Folium: “Make It Count” via YouTube / Nike

Folium: "Make It Count" via YouTube / Nike

Folium: "Make It Count" via YouTube / Nike

Folium: “Make It Count” via YouTube / Nike

There are times when I waffle about posting media that rides the line between “educational inspiration” or “marketing fluff”. I want to post things with substance, enough to actually show people something new and impressionable. Perhaps this stems from the part of me that is determined to make a difference in someone’s life. Crazy academic and so on…

This video, “Make It Count”, is financed by Nike and their new wrist-band like product that monitors and records your daily activity – then syncs it to your iPod/iPhone/Facebook/Twitter and so on. The “Nike Fuelband” I believe it is called (I receive nothing from Nike for mentioning that…)

We shot this in 10 days, just the two of us. – “Make It Count”

It’s marketing. No doubt. However it’s marketing that strikes a chord. First and foremost the Nike Fuelband is a product that is to be sold, at a profit, and furthers the designs of the Nike corporation. I want you to understand that I understand this.

Now, let’s peel back the glossy marketing layer and consider a few things that strike me. First, this product – while being a product – motivates you to get up, get out, and DO something. Walk, run, jump, play, and records it all for analysis. I can’t argue against that. I’m for anything that helps people get out of the house. Second, I’m also for the collection of large amounts of data. I love data, and data that tells me just how much “out” I’ve gotten can’t be a bad thing. In fact, the technology boggles my mind.

Now we take the idea of getting out even further, and you reach this video – and this is where I want to end up. Some people need to be motivated to leave their house, others their town, city, state, country, and so on. But in the end, we all need that drive to push out just a little bit further. I feel like travel is the same way. Most people don’t make the jump from the front door to the steps of the Parthenon, but they make steps every day to push themselves just a little bit further outside their comfort zone.

Travel scares people because it’s new, it’s unknown, and there’s a lot of things that tie us down to home. But the more time we spend outside the home-bubble, the more comfortable we become with the organized chaos of travel. Travel itself never gets easier, just our ability to roll with it. – LEAF

I like this video, because it inspires me to continue traveling. In fact, I’m jealous of their budget, their goals, and their drive to complete this project (lucky bastards). I want to be them. I want to see what they see and do what they do, and that’s why I’m posting. Click, watch, enjoy.