Venture: Biking at Home

There are new gyms opening everywhere and there is no commute. People have been forced to begin working out from homes to stay in shape since the government mandated that gyms be shut down due to COVID-19.  

In the wake of this people have been ordering gym equipment to be able to use at home to keep in tip-top shape. As the country tries to reopen it will be intriguing to see how gyms are able to build up again while reducing COVID infections.  

People have begun to realize that there is a great benefit to not paying for that 100$ plus membership to a fancy gym that is usually overcrowded and ill-repaired. A new light has shined upon home gyms and companies like Peloton, Mirror, and Bowflex have been able to pounce on this situation as people are left in dire straits.  

ICON Fitness, a company that owns Proform, Nordictrack, and iFit, accounted that it has experienced a 600 percent sales spike in April. This was the beginning of isolation and people were strapping in for the long haul and saw a better end where they can keep the equipment that they buy. Consumers would purchase these large machines and make accommodations in their house, seeing the financing on the equipment the same as a gym membership payment.  

Credit: James Maloney

Consumers have begun to realize how easy it has become to workout at your own time rather than forcing yourself to get in the car and go to the gym. People typically state that the hardest part of the gym, is well, going to the gym.  

With the new world of at-home workouts that are no longer a problem and give people a larger incentive to stay at home and workout. When the first wave of the pandemic riled up the world panic-buying was frequent, and Peloton Bikes were one of the first to go. 

 Pricing at over $2,245, many athletes wanted to keep their competitive edge so they did whatever they could to make sure that they maintained a tight physique. Peloton stock is hitting record highs from these pandemic purchases, but they are also getting hurt by a high amount of unexpected cost. Peloton reported that sales are up 66 % from the previous year in direct correlation from the shelter-in-place orders from the U.S., keeping people indoors.  

“During the last few weeks of Q3, we saw a significant increase in demand for our bike, which has continued into Q4 so far,” the company disclosed in a letter to shareholders.  

Peloton is still expecting large gains in the following quarter but has also seen some losses from unexpected costs. Peloton like everyone else was not anticipating a pandemic taking over the world so they had to adapt quickly to the situation and found losses in areas of shipping, losing over $55 million or 20 cents share.  

The company said that it is struggling to get orders to customers and could put a temporary pause on its sales in certain areas. Peloton has also stated that “Unfortunately, the unexpected sharp increase in sales has created an imbalance of supply and demand in many geographies, causing elongated order-to-delivery windows for customers...We do not expect to materially improve order-to-delivery windows before the end of Q4”.  

Without any expansion soon this could hurt Peloton in the long run if they are not able to adapt to the current economic climate and could lose possible consumers to competitors. This could also allow for improvement in the future and possibly a more streamlined way of being able to give their consumers a more pleasing experience.  

 As this all settles in this will be the start of a series of new at-home workout equipment on the market. Peloton is heavily tech backed which is why people are jumping to it, consumers love to able to interact with their friends and family and have all their workouts tracked. The Peloton is making a following and will advance itself if it is able to keep up with demand.  

On top of gym equipment, wearable fit-tech is becoming almost as common as people having an iPhone. Whether it be the Apple Watch or a Fitbit everyone has some sort of tech on their wrist. It is truly amazing how the companies are capable of marketing their products as it almost a necessity in your life when you have never had it before nor even thought about it.  

Apple watches can track everything from how many steps you take in a day to how many calories you can burn. These watches are selling like crazy because consumers and infatuated with the idea of tracking everything in their life and must have the need to know everything. Where it seems, the price is no option for people, and they are willing to spend up to $500 on a watch just to track their fitness.  

This only proves that consumers are willing to open their checkbooks when it comes to their health even if they do not see any differences, it will just make it feel like they are making progress.  

In the end, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to at-home fitness and there will be a lot more to come with many more technological advances in the forecast. Getting in this game early will allow there to be major growth but it will all depend on how much longer people will want to work out at home or have the gym atmosphere again.