No matter how fancy your fitness watch is, the pedometer will always be off because it’s attached to your wrist, not your feet. Develop MVMT aims to change that by measuring the quality and quantity of your steps using a tracking device attached to your ankles.
Working with a smartphone app, the Evolve MVMT will monitor the quality of your stride and give you feedback via vibrations on the sensor and graphs of your stride quality as you walk. At the end of the walk, you get a summary of the walk, including the number of steps, time spent walking, and step thresholds. You can save walk reports for better comparison with future walks and note which shoes you used to determine which pair of your best walking shoes are.
The Evolve MVMT is a more accurate measure of the quantity and quality of your steps. Its main drawbacks are the high entry price, short battery life, and the need to be constantly connected to the app. So don’t throw away that FitBit just yet.
Evolve MVMT: Pricing and Configurations
The Evolve MVMT is available for $499 for a single ankle sensor, elastic strap, and charging base. However, a sensor on each ankle will give more accurate readings, and that will cost $998.
There are no configuration options, and the tracker exists available directly from Evolve.
Evolve MVMT: Setup
When you take the Evolve MVMT sensor out of the box, you will need to attach the elastic ankle strap to it. The sensor is supplied inside the charging dock, so you should remove the sensor from the dock before attaching the elastic. The strap slides through loops on either side of the Evolve MVMT sensor and Velcro on the outside to ensure a secure, comfortable fit.
Once it’s charged and set up, you need to connect the sensor to the Evolve MVMT app, which can be downloaded for Android or iOS. You’ll need to create an account, though it’s easy to do in the app. Then you will connect your sensor or sensors and learn about it Evolve’s “light walking” technique..
After connecting the sensor to the app, you will be asked to walk on a baseline using your natural walking style. You will walk on a 30-foot-long path with a hard surface, preferably concrete or asphalt, with bare feet. You will repeat this weekly initial walk to help track your long-term progress. After performing a baseline walk for each leg, you will be guided to perform a “light walk” baseline using the techniques outlined in the app.
After that, your sensor is set up, calibrated to your walking characteristics and ready to go.
Evolve MVMT: Design
The design of the sensor is quite simple, with a black matte plastic housing and a black elastic strap. The rounded rectangular design is far from modern and resembles an ankle monitor. But as a fitness tracker, I don’t mind the understated basic design. It fits well with my black leggings and is thin and light enough that it doesn’t get in the way when I walk.
The charging dock is molded to fit the Evolve MVMT sensor perfectly, so I didn’t realize it was a charging dock at first. However, while attaching the strap to the sensor, I realized that the base is a separate piece of equipment. Having a separate dock makes sense to keep the sensors as thin and light as possible as it keeps the USB-C charging circuitry in the dock and uses two contact pins to connect the charging base to the sensor.
The elastic ankle strap is designed to fit well and I had no problem adjusting it to my ankles. However, only one ankle strap size is available, and there are no plans to add additional strap lengths in the near future, a company representative told me. This will make it difficult for people on the thicker side to place the sensor correctly. My ankles are about 8 inches and while I could fit the Evolve MVMT strap around my favorite pair of boots, people with ankles 11 inches or larger may need to find another ankle bracelet to use the Evolve MVMT sensor.
Evolve MVMT: Fitness Tracker
The Evolve MVMT light walking technique optimizes muscle activation to help burn more energy, protect joints and correct poor posture. It takes a lot of adjustment to get your walking technique down, and it can be challenging to do on certain terrain and with certain shoes. So, it’s best to use the Evolve MVMT when walking on asphalt or cement and with a good pair of running or walking shoes.
The Evolve MVMT app evaluates the quality of your stride on a scale of 1-10, with most people averaging a score of 4-7 on initial barefoot walks. When you walk in shoes on uneven surfaces, the baseline drops sharply. This was especially evident when I walked the uneven, cracked pavements of Hoboken, NJ and New York City, where I did most of my personal testing.
The MVMT sensor will provide active feedback by vibrating when you take bad steps and will remain silent when your step quality is good. After recording your walk, the app also provides real-time feedback and a walk summary. The main problem with the app is that it doesn’t run in the background on your smartphone. So, you need to leave the Evolve MVMT app on the main smartphone screen while walking, which makes it difficult to launch other apps. Even answering a phone call or receiving a text message will pause the tracking system, making getting quality data frustrating during long city walks.
I ended up resorting to putting my phone on do not disturb to get the correct information. However, the app sometimes interfered with my Spotify playlist, leaving me to take a few quiet walks around the neighborhood.
Evolve MVMT: battery life and charging
My biggest concern with the Evolve MVMT tracker is its short battery life. I decided to wear it to the Laptop Mag office to see if my strides got any worse after a long day of running around Laptop Mag redaction. I was disappointed to realize that it can only last about half of my work day while passively providing high quality vibration feedback.
Of course, if you only plan to use the Evolve MVMT during dedicated walks or during exercise, it should have enough battery to last a few hours of dedicated tracking. However, it will not withstand a full day of hiking.
The USB-C charging base allows quick and easy charging. After only an hour or two of charging, the sensor will be ready for another round of tracking.
The point
While the Evolve MVMT is a great tool for more accurately measuring your steps while walking outdoors and can be fantastic for those recovering from injuries or trying to prevent further joint damage, it has a few significant drawbacks. The ankle strap is designed to be comfortable, but only comes in one size, making it difficult for some to use. The sensor has a limited battery life, so it won’t be able to track all your steps all day, and the companion app won’t monitor the quality of your stride in the background, so you may have trouble listening to your favorite music while walking.
It’s a great addition to your current fitness tracking routine, but the Evolve MVMT won’t replace more traditional trackers any time soon. If its developers can fix the issues with the app and extend the battery life, the Evolve MVMT will be an incredibly useful fitness tool that could replace some of the simpler fitness watches. So far, it doesn’t have the lifespan or passive tracking capabilities needed to be a true contender to replace the best fitness trackers and smart watches.