For many high-impact runners, it feels like Mom and Dad are fighting.
Strava, the popular fitness-tracking app, is suing the fitness wearable giant Garmin over alleged patent infringement and breach of contract. The lawsuit, filed September 30 in a Colorado court, alleges that Garmin is infringing on two patents—segments and heat maps—and also broke a written agreement between the two companies, as first reported by DC Rainmaker.
For many athletes, Strava and Garmin go together like Oakley sunglasses and On running shoes. A trend report published last year by Strava showed that Garmin’s Forerunner was among the most popular smartwatches for its users. If you didn’t track your run on Garmin and upload it to Strava, did it even happen?
Now, with a number of big races coming up, including the Chicago and New York City marathons, athletes are not taking the recent news well.
“When Garmin is going to stop uploading data to Strava on November 1st and that’s literally the date of your marathon you’ve been training for a big PR for,” one running influencer posted on TikTok.
“Have you seen the news that Mom and Dad are fighting?” ultra-runner Andy Glaze said in another video. “I’m sitting here with my thousand-dollar watch and my $80 app and thinking, can we just get a family meeting and start getting along again?”
Already, some are taking sides and pledging their loyalties to one or the other, or joking about giving up on running altogether now that they may not be able to easily track their runs and post for their followers to see.
On Thursday, Matt Salazar, Strava’s chief product officer, took to Reddit to defend the company’s lawsuit. “Setting the record straight,” he titled his post, saying that Garmin was requiring its logo to be displayed alongside all activity posts or it will cut off access permitting Garmin activities to be uploaded to Strava.
“We consider this blatant advertising. These new guidelines actively degrade your user experience on Strava,” Salazar wrote. The post, however, was met with widespread criticism, with the most upvoted replies calling Strava’s stance hypocritical at best. “So how do I get rid of the Strava logo when I want to share my data on social media?” one Reddit user asked.
“As a premium (paid) Strava member, I want to be clear that Strava is only of use to me if it works with Garmin,” another wrote. “The moment Strava no longer syncs with Garmin Connect is the last time I open Strava.”
Fast Company has reached out to Garmin and Strava for comment.
So what happens now? Likely nothing. It’s in neither company’s interest to stop the steady flow of data from Garmin to Strava, as the online backlash to the news of the lawsuit has shown.
For those planning to simply switch to another smartwatch, like Suunto, in case the integration between the two companies does end, here’s some bad news: The Finnish brand has launched its own lawsuit against Garmin for patent infringement.
Maybe it’s a sign to go back to when every 5K didn’t need to be posted on social media.