2019

Peloton turned an exercise bike into a status symbol and created a very profitable cult of home fitness, gamification, and superstar instructors. During the Covid pandemic sales surged.

This is also when the problems started. Overconfidence led the company’s leaders to mistake the Covid pandemic for a permanent revolution for home fitness. They manufactured more bikes as if gyms were permanently dead and home fitness was the new reality. This saturated the market with unwanted bikes. Bikes that even million dollar advertising campaigns couldn’t sell.

Another big mistake was a 2019 Christmas commercial in which a husband gives his wife a Peloton bike. She records herself in a nervous and submissive fearful tone. Did her husband force her to get fit with the bike? This exploded on social media and TV, with the campaign being labeled sexist and dystopian. Public outrage over the ad caused Peloton's stock to plunge and wiped out $942 million in market value in a single day.