The pandemic soared sales for exercise bikes like Peloton, and now it appears to have run its course, as treadmills are now regaining a foothold in households, and coaches are being replaced with streaming services.
Chief Executive of Echelon Fit, Lou Lentine expects a 40% increase in treadmills sales during Q4 compared to a year ago. Echelon Fit sells treadmills and stationary bikes among other fitness equipment.
Peloton is another company selling both types of equipment, however their sales aren’t breaking out.
Lentine said, “You don’t need a coach to tell you to work out harder every day. People want to get their 30 minutes of cardio in but they also want to watch the latest Netflix show.”
The evidence comes from sales figures and searches for the last year, with treadmill sales soaring 99% from last year, whereas there was a 3% drop in stationary bike sales.
Amazon searches to the end of August including the word “treadmill” trumped those for “exercise bikes” with 106,087 a week compared to 35,303.
“Peloton made bikes trendy, but now that its marketing machine has quieted down, treadmills are hotter than ever. Customers were brainwashed to buy bikes.”
Echelon Fit’s treadmills start at $1,300 USD and can reach $4,000 sold in US retailers or online at Amazon. Peloton’s treadmills start at $3,000.
The company are also in talks to launch new treadmills at different prices with different features over the next six months, including models that stream Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and news. They will also have Zoom capabilities for those workers shifting to hybrid working.
“We want to see whether people can do a Zoom call while they are (working out).”
It was even reported that the company’s line of exercise bikes have halted.
“We are heavily stocked on bikes. “We are not putting in a lot of new orders for bikes.”
Many exercise equipment makers are still seeing a build up of bike inventory since the pandemic.
The shift to treadmills came as Peloton’s downfall after some bad publicity including product recalls and lawsuits linked to consumer injuries, which included the death of a child.
Peloton’s stock price just closed at $6.50, dropping from $160 a share during the pandemic, and last year the company were forced to slash costs and lay off over 5,000 employees.
Founder and CEO John Foley left and the original bike was recalled due to the seat post breaking unexpectedly. The company also reported its subscribers declined 29,000 due to the recall during the most recent quarter.
They even recently launched an “entertainment: option for its screens with Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube, and were testing others including Disney+, Apple TV+, and HBO Max.
