Whoop, the Boston-based health wearable company founded by Will Ahmed, now operates in more than 200 countries and grew revenue more than 100% last year, according to Ahmed. But the path from elite-athlete exclusive to your mum's wrist is far messier than the company's marketing might suggest.
For roughly a decade, Whoop sold itself as a secret weapon for serious athletes. LeBron James was convinced to wear the band in Whoop's first year, followed by Michael Phelps and others including Cristiano Ronaldo, Patrick Mahomes, and Rory McIlroy. It worked. The message was simple: the world's best performers track their bodies with this device, and you can, too.
Now Ahmed is chasing something different. The hardware, a band worn around the wrist, bicep, or torso, measures sleep, recovery, heart rate variability, and a growing list of biomarkers. The company has expanded far beyond the athlete niche. A partnership with Quest Diagnostics, which has over 2,000 US locations, lets members take blood tests and upload their biomarkers directly into the app, where a clinician reviews the results alongside their Whoop data.
This is where things get complicated. The FDA challenged Whoop's blood pressure feature in a warning letter last summer, arguing the feature constituted medical diagnosis rather than wellness monitoring; Whoop said the FDA was "overstepping its authority," and kept building. It is a bold stance. The warning followed Apple receiving FDA clearance for a hypertension feature for its watch last year, and wearables firm Whoop receiving a warning letter for an unauthorized feature.
The regulatory landscape is shifting, though. Newly revised FDA guidance states that non-invasive wearables estimating blood pressure, such as with a photoplethysmogram, can qualify as general wellness products if they are strictly wellness-focused and do not intend to diagnose specific diseases or clinical conditions like hypertension. This gives Whoop legal cover, at least for now.
The real threat may not be the regulator. Oura, the Finnish company behind the smart ring that has become Whoop's most direct rival, has built a large and loyal following. Customers buy the ring outright for around $350, then pay roughly $70 a year to access the platform. Retention at the 12-month mark was hitting the high 80s, a remarkable figure for any wearable.
New competitors are arriving faster. Luna unveiled the Luna Band at CES 2026 as a Whoop-style fitness wearable focused on real-time, voice-led health guidance. Luna says the device will launch without any subscription fees later this year.
Whoop's subscription model costs between $200 and $360 annually. That works when you are chasing LeBron. It works less well when you are chasing the mainstream. Pricing is the primary concern with both the tracker and the service. Redditors say that the service is too pricey when considering the cost of other watches or wearables with additional features.
The paradox for Ahmed is stark. His elite-athlete strategy worked brilliantly at scale, but it has created a perception problem. The band is no longer cool because LeBron wears it; it is becoming another subscription service competing for household cash. The question is whether medical-grade features and blood test integration can sustain a mass-market play that the brand was never designed for.