What do you think of these super high-tech, lighted shorts with alarm that are on Kickstarter? Q&A with co-founder

Halfcrzy wrote:

track chick 13 wrote:

I second the other poster who said why does it have to be capris, especially ones >$100? For some reference, out of the ~5-10 pairs of shorts that I rotate, most were in the $5-10 range with the most expensive being $20. It's hard to justify spending $100+ on something like this when I don't even spend this much on shoes. Given that it is so much more expensive than most of my clothes, I don't think I'd be willing to spend more than $50-60 on something like this.

Shorts for $5-10?!? Where do you shop?

Look up soffe military running panty and you will find great nylon tricot running shorts for under 10 bucks.

I shop goodwill for work clothes and never see running shorts there. I have seen and bought some great windpants for a few bucks.

Tim P. wrote:

Good question. My first lesson in the athletic wear industry was the manufacturing cost of women's vs men's. Women's clothes have far more cuts and sewing points than men's. This is all labor cost and that is the major cost driver of the garments.

Convenient excuse to extort more money from women. More cuts and sewing points perhaps for capris but not for shorts. Women don't wear shorts? Lol

Why would I pay >100 dollars for light up pants when I can buy a few lights myself to clip on my already purchased apparel? As for the GPS component, no thanks. I've got a phone, watch and any number of other items I can use but don't. Fear mongering wont work on me.

Mugatu wrote:

I do not think there is a market for this at your price. Clip on lights and reflective clothing are widely available, multiple times cheaper and can be used with any piece of clothing without washing. Can you provide proof in numbers that your pants provide more lighting than a say 8 clip on strobes and a head lamp, which are still cheaper than one pair of shorts? Why not make the clothes totally reflective as well?

The signal thing is basically the size of a cell phone and poorly mimics the function of... a cell phone. Why wouldn't someone worried about needing to text their spouse just carry their phone?

Thank you for the questions. About the clip and strobes: Yes. #1 is the clip/strobes/slap bracelets run off of replaceable Lithium Ion batteries, Ours is rechargeable. You will have to be replacing the battery on a consistent basis which brings the price up $5 every time you replace them. The strobes cost $34 a piece and don't give dimension. The Slap bracelets has basically a fiber optic technology in it that only uses one light which is dimmer than ours. The old one had multiple lights but battery life issues. Ours can be seen from a distance all the way around you.

We do have reflective heat transfers on our product just in case the athlete stays out too long and ignores the low battery signal, but that is only for a last resort.

Even though I like to stay away from the "attack scenario" because I don't want to sell on fear, it is a valid question. Imagine you are running any time of day. Someone comes out of nowhere and starts attacking you. In a panic situation you would not be able to get your phone out, unlock it, type a text and not have your phone stolen. With our product, with one click of a button, it does all of that for you, illuminates red and sounds an alarm without having your phone exposed to theft. Similar sequence if you fall and are injured.

They don't have to be washed every night. I just don't like wearing my gear more than once after running in it. That is really up to the user depending on their preference for what they do with their other workout gear.

Bring Back the 880 wrote:

Tim P. wrote:

We didn't mention yet that we have over three hours of battery life (which competes far better than the vest). There is a low battery indicator that turns the light to the indication color. We are far less expensive than the findmespot items.

The reason the vest is better is because it is higher up and more visible (3 hour runs in the dark are very, very rare, but I don't know what best battery life is)

Spot has some functionality that isuch more versatile than a simple safety device and may be well justified.

I guess I just want I know to know why not make the product a vest with the safety gps feature? I'd rather my upper body be illuminated than my butt. Most car dashboards sit higher than 30 inches from the ground.

I understand. I do not like wearing a vest. I wanted to make something that does not feel like an add on, that is why I made these. A lot of people ask me about upper body wear and my response is always "I haven't been able to come up with a way to power upper body wear that is comfortable and satisfy me running needs" I don't want to put something out there that my wife and I are not happy with ourselves. We are more visible than reflective vest. Our engineer was actually contemplating turning down the brightness of the lights to extend the battery life. But we feel 3 hours (an hour and a half out and an hour and a half in) is enough. With the lighted vest, some are rechargeable (with very low battery life time) and some have coin batteries (which ends up being more expensive than ours).

I can get a rechargeable lighted belt for 10 bucks:

Great questions!!! #1 Battery life. Right now we have over 3 hours of battery life and are still changing the lighting patterns. We are hoping to keep that amount of time once we finalize the pack programming.

#2 - Life of the technology. According to our engineers, the technology should be able to be washed an endless amount of times as long as you don't throw the power pack in the wash with the pants. We are set to receive the next 25 prototypes soon and they are the ones that we are going to do the testing to prove this theory.

#3 - Shorts. Our next set of products are going to be women's shorts. We are hoping to have this out in late 2017. We already have the design, just don't have the manufacturing and inventory capabilities yet. We chose the 3/4 length based on our research with Maryland local running stores.

The capris kill me wrote:

I know few self-respecting female runners who wear capris--shorts til it is time for insulated tights. That being said, these runners won't buy your product, and you probably would have a solid base of hobby jogging millennial women whose parents want them to be safe/or who are afraid of running at night who seem to exclusively wear capris for their 35 minute 5k jogs twice a week.

