Nomad giving away chargers for Pebble devices after Fitbit takeover

By Julian Chokkattu Published December 20, 2016

Pebble smartwatch owners may be feeling left in the dust after the company announced it was shutting down following its acquisition by Fitbit. Pebble is no longer manufacturing or selling any devices and don’t expect much — if any — support for your device. But another company with a similar backstory is throwing Pebble owners a bone.

Like Pebble, Nomad debuted on Kickstarter in 2012. While it didn’t rake in millions like Pebble, it was successful enough that the company now has a portfolio of mobile and wearable accessories.

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Pebble’s demise has had an effect on Nomad as the company was set to release a new charger for the watch — those plans have been ruined with the acquisition, but the company is taking it in stride by giving away the charger for free.

“The Pebble story was a big inspiration to companies like ours,” said Noah Dentzel, Nomad’s CEO. “Understandably, we were truly saddened to hear that Pebble recently had to cease operations in the wake of some of the challenges that we all face as growing hardware companies. It was also in 2012 that Nomad got started with our own Kickstarter project, ChargeCard. While our $160,000 is small potatoes compared to Pebble’s epic whopper of a campaign, we nonetheless got the funds we needed to get our production up and running.”

Nomad was going to price the charger at $15, but anyone can grab up to two per household for free — you only have to pay for shipping.

There is a key-sized cable for the original Pebble, or you can grab two adapters for the Pebble Time and Pebble 2. The adapters work with MicroUSB or USB Type-C cables, allowing you to charge your device with the USB cable you carry around.

“We had originally planned to retail this product for $14.95, but decided that we’d rather offer it up as a gift to the Pebble community as a thank you for your contributions to the crowdfunding ecosystem,” Dentzel said.

You can grab the free charger and adapters here.

Julian Chokkattu

Former Mobile and Wearables Editor

Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…

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