Toast - Nike's FuelBand

Sliced Bread

BBC

Health & Fitness

4.6 • 634 Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nike's FuelBand was among the first fitness trackers to be launched and was worn by sports stars including the tennis player, Serena Williams. So, why did Nike give up on it so soon after its launch?

The BBC Business journalist, Sean Farrington, is joined by Nike's former Vice President of Digital Sport, Stefan Olander, to get the inside story on what happened to the successful product.

Alongside them is the entrepreneur, Sam White, who at the end of the show, based only upon what she has heard and using her business acumen, has to reach her own conclusions.

Other guests include:

- Nikki Legg - a FuelBand fan who bought one as soon as they came out and wrote to Toast suggesting we cover the fitness tracker on the show.

- Chris Smith - a sports and technology journalist who has written about the FuelBand and is an early adopter of wearable tech

Produced by Jon Douglas, Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

You can email the programme at [email protected]

Feel free to suggest topics which could be covered in future episodes.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before this BBC podcast kicks off, I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy.
0:05.1	My name's Will Wilkin and I Commission Music Podcast for the BBC.
0:08.7	It's a really cool job, but every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs,
0:13.5	moments and movements, stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous.
0:19.1	And the BBC's position, at the heart of British music
0:21.7	means we can tell those stories like no one else.
0:24.5	We were, are and always will be right there at the centre of the narrative.
0:28.6	So whether you want an insightful take on music right now
0:31.3	or a nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and infamous moments in music,
0:36.1	check out the music podcasts on BBC Sounds.
0:40.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:43.8	You're about to listen to the latest series of Toast.
0:46.7	Episodes will be released weekly wherever you get your podcasts.
0:50.3	But if you're in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode seven days earlier than anywhere else, first on BBC Sounds.
1:00.0	Welcome to another slice of toast, the BBC Radio 4 series, which examines incredible business ideas,
1:07.2	that despite the successes, still somehow ended up toast.
1:11.5	I'm Sean Farrington, a BBC business journalist, and alongside me is entrepreneur Sam White.
1:16.7	To keep things real, Sam's got no idea what's coming up, so you get the genuine reactions from her on the product, the business we've chosen,
1:24.7	and our expert guests who will inform us what happened along the way.
1:28.5	At the end, Sam has to decide what lessons we can learn from it all, including why it ended
1:33.4	the way it did. And this time, it involves one of the world's biggest brands.
1:41.4	So Sam, I've kind of chosen this one, partly because we know you're a bit of a fitness fan.
	...

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