Founder Updates•June 18, 2020, 6:25 p.m. • 249
Why doesn't Trackster have a 'Segments' feature? (+ more on Strava)
Why doesn't Trackster have a 'Segments' feature like Strava?
While we have the utmost respect for Strava and other training platforms in the space, we feel that it is crucial for the running (and wider endurance athletics) community to have a platform that encourages proper training practices. The features that a platform offers (and does NOT offer) is how this philosophy is communicated from the company to its users. While marketing, email campaigns and social media can definitely help set the tone for the culture & company overall, nothing tells the users what a platform believes in more than the features it has currently available. Segments have proven, in our opinion, to push athletes to chase meaningless records at the expense of properly following their training cycle.
There is a great twitter account called @stravawankers which calls out and shares some of the most hilarious users on Strava. They re-share everything anonymously so it's really just good fun - we recommend giving it a follow. Here is a great example of why Segments are not something we're interested in bringing to our community: https://twitter.com/stravawankers/status/1266352169202126854/photo/4
Another example here:
We want Trackster users to follow plans created by their own coaches or our top-tier, Trackster approved ones to improve their skills and fitness as smoothly as possible. As committed athletes ourselves, we know that some days we need to do relaxed recovery miles, some days we need to hit hard workouts and other days we need to take off entirely. A segments-like feature could act as a distraction for what really needs to be accomplished during day-to-day training (especially for new athletes).
Chasing segments is not something we see as a constructive feature for the running community at this time. Our team has created a similar feature in development but we have no plans to ever release it - it's simply not on point with the Trackster mission. Recovery days are important, sticking to the plan is important, and focusing on improving your own metrics first and foremast is important.
Here is the recent update blog from Strava's suits. https://www.strava.com/subscription/from-our-founders?btn=3CsWNID93C1n7iSSUN2fF9&par=2Cz72Oq21soUqJdXTZpItl
In it they say that they have a team of 180 people (ps Strava has 60x the employees as Trackster lmao) and are still not yet profitable as a company. This is remarkable given how many users and how much data they must have accumulate on a daily basis. Moving to this new subscription model does seem like a wise move for them but it makes us wonder why it wasn't done sooner. At the end of the day there are plenty of daily athletes and runners to go around so that Trackster and Strava are both profitable and coexistent. All we care about is improving the world of runners no matter what.
We want nothing more than the sport of running to grow and become more widespread so that does also mean we truly hope Strava figures it out. In the meantime, we're gonna keep doing what we believe in and growing along the way...! Thanks for reading
PS; Strava just made it $5 / month to even use their Segments feature...so for $60/ year we hope you enjoy! ;)