The exercise wheel is one of the most important features of every small house pet’s enclosure. Your pet loves using their wheel; it helps them stay healthy, and to them its a game.

The Marathon Pets smart wheel lets you join in the game. Share in the excitement your pet feels when they use their wheel by tracking their activity and celebrating their achievements.

You’ll now be able to track how fast, far, and often your little speedster runs. The wheel’s dashboard lets you know when your pet is active and see their running speed in real time. The daily statistics let you know how far your pet ran during the night, while the lifetime statistics leave you amazed at how much total distance they have covered. 

Our mission is to help build a bond between owners and their pets. A bond that would make you want to ask your pet how their day was and then be able to look at their dashboard and actually see!

With small house pets being mostly nocturnal, it can be difficult to understand what they’re really like when you’re not around. The Marathon Pets smart wheel helps owners understand your pet’s activity levels and use that information to: 

1) See when they’re active

2) Celebrate their accomplishments

3) Know if there are changes in their health

4) Make adjustments to promote the best quality of life for your pet

We looked at what was available for exercise wheels on the market and noticed that the wheels were either unsafe for pets, or over time became loud and obnoxious to have nearby due to built up dirt and grime. We solved these problems by constructing the stylish, quality built wheel your pet deserves, and the quiet easy-to-clean wheel you deserve.

Each wheel’s activity dashboard can be viewed from a phone, tablet or desktop from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. 

The smart wheel uses our patented technology to track the revolutions of the wheel over Wi-Fi. This information gets sent to the custom dashboard that comes with every wheel and gives you the ability to track the daily and lifetime activity statistics of your pet. 

Our wheel testers found themselves waking up in the morning and checking their phones to see how far their pet ran during the night. The smart wheel’s activity tracking provides a unique opportunity to make a deeper connection with your pet through its ability to show how fast your pet is running while you watch them, or track how far they’ve gone over the course of the day.

As you become accustomed to your pet’s activity levels, the wheel’s dashboard can become an added level of security in knowing your pet is active and healthy. If you have to be away from them you now have the ability to check-in to make sure everything is okay at home!

Our goal when creating the wheel was to make as big of an impact with its design as we did with the technology. To do this we focused on four key areas:

1) A stylish design.

The modern design of the Marathon Pets smart wheel is sure to be a focal point in the home you’ve created for your pet.

2) Making it the quietest wheel on the market.

If your share a room with your pet and you hear their wheel squeaking in the distance then this feature is for you. We wanted to make this the quietest wheel available not only when you spin it for the first time, but after your pet has gone hundreds of miles on the wheel. Our demo wheels have spun over five million revolutions and we can assure you they’re as quiet as when they came out of the box. 

3) Easy to clean.

Cleaning your pet’s cage is a necessary part of pet ownership. With the quick disassembly of the wheel, cleaning your wheel is a breeze. 

4) Safety

We designed the wheel with low voltage electronics to be safely used in both glass enclosures and traditional cages. 

• Cages: Run the cord through the bars and secure the wheel with the nut and bolt hardware supplied with the wheel.
• Glass Enclosure: Suction cups and cord blockers can be used to run the cord up and out of the top of the enclosure eliminating your pet’s access to the cord. 

Our focus was to make the setup process simple for both kids and adults. We worked hard to ensure this wasn’t a product you’d have to fiddle with to get connected. The following quick and easy steps will have you connected and interacting with your pet in no time: 

Add the wheel to your cage and plug it in

Place the Marathon Pets smart wheel in your pet’s enclosure. You can plug it in on the back of the wheel.

Your wheel comes with cage connectors to ensure that it’s in a sturdy position. (If the cord is still a concern in your cage we have cord blockers available as an add-on item).

Connect your wheel

Once the wheel is plugged in, open your available networks on your computer or mobile device and you’ll see Marathon Pets in your available network. By clicking that option you’ll then be asked to click on your home’s Wi-Fi network and that’s it! Your smart wheel is now ready to start tracking!

View your dashboard

Each wheel comes with a unique ID and dashboard to track your pet’s activity. You’ll use your wheel ID to sign in to www.marathonpets.com to access your dashboard. You’ll then have the real time daily and lifetime activity statistics of your pet.

How we built it

The founding members of our team include mechanical and software engineers. We were able to design the wheel and create prototypes using 3D printers in our own homes. 

The technology inside the wheel was also built in-house. The development of the circuitry, the code that connects the wheel’s smart tracking features to the home’s Wi-Fi network, and the creation of the web interface that powers each wheel’s unique dashboard were all built by our team over the course of the last two years. This dedication to innovation led us to the creation of our patent technology for tracking the wheel’s revolutions over Wi-Fi.

We shared what we were building with the small-pet community through social media, and were energized by the amount of positive feedback. We then connected with small-pet owners to demo test the wheels all across the country. We used their feedback to refine the wheel and confirm its durability and quality. That collaboration helped us reach where we are today, to build the first production ready smart pet exercise wheel!

We decided to launch on Kickstarter because we have seen first-hand the passion of pet ownership from the small-pet community, and we wanted a place where we could have that community help us grow excitement for our small-pet product. Dogs and cats often get all the love and we felt it was important to bring innovation to a product that lets small-pet owners give something new and exciting to their beloved pets.

Our Goal

Our target financial goal was set to allow us to purchase injection molds for the wheels and do a production run for manufacturing. Our wheels to date have been 3D printed which is great for prototyping but results in slower production time. The wheels will be made in the USA and since our leadership team is also US based this will offer better quality control and quicker turn around times.

We’ve got big plans for the future of the Marathon Pets smart wheel. Our ambition is to continue delivering features that strengthen the bond between owner and pets while at the same time improving your pet’s quality of life. Each wheel has built-in support for over the  air updates which ensures that you’ll have access to all features released in the future. By backing our campaign you’ll become part of the community that decides what features we build next.