Wearables Have Gone Too Far

We’re hoping this is a prank of some sort. Is it already April 1st? Last month, the Peter Thiel-backed app for achieving your goals, Everest, shut down, following initial usability issues, lack of traction, and problems with its business model. Now one of the company’s co-founders has returned with a new project. Currently on Kickstarter, Victor Mathieux is promoting a wristband called the “FLIP BAND,” which he says is a simple way to stick to your goals.

“It’s been a lifelong goal of mine to create things that help people,” Mathieux writes on the Kickstarter project page. “I’ve been a designer for over 10 years, have spent the past 5 years studying the psychology of behavior change, and 3 years co-founding a company called Everest that created what was once one of the most popular goal-setting apps.”

The FLIP BAND he’s promoting is not a tech-infused wearable, however. It’s…well…it appears to be something that’s more akin to a reversible, thicker, silicone gel Livestrong bracelet. The idea is that you wear the bracelet on the black side before you achieve your daily goal (e.g. eat something healthy, drink more water, etc.) and then flip it over to the green side after you’ve accomplished it.

Mathieux is selling a 2-pack at $14 (for early birds) or $19 (for others) and up, depending on which Kickstarter pledge amount you pick. He’s raised nearly $4,400 out of $7,500 for these things!

The project is one of many items from Mathieux’s website, The Dept. of Motivation which also sells groan-inducing motivational posters with suggestions like “be here,” “have less. do more. be more,” and “keep it simple.”

No seriously. This is what you do when your multimillion dollar startup fails? You make a flippable bracelet? Even if this is a good idea in terms of reaching personal goals, couldn’t this sort of thing be accomplished by taking a Sharpie marker to one of those Livestrong bracelets (or something similar) that you’ve already got lying around the house? Or, I don’t know, buy one for $0.45 somewhere else?

I mean, really, is the follow-up project going to be a colorful rubber band that you wear on your wrist and snap when you fail to accomplish your goal – like when you slip up and eat a cookie instead of a carrot?

Everest was backed by prominent investor Peter Thiel and others, and had raised a couple million for an app that was designed to get people to accomplish their goals and dreams. They blew through the funding (~$2.6 million), but only achieved 300,000 total downloads before closing in December.

We reached out to Mathieux to see if he’s for real, but haven’t heard back. Former Everest CEO Francis Pedraza offered a “no comment” response on his co-founder’s latest project.

There’s a video, however, where you can check out Mathieux earnestly describing how the FLIP BAND works. I’d describe it to you, but I can’t stop laughing long enough to do so.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/682782635/flip-band-the-simplest-way-to-stick-to-your-goals

[UPDATE: Mathieux has kindly responded, “I’m not actually anti-tech per say (for example I’m really grateful that Kickstarter exists right now) —I just have a really strong desire to make things that help people and if something as simple as FlipBand can help to do that, then why not?]