MBF Interviews: Amy Puliafito from Misfit Wearables

Last week, the CEA hosted the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, exhibiting the newest innovations in electronics. One event that caught our attention was WebMD’s FashionWare Show displaying the latest in wearables. Among smart watches and LED lit garments, we noticed a familiar device in the show from Misfit Wearables. 

We first took notice of Misfit at Decoded Fashion 2014 New York Summit, and have been following the company since.  Misfit’s latest line is a collaboration with the well-known jewelry house, Swarovski.  Misfit and Swarovski designed a collection of jewelry that effortlessly combines the functionality of the Misfit Shine with the beauty of Sworavski pieces, blurring the lines between fashion and technology. The collection includes a variety of pendents, wristbands and bracelets set to be released this Spring.

Swarovski Shine Activity Tracker
Photo via Misfit

At Decoded Fashion’s New York Summit, MBF Creative Director, Manuela Fassbender got an interview with Misfit's Director of Communications, Amy Puliafito, where we were able to learn a little more about Misfit Wearables.

Misfit Director of Communications, Amy Puliafito
Photo via MBF

MF: What is the premise behind Misfit?

Amy: So, Misfit invents and manufactures wearable and smart home products. We actually have two wearable products - Shine and Flash. Our first product was Shine, which is an elegant activity tracker that you can wear anywhere on your body and we recently releases the Flash in September which retails for $49.99 and basically does everything that Shine does but is made out of a durable, soft-touch plastic.

MF: Tell us a little bit about the challenges you are facing as the Director of Communications for Misfit.

Amy: I think theres a couple things. I think it is a really crowded that we are dealing with right now in our product category. So, 5 years ago an activity monitor was not something that anybody owned and so it’s a very, very new space and a new environment - and 10 years ago, I don’t think anyone could have really imagined it. So, I think part of the challenge is educating folks around, “What does your data mean? What does bring active mean?” and even introducing you to the product. The question I usually get is “What does it do?” and so that means what we are is still at the very beginning of the learning curve, and that’s still even in tech conferences, and fashion conferences – people ask me that and not to mention the education and awareness efforts that are required in a broader consumer base. So, I think that mean challenge is a broad level awareness and introducing people into the product category.

MF: What do you see for the future for Misfit? What is the next big thing?

Amy: We released our first smart home product in July and that’s the space that we’re really interested in, so, while we’ll continue to build out our wearables family of products, the smart home family will be something that we continue to investigate – So, I think that’s the internet of things – connecting wearables and other sensors in your environment is something that we are really interested in. 

MF: Can you tell us what are some of your home devices?

Amy: So, for us, our first Smart Home product the Beddit sleep monitor, so sleep is definitely a big area of interest for us and there’s situations in which passive monitoring is going to give you better insights into what you want to know. So, I think we will just continue to investigate that entire space.

To learn more about Misfit and their latest endeavors, check out their website here.