Forums >Gears and Wears>Did footpods mostly go away?
I am a first time shopper of GPS watches, I've come across some info that for instantaneous pace, a metric I'm interested in, footpods are way more accurate when compared to GPS derived pace. But it seems like that lots of companies have discontinued footpods.
Is footpod supremacy outdated? are GPS watches better now? Or was this just a niche market that was not profitable for the watch companies, and why Stryd commands $250 for their doodad. Thoughts?
CORRECTED - Garmin Tempe is a temperature sensor
Foot pods have largely been replaced by pods that provide additional metrics:
1. The Stryd Running Power Meter is designed to be attached to your shoe and provides multiple metrics through their app.2. The Garmin Running Dynamics Pod is designed to be attached to your waist band and provides multiple metrics through the Connect app.3. You can also pick up older Garmin foot pods through Amazon and eBay. They are ANT+ and require one time calibration.
Mmmm Bop
I have one of the old (discontinued) Garmin ANT+ foot pods and use it on the treadmill which is pretty accurate as the built in accelerometer sensor in my Garmin 235 is useless.
5k - 17:53 (4/19) 10k - 37:53 (11/18) Half - 1:23:18 (4/19) Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)
Part of TLC
Foot pods have largely been replaced by pods that provide additional metrics: 1. The Stryd Running Power Meter is designed to be attached to your shoe and provides multiple metrics through their app. 2. The Garmin Running Dynamics Pod is designed to be attached to your waist band and provides multiple metrics through the Connect app. 3. The Garmin Foot tempe foot pod is available in limited quantities from Garmin and is designed to be attached to your shoe. It counts your steps and once it is calibrated it can provide accurate distance measurements.
1. The Stryd Running Power Meter is designed to be attached to your shoe and provides multiple metrics through their app.
2. The Garmin Running Dynamics Pod is designed to be attached to your waist band and provides multiple metrics through the Connect app.
3. The Garmin Foot tempe foot pod is available in limited quantities from Garmin and is designed to be attached to your shoe. It counts your steps and once it is calibrated it can provide accurate distance measurements.
4. The Coros Pod 2:
COROS POD 2 - Run Beyond GPS
Don't hurry - next AG will start 2026
Thanks all, I didn't know Coros had a pod, but that last suggestion led me to the DC rainmaker review: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2022/10/coros-pod-2-in-depth-review-a-missed-opportunity.html
He has a good synopsis on the current state of the pods, and backed up what I suspected. Older watches were a lot less accurate than watches today, so the best use cases for pods are with older watches. and now that I'm reading up on it, do I really want pace or power? hmmm
I dug up an old dedicated Polar HR monitor, so I may go GPSless for now and just use a track and a stop watch when I want to mess around with pace, and use the running ahead route planner for everything else