Why Apple hiring Nike’s Jay Blahnik adds a heap of potential to the iWatch

Before I start, I should reiterate that no one really knows anything certain about the iWatch, but it’s a rather safe bet to say Apple has been working on it for a while, ask around.

Now if you’re Apple and you are being hounded by shareholders to get back into the “OMG did you see what Apple just revolutionised” trend, you need to get the best people in the industry, the guys with the track record, those with top-tier experience. In this case it’s wearable tech and the guy you call is Jay Blahnik. He is an innovation, motivation and consumer behavior expert, and has consulted with many Fortune 500 companies from Nike to Microsoft, Starbucks, Charles Schwab and even Quaker.

Blahnik is a world-renowned fitness expert, and was chosen as one of the top five instructors in the world by Shape magazine. Men’s Health meanwhile listed him as having one of the Top 10 workouts of all time.

However what this is all leading to is that Blahnik was a vital component in the development of several Nike fitness products, including the Nike Fuelband.

And he just has confirmed his new role at Apple.

According to 9to5mac, the team that first broke the story:

The first piece of confirmation comes by way of a Tweet from Blahnik to a person asking if his hiring at Apple is true. Blahnik said “yes, it is true!” and called the opportunity “exciting.”

Blahnik usually spends up to 40 weeks of the year bouncing across the world giving speeches and consulting, however he was just thrown a “leaving the fitness industry” party as he is now required to focus all his attention and efforts on his work at Apple.

Image:9to5mac

As you can see, this Instagram photo alludes to the new Apple position by showing the cover of MacLife Magazine.

Sadly after a July report of his potential move to Apple, Blahnik had to kill off his Twitter feed history as well as all contact information, scheduling options, and a ton more information about his career from his public website and online profiles. Apple as we all know prefer to keep their employees on a tight leash in regards to public online info, especially when they work on top-tier projects.

According to his website (which is gone now, this link is to a Google cache of his site) Blahnik has been instrumental in the development of Nike fitness apps and programmes such as the Nike+ Kinect training, and the FuelBand:

Jay has been a Nike Elite Athlete and Nike consultant for almost 20 years. He worked closely with Nike on the launch of Nike+ Running, which has become the largest digital running community in the world. He was also the original creator and program developer of the Nike Training Club App, and the Nike Training Club in-gym program, which boasts over six-million digital users. He is also a key expert and consultant for many of Nike’s new Digital Sport initiatives that launched in 2012, including Nike+ Kinect Training and Nike+ FuelBand.

The Nike FuelBand is built by Nike, and is a wearable computer that measures how far you moved around and how much exercise is performed by its users. It is really cool, in other words. In fact, Apple CEO Tim Cook himself wears it and has mentioned it’s awesomeness numerous times. Even Apple’s Bob Mansfield, has shown interest in the wearable and fitness device. By the way, he also wears a FuelBand.

There is no doubt with Blahnik’s experience in developing these epic Nike products, it he will be vastly useful and a great choice in ensuring that the Apple “iWatch” is what it needs to be, a game changer.

Image: Nggcali12 (via Wikimedia Commons).