dramatically.”

How long can you grow?

Like any company that makes consumer products, Garmin’s biggest challenge is figuring out how to introduce new versions of its devices to keep customers coming back.

Nigel Lauchlan, a salesman at Gordon’s Running Store, a longtime staple in Calgary, said they no longer stock Garmins. Although he believes the company is currently leading the way as the most popular device among runners, he said there are many other options available.

“We can sell people the same thing for $400 less,” said Lauchlan, who himself wears a Polar-branded running watch.

The company also doesn’t make smart rings – a category that’s attracting a lot of attention Development In the widespread fitness wearable market these days.

a fresh trial Fitness-tracking app Strava launched a PR challenge over alleged patent infringement and breach of contract. For a short time, this controversy caused much discussion online among runners and cyclists, although it occurred recently. dropped,

Ultimately, the state of the economy could pose another hurdle. The US and Canada are on the verge of recession, although so far the company has managed to convince people to continue paying for its fitness watches.

“It’s just not clear how far Garmin can remain flexible in that experience,” Longbow Research’s McGregor said.

But in a crowded market, Garmin has set its sights on true outdoor nerds. For example, while Apple has a few different watches for everyday fitness lovers and more serious runners, Garmin has dozens of different devices for specific sports. specific data point And an ultra-long battery life.

“If you’re really into running, into cycling (or), then now, a horse loverYou’re going to favor Garmin,” said Feinseth with Tigres Financial Partners.

Rooney couldn’t say what specific projects the company is working on next, but he said it’s focusing on both form and function.

A potential area of ​​growth? Animal kingdom.

Feinseth said horse owners routinely spend thousands on animal care, making the company’s new equine wellness tracker a relative bargain at $840.

“Believe it or not, rodeo is a big-growth spectator sport,” he said in an interview earlier this month.

“When you’re riding that horse, trying to rope that cow, that calf, you want a Garmin tail monitor.”