LOSER IN BATTLE OF FITNESS GADGETS CHANGES ITS NAME

Founded in 2005, Fitbug was one of the first companies to offer gadgets that monitor steps, distance walked and calories burned

Among its founders were David Turner – who created LA Fitness gyms, and Allan Fisher, who began Holmes Place

The popularity of its gadgets soared and by 2014 the company was worth £296m

It launched a trademark spat against US rival Fitbit in 2008, but ended up losing the case when Fitbit claimed it never even knew its rival existed

Today, smartphones can do the tracking that fitness gadgets did a few years ago - Fitbug is worth just £2m FITBUG was once a promising start-up riding the wave of the fitness technology revolution.

The wrist-worn device featured digital coaching to help people become healthy and lose weight.

But it struggled against the rise of rivals such as Fitbit, which said it didn’t even know who Fitbug was when questioned about why its name was so similar. Fitbug later lost an embarrassing trademark dispute. Then, when Apple Watch came along, that seemed to spell the end. Now Fitbug has abandoned its roots com- pletely and is rebranding as Kin Wellness in a bid to crack the corporate wellbeing market. It has pointed towards the success of a pilot study with MTR Crossrail in London which saw office staff, train drivers and station employees fitted with its devices – and boost their activity levels.

Fitbug said: ‘The word Kin signifies interconnectivity of people and their communities and colleagues, conveying brand values of trust, empathy, personal, human, friendliness and inclusivity, which better reflects the new corporate wellness business.’