Earlier this year, fitness gear maker Under Armour bought fitness-tracking apps MyFitnessPal and Endomodo for a total of $560 million. Now Adidas has decided to keep up with its competitor by downloading its own set of fitness apps, buying the eighteen apps in the Runtastic family for about $240 million.

Buying a fitness-related app is a logical transaction for sports gear companies: with that purchase price, Adidas will put its brand in front of about 70 million registered users all over the world who already have at least some interest in interest in fitness and who might be interested in buying sports gear. Adidas Group owns Adidas, of course, but also Reebok and the golf brand Taylormade.

Adidas has its own fitness tracking and coaching apps, and the companies haven’t announced what they plan to do with those once Runtastic is part of the family. In a blog post, co-founder and CEO Florian Gschwandtner explains that Runtastic will continue to run as its own entity within the Adidas Group. “n running terms, I’d say that we’re just in the middle of a marathon and there is a long (and cool, inspiring and potential-filled) way to go,” he wrote.

Runtastic has also ventured into the wearable fitness tracker market, including the Orbit fitness tracker and accessories for it, a GPS and heart rate watch, its own smart scale, and even branded accessories for cyclists.

Adidas buys fitness app maker Runtastic [The Verge]
Runtastic joins the adidas Group [Runtastic Blog]

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