Peloton kicked off their annual ‘Homecoming’ weekend event today, starting with a keynote of upcoming plans from their new CEO as well as existing Peloton instructors. This 21-minute-long keynote highlighted a slew of milestones over the past year, but also covered new upcoming features. And also this was the first time Peloton has officially shown off their planned rower hardware.
First up, a few very minor tidbits that were worthwhile noting:
– Peloton says that in 2021, members worked out 13 billion minutes (that’s billion with a b, like boom)
– They made an interesting point of talking about their Delta Airlines partnership where you can see Peloton content on a plane, specifically saying it was “the first time” Peloton content has been on a non-Peloton platform. Obviously, their new CEO has talked a lot about putting Peloton content on other platforms in recent months. This subtle use of the word “first” didn’t go unnoticed
– The CEO repeated his goal of having Peloton at 100 million users. Currently, they’re at 6 million users
– Launch of their Peloton Corporate Wellness division, which basically aims to partner with large companies to give free Peloton memberships, most fitness companies in this space have corporate wellness divisions aimed at doing this sort of work
– They plan to re-open their Peloton Studios in London & New York City to the public this summer
Beyond that, most of the non-feature things said/covered were largely just a general recap of things and content they launched over the past year.
New Features:
This year we see slightly fewer announced features than last year’s update, but at the same time, Peloton also just recently launched the Peloton Guide hardware as well as their Lanebreak feature, so that probably reduced some of the things that would have launched now. In other words, Peloton is holding back less for Homecoming than they used to, and instead just launching it. While that reduces the fanfare of this type of event, I’m sure consumers appreciate just having the darn feature now versus later.
Invite Friends: This feature allows you to invite friends to complete a group workout together, as well as naming for special occasions. Currently, completing a workout with friends is kinda clunky at best. So this is basically an easy way to organize a gathering of people. You’ll choose the class you want to complete, and then choose your friends to invite.
They can then see the invites on a new ‘Your Schedule’ section that shows both their previously planned workouts, as well as any invites to accept/decline:
Just Workout: This one is actually something my wife will very much appreciate, which is ‘Just Workout’. This will allow you to record an outdoor workout with all the usual HR/GPS/etc stats, but not tied to a specific Peloton guided workout. For example, when we travel my wife will often use the Peloton app on her phone to maintain streaks/achievements while she does a run. But she really doesn’t care about what the instructors say, she goes off and does her planned interval/etc runs herself. She just wants credit for it, and basically just reduces the volume to zero. This solves exactly that by allowing you to listen to your own music now, with no specific class tied to it.
Peloton says this will work with any Bluetooth heart rate strap as usual, plus the Apple Watch, as well as maintaining all streaks/challenges/achievements.
The company says it’ll be out in time for summer, and that indoor workout types will be added as well down the road.
Peak your Power Zone: This is less a new feature, and more a new training schedule. But in short, this is a new 8-week power-zone specific schedule focused on increasing your FTP value specifically (in other words, it’s probably gonna hurt). The schedule has 3 workouts per week on it, and at the end of it, you’ll complete an FTP test to validate your gains (or, hopefully your gains).
Accessibility On Tread: Soon, the Tread will support Google’s TalkBack screen reader for programming and metrics, as well as get real-time feedback on their speed and pace changes.
They also announced a few other classes and programs, but these were more general content than specific features. Ultimately, as I said earlier, there’s definitely less this year than last year at Homecoming, but instead, the features this year have just been launched when they’re ready, rather than held back for Homecoming.
The Rower Hardware:
This will be a very short section. Because…umm…they didn’t say anything. Literally, they just said they’ll be launching a new type of workout, and then the camera slowly zoomed/panned out to show one of their instructors (Adrian Williams) start rowing on a Peloton branded rower. Here’s the best look at it we get:
It appears to use the same screen as the Peloton Bike+, but beyond that, we don’t see anything else, aside from some blurry momentary closeups:
Just a split-second later (literally, under a second), it cut to showing “Coming Soon”, and then they just moved on like nothing had happened.
