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Stir Offers Smart Standing Desk With Fitbit Integration

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. — Better fitness for desk jockeys is the goal of start-up Stir with its first product, the Stir Kinetic Desk, a smart height-adjustable desk that prompts a user to sit less and tracks the extra calories burned while standing and working.

The Stir Kinetic Desk features a built-in touchscreen, thermal presence sensor, integrated activity-tracking software and a Wi-Fi connection. It also adds connectivity for Fitbit fitness monitors to seamlessly integrate activity data with the Fitbit Flex, Fitbit One and Fitbit Zip devices.

The desk senses a user’s presence, learns his daily routine, and adapts a schedule of sitting and standing to optimize fitness and productivity. The desk prompts the user to stand at regular intervals with a gentle up and down motion akin to the motion of a person’s chest while breathing. The user can accept the prompt by a double tap on the integrated capacitive touchscreen and the desk will automatically adjust its height.

“Standing vs. sitting for just half a workday burns as much calories as a 2-mile run,” Stir CEO JP Labrosse told TWICE during a briefing. “We have gotten overwhelmingly positive reviews from customers for our first production run. Now with added Fitbit connectivity, we think we will appeal to a broader audience of those who want to stay fit but work long hours at a desk.”

Labrosse said he first used a height-adjustable desk during his days at Apple as part of the original iPod development team. “We were working 18-hour days and I had no time for exercise. The height-adjustable desk was great. I left work feeling much better, more energized, after standing for part of the day. I’ve used one ever since.”

The Kinetic Desk’s touchscreen reports calories burned, time spent standing vs. sitting and other quantified statistics in real time. With the Fitbit integration, the desk can automatically send data to the user’s Fitbit dashboard via Wi-Fi, adding the calories burned by standing to the calorie totals tracked by the device. Over time, data from Fitbit devices, such as steps taken, distance traveled and active minutes, will also be viewable on the desk’s capacitive touchscreen.Updated features and other updates will be delivered to Stir users automatically via regular software updates.

“Our goal is to increase movement, productivity, health and inspiration at work by leveraging cutting-edge health tracking software and devices,” Labrosse said. “Market leader Fitbit has been a pioneer in enabling users to quantify their health, with a diverse product family that helps people reach their fitness goals by motivating them to move more, and this integration has been part of our roadmap since day one.”

Labrosse told TWICE the Fitbit integration is just the first such partnership for Stir, with negotiations ongoing with other potential technology partners for future data integration and other capabilities that make sense in an office setting. “We see ourselves as a technology company, not necessarily a furniture company. Think ahead 10 years and picture what an office might look like. The technology solutions that can be integrated into a work surface are almost endless. This is just a first step for Stir.”

Stir is currently taking orders for the second run of the Stir Kinetic Desk, slated to ship this spring. It retails for $3,890 and can be pre-ordered at StirWorks.com.

The privately funded company is exploring retail partnerships for both the consumer and enterprise markets.

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