Winter is here, which means the days are shorter, and the chances of being forced to run in the dark are much higher. Some people probably have perfect schedules that allows them to take advantage of the sun, but most of us must accept the risk and head out in the dark hours. Reflective gear and lights are highly recommended to ensure our safety. Reflective gear is passive safety, only noticeable when a light hits it, while lights are active, constantly notifying others of our presence. As I, and I’m sure many of you have experienced, sometimes those lights go dark at the most inopportune moments. Either in the middle of a run, or before a workout, leaving you scrabbling around the house, scavenging for one more AA battery. What is there is another option? The folks behind jmpLite have harnessed the energy runners already create, the kinetic energy of movement and harnessed it to power a light.
As seen in the pictures above, the overall size is not much different from the average light on the market. Designed to clip onto clothing or sweatbands, it is small enough to be hardly noticeable. Light output seems to be adequate in the videos located on the site, but it would definitely be nice to see firsthand. They also have armbands and headbands available to order with the lights. The housings can be ordered in any of the colors shown above, black, white, green, or pink. They even have a video of the light being dunked in an aquarium, which is a good demonstration for those of use that have run through the notorious Oregon spring downpours. So that is two nice bonuses, it can get wet and never needs batteries.
It can’t be stressed enough how awesome it is that these are battery free. Anything that lessens our negative impact on the earth is a good thing. Battery creation and disposal are not very ‘green’ processes, which greatly increases the value of this product. Eliminating the hassle of buying and storing batteries is a nice bonus. Plus everyone in your house will be thankful to not have to chase down their own batteries after theirs have been cannibalized from their toys or remotes.
To incite backers, the kickbacks start at emails updating you of product progress, official shirts, the lights themselves. For the really enthusiastic donor, they are offering up the prototype unit that started it all.
