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Our review of The Best GPS Sports Vests – Updated December 2021
For professional footballers or Sunday League football players, understanding your distance, speed and tactical awareness could be the difference between standard performance and an outstanding performance. This is where the GPS Sports Vest comes in.
In this article, we have reviewed the STATSports APEX Athlete Series, the CATAPULT ONE (Formerly PLAYR) Football GPS Tracker , SOCCERBEE POD GPS Wearable Tracker and Vest and the CATAPULT PlayerTek Football GPS Tracker.
You may also be interested in our review of the best sports training equipment or articles on sports coaching techniques and strategies in our Sports Coaching Learning Centre.
Our First Choice GPS Sports Vest
CATAPULT ONE (Formally PLAYR) Football GPS Tracker – GPS Vest with App to Track and Improve Your Game – for iPhone and Android
For those who want the best, the CATAPULT ONE is for you. The CATAPULT ONE Football GPS Tracker is the more expensive of the CATAPULT GPS Sports vests. It can provide overall team performance and the ability to compare performance against professional athletes. The CATAPULT ONE GPS tracker is FIFA approved. You will notice many Premier League players wearing these.
Our View: 4.8 Out of 5 stars
The CATAPULT ONE Football/Soccer tracker comes with the GPS vest and access to the CATAPULT App.
Key Features:
- FIFA authorised for football/soccer.
- Outlines speed, distance, number of sprint efforts and positioning via usual heatmaps
- Enables you to compare performances against friends and teammates
- Provides overall team performance
- Compare against professional athletes
- Provides nutritional and training advice
The drawbacks with the CATAPULT ONE GPS sports tracker is that CATAPULT have now included an annual membership for the CATAPULT ONE GPS Vest. However, Amazon currently include a year membership included when purchasing the vest which you can view here. (October 2021).
Runner Up
STATSports APEX Athlete Series – FIFA and Rugby GPS Tracker (World Rugby Approved)
Our view: 4.7 out of 5 stars
The STATSports APEX Athlete Series is a fantastic GPS sports tracker vest and is our recommended Rugby GPS Sports Vest. Providing live tracking data, the ability to have Heart Rate tracking and both FIFA and World Rugby approved.
The STATSports APEX Athlete series comes with the GPS performance Pod, Apex Vest and Athlete Series App Access.
Key Features:
- FIFA approved
- World Rugby Approved. A number of professional rugby players use the STATSports APEX as their Rugby GPS Sports Vest Tracker
- Ability to track max speed, total distance, speed and sprints
- Compare performance with friends and teammates
- Includes Heart Rate Wireless BLE Sync
- Can provide live tracking data
The two main drawbacks are that users need the STATSports magnetic Heat Rate monitor to record heart rate and the Sports GPS Tracker vest cannot be used the inside.
Great Alternative GPS Sports Trackers
SOCCERBEE POD GPS Wearable Tracker and Vest
SOCCERBEE released their GPS tracker vest in 2019 and are an alternative to the STATSPORTS and CATAPULT GPS vests. The SOCCERBEE GPS vest is designed for football (or soccer in the USA) players and provides data on speed, total distance run, total amount of sprints and heat maps during a match.
At the time of writing, SOCCERBEE is cheaper than the two other brands discussed in the post.
Our view: 4 out of 5 stars
The SOCCERBEE POD GPS Wearable Tracker comes with the GPS POD, vest, charger as well as a number sticker for the back of the vest.
Key Features:
- Designed for Football or players
- Provides live data on speed, total distance run, total amount of sprints and heat maps
- Enables you to compare performance against friends and teammates
CATAPULT PlayerTek Football GPS Tracker – GPS Vest with App to Track Your Game – on iPhone and Android
Our View: 4.4 out of 5
A great product for athletes who want an entry level GPS Sports Tracker Vest
The CATAPULT PlayerTek Football/Soccer GPS tracker is CATAPULTs cheaper of the CATAPULT GPS Sports tracker range. However, it still provides most of the features athletes want. Such as speed, distance, number of sprint efforts and heatmaps.
The CATAPULT PlayerTEK GPS tracker comes with the GPS tracker vest and the CATAPULT App.
Key Features:
- FIFA authorised for football/soccer.
- Outlines speed, distance, number of sprint efforts and positioning via usual heatmaps
- Enables you to compare performances against friends and teammates
- Compare against professional athletes
- No yearly subscription
The Drawbacks with the CATAPULT PlayerTEK GPS vest is that it does not include overall team performance or data on the intensity effort throughout a performance. The PlayerTek does not measure heart rate, provide live data and cannot be used inside.
How do GPS Sports Vests Work?
Most footballer/soccer players wear a sports vest either on top of their training gear or underneath (You sometimes notice a slight outline on the top of their back). Depending on the sports vest, a detachable GPS tracker or GPS tracking is built into the vest.
A player would then sync up their GPS tracker to the mobile app provided by the manufacturer. The app would record a player’s movements and then log this in the app. As discussed above, some GPS sports vests offer more features/analysis areas than others.
Most GPS sports trackers also provide a heatmap. For example, if a footballer/soccer player used a GPS sports tracker during a game, the GPS sports tracker would provide a map of where the footballer spent most of their time. Enabling the footballer to analyse their tactical positioning.
Let us know your thoughts by commenting below. Do you agree or disagree with these recommendations?
Our article on what makes a good coach also provides more advice on different strategies sports coaches use to improve performance.
You may also be interested in the following articles:
- Our Downloadable Sports Planning Template
- Our Review of the Best Sports Training Equipment for 2020
- A guide to the different Leadership Styles used by husports coaches
Why not also visit our Sports Coaching Learning Centre for more articles on Sports Coaching Techniques and Strategies.
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Catapult or Stats are by far the best options on the market.
Tried the SPT2 tracker which isn’t listed here for good reason and found this was pretty ordinary.
Stick with the tried and tested!
Whatever you do – don’t buy the SPT 2 gps tracker from Sports Performance Tracking.
Their devices seem to be a bit unreliable losing signal and data regularly.
And they don’t seem to be listed on the FIFA website as approved – even though they claim they are.