Subscription to change your home into a cycling studio
Photo: Peloton
Peloton brought exercise back into the homes of users who can connect into exercise groups through smart fitness devices.
Welcome to the future of fitness. This is the future, trusted by those who invested 550 million dollars (a total of now 995 million dollars) into Peloton last summer, the market value of which is now estimated at over four billion dollars.
Photo: Peloton
Peloton’s business model consists of two parts; sale of top-quality fitness equipment and subscriptions to online training programmes. The first most definitely does not come cheap. The price of a Peloton stationary bike starts at 2245 dollars, and can for now only be purchased in North America.
Peloton's users can choose between several options. The most luxurious package costs 2694 dollars and is intended for a pair of users. In addition to the bike, it comes with a bike mat, two pairs of cycling shoes, two sets of earphones, two heart rate monitors, and two water bottles.
For 39 dollars a month, Peloton subscribers get a guided live training session on their bike or treadmill, whenever they please.
Peloton is also entering the treadmill market, where the most impatient customers can already reserve theirs by paying a 250 dollar deposit. The final price? A substantial 3995 dollars. But the first responses to the expanded service have been extremely positive. For example, in the article entitled »The Treadmill Wars Are Here«, Bloomberg wrote that Peloton is promising their treadmill to last for over 240,000 kilometres.
But Peloton is more than just a manufacturer of modern stationary bikes, which are among the most silent on the market, or treadmills. What sets it apart from most of the competition is the software, which allows their subscribers to connect into exercise groups.
The subscriber community is a key component of Peloton’s business model. It currently has over 600,000 subscribers. For 39 dollars a month, they can enter the world of good physical fitness. Each of the subscribers can choose between 20 different training sessions every day, at any time. All you have to do is get on your top-quality stationary bike or start your jog on your new treadmill.
Yes, sure, you say, but at what price? John Foley, Peloton CEO, answered the following to a similar question from a Bloomberg journalist: »You’re paying $149 a month for Equinox and you realise, Wow, I could have a better treadmill at a better location with better instructors and I’d use it more and I’d be in better shape.«
Peloton's subscription model has already won over more than 600,000 users, who are eager for exercise.
More and more Americans, and now also Canadians, who do not have the time or the energy to leave their homes to work out, are beginning to agree with him.
The fitness industry is being transformed also by the subscription economy. Modern fitness centres and group exercise programmes have chased exercise from many homes in the last few decades. Fitness grew into a 595 billion dollar industry, which is making its way back home with exercise videos and lately also with the innovative approaches of certain companies.
Photo: Peloton
According to research by Alpha, the home fitness equipment industry is now valued at 14 billion dollars per year, which might seem low compared to the total global fitness industry, but that is precisely the ratio Peloton and its competitors are hoping to change.