Nike to exit wearable tech market

Sportswear giant Nike is gearing up to exit the wearable tech market and to shelve plans for future developments of its FuelBand

fitness tracker, CNET reports.

Nike reportedly fired up to 55 people from the 70-member team responsible for the FuelBand at the end of last week, which was part of the technology-focused Digital Sport division.

"As a fast-paced, global business we continually align resources with business priorities," Nike spokesman Brian Strong told CNET. "As our Digital Sport priorities evolve, we expect to make changes within the team, and there will be a small number of layoffs. We do not comment on individual employment matters."

However, Nike did confirm to Mashable that the Nike+ FuelBand App and the current wearable tech product would be sold throughout Nike stores for the “foreseeable future”, but didn’t add if they would be making any new hardware for the category in the future.

News of the impending firings appeared on the anonymous social app Secret early last week, with one member stating: “The douchebag execs at Nike are going to lay off a bunch of the eng team who developed the FuelBand, and other Nike+ stuff. Mostly because the execs committed gross negligence, wasted tons of money, and didn’t know what they were doing.”