#WatchWednesday: Introducing The World’s First Basketball Performance Tracker Posted by Ru Porter on 03/26/14 | Filed under Style, Watches, WatchWednesday

Its been a little over six months since your resident watchologist has made any mention of some dope new wrist pieces to drop, and with good reason: there hasn’t been any interesting wearable technology concepts worth talking about -- until now. In honor of March Madness, allow me to introduce the world’s first automatic basketball performance smartwatch, otherwise known as the Hoop Tracker. 

Developed by Wireless Sports, LLC, the Hoop Tracker was designed to help professional athletes and aspiring basketball players alike to track and analyze their skills during training sessions. Interested in perfecting your pull up jumper? Hoop Tracker’s accelerometer in the bezel allocates data each time the ball hits the basket and/or backboard.  Put simply, if the ball proceeds to make it through the hoop, a lever attached to the detector will transmit data to the device letting it know that the shot was good, and vice versa. But in the event that the users shoot an air ball or a brick, he/she must press the air ball button on the watch, to manually record the shot as a miss in order to read your shooting percentage.

Stats aside, the Hoop Tracker also records the location from which each shot was made, how many points were scored, how long each session lasted, and the watch’s USB port even allows wearers the ability upload data from the smartwatch by signing up for a free account on the Hoop Tracker website. There, users can then track and analyze various parameters of each performance using a number of displays, or compete against friends for up to seven hours per session, before it’s time to re-up.

The Hoop Tracker isn’t on the market just yet, but Wireless Sports, LLC has launched a $100K Kickstarter pre-order campaign where backers of the concept can pre-order the gear for $99, which includes the time piece, a USB connector, the shot detector and a mounting pole for your basketball rim. However, the suggested retail price of the Hoop Tracker is $199, and the startup is looking to ship the device this September according to TechCrunch.

(By @Ru_Porter)

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