To say the last few years have been a roller coaster for Peloton barely scratches the surface. Once flying high on exploding pandemic demand, the company has been confronted with what it has deemed a “significant reduction” in its connected fitness products, including a series of treadmills and bikes.
Following a presentation, internal documents noted by CNBC point to a two-month halt in the production of its entry-level Bike between February and March. The premium Bike+ has already been halted, with production only starting back up again in June, per the documents. Tread production is set for a six week pause in February, while the Tread+ won’t be produced at all during the 2022 fiscal year.
Peloton was initially one of the biggest tech winners as gyms across the globe closed down amid the pandemic. In fact, it was initially faced with the opposite problem: a delivery system that simply couldn’t meet the practically overnight spike in demand for its products. The company has long been a leader in connected home fitness, and by most accounts viewed Covid-19 as more a paradigm shift than temporary shift in how people work out. And while the pandemic has continued to stretch on, it has seen flagging stales as gyms have reopened.
In spite of those early successes, the past few years have been dotted with controversy — most notably, a recall of its treadmill products over safety concerns. The company was initially hesitant to work with the Consumer Product Safety Commission on a recall following 70 safety incidents, including the death of a young child.
“From my perspective, as one of the founders, the framing of the category wasn’t good enough. What the category thought of as safety wasn’t good enough,” CEO Foley told me at Disrupt late last year. “We thought, let’s bring treads to market, and from a hardware perspective, they’re the best designed treads. Looking at the safety that’s been in the category for decades, what we learned is, we need to be better. We’re better in almost everything, and now we need to be better in safety.”
We’ve reached out to Peloton to confirm today’s reporting.
Developing…