We are coming out with women's running shorts soon (hopefully late in 2017). We based our first set of products on information and research obtained from our local running stores.

spaceman wrote:

Tim P. wrote:

Thank you for the questions. About the clip and strobes: Yes. #1 is the clip/strobes/slap bracelets run off of replaceable Lithium Ion batteries, Ours is rechargeable. You will have to be replacing the battery on a consistent basis which brings the price up $5 every time you replace them. The strobes cost $34 a piece and don't give dimension. The Slap bracelets has basically a fiber optic technology in it that only uses one light which is dimmer than ours. The old one had multiple lights but battery life issues. Ours can be seen from a distance all the way around you.

I can get a rechargeable lighted belt for 10 bucks:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/252487598839?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true

Lighted belts don't work for me because I run with my shirt untucked. There is no way I will be able to run with a belt showing at all.

Looks like a good idea to me.

Probably more if a need for lights on tights as these type of things more useful in winter when it goes darker earlier and us colder.

Any UK distribution?

ukathleticcoach wrote:

Any UK distribution?

We are exploring that now. UK was identified as a primary market for us. If you could go to atnightathletic.com and give us your contact information. We can keep you up to date on that.

Tim P. wrote:

spaceman wrote:

I can get a rechargeable lighted belt for 10 bucks:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/252487598839?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true

Lighted belts don't work for me because I run with my shirt untucked. There is no way I will be able to run with a belt showing at all.

I'm not sure why whether or not your shirt is untucked matters? You just put the belt over it? Or wear it higher? Also, I think the other poster makes a great point about there possibly being more of a market for lights in tights as winter time the lack of light is more of an issue. I can get my runs in all summer in daylight but it is in the winter -when I'd be wearing tights- that light becomes an issue. Though I do understand that some people are always running in the dark no matter what. Just not sure how much of the population that is.

Not sure if someone has mentioned this, but having a separate stand alone product that is the safety button would be a sell for all of us that want to wear our own clothing. As long as it doesn't have to be linked to our phone; i hate carrying my phone. A small button is genius for us minimalist runners.

I used to never run with my phone and a lot of people don't. One of the concerns I always had if I was out 7 or 8 miles from home and if I got injured on a cold day, it would be miserable trying to get back. Obviously a distress signal to authorities is not warranted, but a secondary option to send a text with location to a loved one would be beneficial.

Tim P. wrote:

spaceman wrote:

I can get a rechargeable lighted belt for 10 bucks:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/252487598839?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true

Lighted belts don't work for me because I run with my shirt untucked. There is no way I will be able to run with a belt showing at all.

First off, good for you for working on a product. I truly hope it's a profitable endeavor.

There are rechargeable clip on lights, belts, bracelets and headlamps all over Amazon and online running sites. The price point is not $35 for a clip-on light. For rechargeable devices, it's under $10 per light for the cheapos, $25 for devices containing multiple leds from the name brands in this market, and up to $50 -$100 for head lamps that will stop deer in their tracks.

The linked belt was a great example. To save $50-100+, many of us who run with untucked shirts would wear the belt over an untucked shirt and add a few clip ons. Maybe those attitudes are more likely to be prevalent on this site. But since you aren't providing a very convincing argument IMO against these other lighting options (tucked in shirts?, incorrect price comparisons, unverified claims about enhanced visibility), it appears, at least to me, to be a real concern for the viability of your product.

Don't run at night wrote:

Isn't a reflective vest and headlamp more visible?

For safety, a woman shouldn't be running alone at night. Otherwise pepper spray will get rid if most threats. Besides, most threats are dogs and this won't do anything and pepper spray will save you.

Why shouldn't a woman run at night?

You are totally missing the point.

Learn to use sentences.

Tim P. wrote:

Lighted belts don't work for me because I run with my shirt untucked. There is no way I will be able to run with a belt showing at all.

The links shows people wearing it around their shoulders or like a sling. You don't have to thread it through your belt loops to hold up your pants. You can't figure out how to wear it over your clothes? Come on man.

As said before, there are lots of lighted vests and other running gear that you can wear over anything. Your lighted shorts may very well have a market niche and sell, but nobody believes you when you try to make a case that there's no other way to be seen at night.

This "product" reminds me of the guy who invested the reusable cup for marathons. His YouTube video commercial showed him running, reaching behind him and pulling out a 6 foot long water bottle.... but if you just carried his reusable cup, 6 foot water bottles would be a think of the past.

I run almost exclusively in the dark. I have absolutely not interest in this product. I wear a headlamp that has a red light in the rear. If I am going to be on a busy road, I wear a reflective band (along with my shoes, shorts, and hat) that has reflective material.

Chalk me up in the "solution in search of a problem" camp.

We just purchased $15 reflective vests, the latest reflective tapes are so visible that we feel safe with them on. Of course, we always assume that drivers can't see us because you never know. A good thing about the vests are that they are cheap and you can put them on over every layer of clothing you have on.