Wearable Maker Coros Aims to Conquer the Climbing Market

The smartwatch maker will use Sender One Climbing’s coaching expertise to inform how it tracks climbers as wearables push beyond heart rate into sport-specific data

Wearables have conquered the marathon, the Peloton and the eight hours you spend asleep. The climbing wall and the side of a mountain? Not so much. Coros is roping up to change that.

The sports watchmaker – best known among runners – has partnered with Sender One Climbing, a Southern California gym operator with six locations.

Under the agreement, Sender One staff and coaches will give Coros ongoing feedback on how its watches track climbers’ training, performance and more. The input will help the wearable company refine features around metrics such as climbing volume, route grades, active versus rest periods, recovery and progression, building on its existing Outdoor Climb, Indoor Climb and Bouldering modes.

“Climbing has its own demands, and we don’t think you can just borrow metrics built for other sports and expect them to fit,” Coros CEO Lewis Wu said. “That’s why input from athletes and coaches who live this sport matters so much to us.”

Wu has a personal connection to the gym. He said he has trained at Sender One since it opened.

“What I love about Coros is that technology gives us real data to better understand how we’re actually progressing,” Sender One Climbing co-founder and CEO Alice Kao said. “Sender One’s success has been built on creating spaces where strong local communities can grow, and Coros adds another dimension to that — giving climbers a way to track their progress, share it with each other and connect through the experience.”

Coros community members will also receive complimentary day passes to climb at Sender One gyms.

There’s a hometown twist, too. Sport climbing is on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic program, so the sport’s biggest stage is headed to Sender One’s backyard.

The deal comes as gyms, professional sports and wearable makers look for tighter ties.

CrossFit signed a long-term deal in June with WurQ, a sensor company whose system identifies CrossFit movements and measures reps, range of motion, velocity and power instead of heart rate. The companies plan to bring it to CrossFit affiliate gyms worldwide.

Orangetheory Fitness is moving in another direction. Starting Friday, members at participating U.S. studios can link an Apple Watch to the chain’s in-class tracking system for a one-time $99 fee, an alternative to its heart rate monitor.

Elsewhere, the biggest brands have been securing visibility with elite teams: Whoop signed as official wearable partner of Scuderia Ferrari HP, Paris Saint-Germain and the Boston Red Sox this year, while smart ring maker Oura added U.S. Soccer and a five-year deal with the U.S. Tennis Association.

Wearable technology ranked as the top fitness trend heading into 2027, according to the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual survey, and the race is on. Whoop is now valued at about $10 billion and is reportedly weighing an eventual initial public offering, while Oura went further, launching an IPO in September before postponing it, citing market uncertainty. Apple, meanwhile, is rumored to be working on a screenless tracker.

Coros has made moves of its own. In April it formed a partnership with Wahoo Fitness that lets activity data move between the two companies’ platforms and put Coros watches on Wahoo’s online store.