We don’t know pricing or availability. The current rumors say later this year, which makes sense. Launching an indoor row just prior to summer isn’t very logical. But launching it when Peloton often launches hardware in the September-ish timeframe is more logical for both the indoor season as well as the holiday season.
Wrap Up:
Undoubtedly, Peloton is in massive transition under their new CEO. This past week at their earnings call they outlined in stark language what was done well, what was a proper dumpster fire, and what they plan to change. Their new CEO isn’t afraid to mince words.
Of course, like many indoor fitness businesses over the last 4-6 months, Peloton isn’t immune to the normalization of what people plan to spend their money on, after the peak of the pandemic. However, unlike most other companies – Peloton is actually still growing. As I mentioned in my Zwift post yesterday, they still sold an astounding 200,000 indoor bikes/treadmills this past quarter. They’ve now got 3 million paying hardware members, and another million app members.
The core of their challenges is less about pure growth than it is about getting their cost structure under control, which, they’ve obviously detailed significantly over the past few months. And then in conjunction with that, they’ve talked about expanding into new international markets, as Peloton is only offered in a literal single handful of countries (you can count them all on one hand).
Anyways, interesting times ahead for sure.
With that – thanks for reading!
FOUND THIS POST USEFUL? SUPPORT THE SITE!
Hopefully, you found this post useful. The website is really a labor of love, so please consider becoming a DC RAINMAKER Supporter. This gets you an ad-free experience, and access to our (mostly) bi-monthly behind-the-scenes video series of “Shed Talkin’”.
Support DCRainMaker - Shop on Amazon
Otherwise, perhaps consider using the below link if shopping on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but your purchases help support this website a lot. It could simply be buying toilet paper, or this pizza oven we use and love.
Any news on when or if Peleton will be available in the Netherlands?
I’d be tempted to try Peloton if they opened up their app to support third party trainers. Maybe that’s something they should think about in the goal to get to 100 million subscribers?
Looks like Adrian needs some more training — from that single pic his technique looks terrible.
LOL absolutely
Des from DesFit posted a review of Hydrow a while ago
In prep for this, will you check out the Hydrow rower?
I don’t believe Ray is an avid rower. There are some excellent rower reviewers online. Most have covered the Hydrow.
I wonder if this will be the kick up the backside that might make Concept a bit more innovative?
Honest question: What makes it necessary for C2 to be more innovative? For me, the value of the brand is in providing a simple, effective machine with hardware and software that simply lasts. I bought a second-hand model that’s about 20 years old and has over a million miles on it, and is outputting more or less the same information on the PM3 monitor and the PM5, aside from minor points like Bluetooth/ANT+ connectivity, which you can make happen with a few wires. That kind of consistent simplicity and quality over time is what makes the Concept 2 brand worth buying, in my opinion. I don’t feel any need for any touchscreens or bells & whistles on any of my C2 machines.
I have been owning a Concept 2 Rower for 16 month and I am extremely happy….so happy that I bought the bike just recently. Both connect without any problems to Garmin and both measure power. Together both were cheaper than a peloton bike. If the rower is as expensive, I don’t see to many future customers! I am sure that there are more avid bikers than rowers and I don’t see that the hardcore rowers dump their C2s and switch to Peloton. But we’ll see soon enough.
You’re lucky, you missed the 5+ year period of painfully trying to convince Concept to provide any form of syncing with Garmin devices, they just didn’t see any need for it despite so many requests. They just seem so out-of-touch and vulnerable to a market disrupter waltzing in while they’re still asleep and stealing their crown.
I don’t see the Concept 2 & Peleton rower customers having a lot of overlap. There are rowers like the Hydrow that will be more likely to overlap with Peleton. There will be some overlap but the two rowers are too dissimilar to be direct competitors.
