Ideas, insights, and opinions
15 items
15 items
Wearables are everywhere, but still don’t make sense to most people. In this OFF Brand issue, Koto breaks down why the category struggles to define itself and what it will take to move from gadget to daily habit. If adoption is stalling, this explains why.

Wearables have come a long way. From calculator watches to real-time health tracking, they now capture almost everything your body does. Yet the category still feels unresolved. Not niche anymore, but not essential either. That’s the tension holding it back.
Today, wearables split across two worlds. One focused on wellness and balance. The other on performance and optimisation. Both are growing, but neither has defined what the category really stands for. You see it in behaviour. People buy the device, explore the data, then drift away. Around 30% end up abandoned. Not because the tech fails, but because it never becomes part of daily life.
AI is the latest fix. Turn dashboards into coaching. Translate data into decisions. But once a device starts giving advice, trust comes into play. Too generic, it gets ignored. Too pushy, it becomes noise.
Look at the brands and the contrast is clear. Oura leans into lifestyle and design. WHOOP into performance. Apple into everyday usefulness. Garmin into technical credibility. Same category, four very different meanings.
The gap isn’t in the tech, it’s in meaning.
Los Angeles