BONUS: Jason Kelly on Peloton and Their Wild Ride
Find this episode with Jason Kelly on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you enjoyed our conversation, you know what to do – rate and review!
Welcome to a special bonus episode of #WeGotGoals, a podcast from aSweatLife.com. I’m Kristen Geil, and as Michael Scott might say, my, how the turn tables. When I spoke to Jason Kelly of Bloomberg about the business of fitness in early February, we lovingly gushed about Peloton as the pandemic darling of at-home fitness. We both agreed that even though they’d slowed their growth and made some missteps lately, the concept of Peloton and the engagement their audience has with the bike and the classes is still really sound. The market, we surmised, was still trying to figure out how much the company was actually worth.
A few days later, I bounced off on vacation and almost immediately, the Peloton news began to drop. 2800 layoffs. The plans for an Ohio factory, scrapped. John Foley out as CEO, Barry McCarthy in. To top it all off, a scathing PowerPoint presentation made public by Blackwells Capital urging Peloton to sell.
The question was on everyone’s mind: is this spelling doom for Peloton?
Realizing that our original conversation was quickly outdated, Jason was nice enough to come back on the podcast for a special bonus episode. In this one, we talk exclusively about the Peloton rollercoaster, whether that’s a sign of real trouble for the at-home fitness industry, a potential Peloton sale, the continued saga of the mysterious Peloton Rower, and why we still believe in the brand. There’s a lot to talk about, and we do our best to cover it all.
Links:
- Our original episode with Jason on the business of fitness
- Jason on Twitter
- Jason on Bloomberg’s QuickTake series
- Jason’s book, Sweat Equity: Inside the New Economy of Mind and Body
- Resources and Articles Mentioned:
- From Margins: Peloton Valuations and Innovation
- From Vox: Peloton’s problems aren’t just Peloton’s
- The Blackwells Group powerpoint presentation
- From the New York Times: Peloton’s future is uncertain after a swift fall from pandemic stardom.
- From Bloomberg: Kevin Mayer on investors misreading the demand for at-home fitness
- From aSweatLife: Flywheel’s Acquisition and What That Means for the Business of Fitness
- From aSweatLife: Should You Keep Paying for ClassPass?