The only reason tfor my to get Concept2 was the connectivity with Garmin. If that wouldn’t have been an option….Concept 2 rower and bike wouldn’t sit in my basement. It is amazing why fitness companies wouldn’t open themselves up to other fitness companies when they are not in a competition but can only benefit from each other without spending much money.
But I still hate that Garmin Connect is not opening up to all the activities they support on their watches. So you can choose Indoor Rowing but you activities in GC will be under Gym&Fitness Equipment. Why is that the only option? Garmin needs to catch up with GC…that is just a fudging mess if you do anything but run, cycle or swim..maybe walk.
That market disruptor is not going to be Peloton though, lol.
The only other rower maker of note is Technogym. Whether you think their rower is better or not is largely a matter of taste, but it’s considerably more expensive.
Err, I think you mean Water rower. There are tons more. But Technogym is certainly not renowned for their rower.
That part has been entirely because of their headunits. Every PM4 monitor and forward has technically been able to transmit ANT+ for years. The PM5 unit was much better at it though. (and the pm5 can do BT as well)
Nope. RP3 and WaterRower are absolutely rower makers of note, the former especially.
It looks oddly steep or inclined compared to other rowers.
That, ummmm… didn’t look like good rowing form.
Which is fine for most, but if you’re a trainer and/or when you’re selling it as part of a training subscription package…
Seriously, he looked like most of the gym goers who get on a rowing machine (often to show off) having not been shown (or perhaps listened) how to use it.
And it may make me sound a bit snobbish, but you can almost always tell who has never rowed in an actual boat before. You’d capsize if you did what they did.
You mean the type who the first thing they do is crank the resistance up to 10?
Peloton is in a cash crunch and needed a $745 million loan. They won’t be getting any revenue from this on the books until at least the new fiscal year. How much do you think it will costs to establish the production line and get some inventory?
I am a little worried that we will never see this produced.
I own a Concept 2 and a Peloton bike. I will look for some kind of iPad mount on my rower. Will be able to take the classes, just not the leaderboard or Peloton metrics.
@Mark, there are tons of good tablet mounts. I have the Concept2 one for the rower and Erg Caddy Flip for the Ski Erg.
link to concept2.com
I wonder what’s the point of viewing Peloton content on a plane except for good PR?
There’s probably a good reason, but why can’t you “free bike” and watch youtube, netflix, disney+ etc? seems like a cheap integration that would be good for Peloton and the streaming services. I’d love to do my long ride while watching a sporting event on TV or a movie.
I don’t see a Peloton rower catching on, at least not like their bikes. As a former rower who sold his erg shortly after buying a smart trainer and bike, proper form is extremely critical in rowing and poor form can lead to injury.
Maybe Peloton Inc is trying to take a bite out of rowing studios like Orange Theory Fitness, RowHouse etc but this seems niche. They certainly won’t win over ACTUAL rowers who are solidly in the Concept2 camp. Big “meh” for me.
I largely agree. Albeit, it really depends on the price. As they showed in their earnings call letter, the changes in price they’ve been experimenting with lately have had massive impacts on sales. So perhaps they’ll continue that.
In many ways though, I think sporty people heavily overestimate how much normal people want to row. It’s ultimately the same reason Zwift rowing never came to fruition. Anyone can ride a bike and get reasonably fit doing so. It requires effectively no form-specific aspects – you just pedal harder and work harder, whereas the same can’t be said for rowing in terms of that learning curve.
(Yes, of course, there are elements of pedaling efficiency, but nowhere near the same level as rowing or swimming in terms of impact to output.)
Still, I’m looking forward to giving it a whirl. If for no other reason to mix it up!
PTON will likely go bankrupt soon. That should be something customers consider before purchasing.
Why will they go bankupt soon?
I think he was right. Likely to go bankrupt soon by their own admission.
link to wsj.com
Anybody else think that CEO is trying to look like Tim Cook?
As long as he makes the business a fraction the success that Cook has, I don’t care if he wears moose pajamas.