Wearables are the hot new thing in tech right now. Get ready for the market to be flooded with them in the coming years.
That means if you're in the market for a wearable device, it can be really overwhelming to decide which one to shell out a couple hundred bucks for. Do you want something sporty or stylish? Do you want it to track your steps, your sleep or your notifications from around the web? Or maybe you want it to do all three?
You could read up on all the latest product reviews or try out the gadgets yourself in a store. But obviously the best way to figure out if a device is right for you is to see how it fits in with your lifestyle. Wearables are not a one size fits all kind of deal. People use them differently depending on what they want to track and how they live. Now you can actually do that without spending a penny.
Lumoid just launched a new try-before-you-buy program for wearable gear that's akin to Warby Parker's service for eyewear. Just head to Lumoid's website and choose any five items to try at home for seven days. Right now, you can choose from a selection of Sleep Tracking Devices, Fitness Devices and Stay Connected Devices from such well-known companies as Fitbit, Jawbone and Pebble. Buy the wearables that you want, return all of them and Lumoid will send you shiny, new versions of the devices you purchased so you're not holding on to the used ones meant just to demo. However, you have to pay $20 if you end up not buying any.
If you haven't heard of Lumoid before that's because it's a startup funded by Y Combinator. Lumoid got its start renting out all sorts of electronics equipment — which it still does — from DSLR cameras to lenses to even drones. Now, it's expanding into the en vogue wearables space and getting a lot of attention for it.
I can see why. This idea is kind of brilliant. Wearables is still a relatively new product category in the tech world, one that requires consumer education. Many people don't know which wearables they like or how they will use them, and they're expensive enough that people are still hesitant to purchase them if they don't feel like they're 100 percent ready to make the jump. Lumoid's new program is a great way to figure that out with no upfront cost. Now that's surely worth a try.
[H/T PCWorld]
