In a private post to members on social media, Peloton has announced it will be temporarily shutting down its strength studio to work on “some new and exciting things.” The closure is currently scheduled to run from May 27 to June 13, although new strength classes will still be released on demand in addition to scheduled encore classes.
Strength training has remained one of the growing workout libraries amongst Peloton’s digital content. The number of instructors teaching strength training from the Peloton studio has also grown a bit, including trainers like Ben Alldis and Kendall Toole.
Throughout 2021, Peloton CEO John Foley has made several remarks about the fitness behemoth looking to enter and dominate the strength category, leading to a rumor mill surrounding a potential Peloton strength machine or home gym. Members were recently hopeful Peloton would announce a strength machine during its Homecoming event last month but were left without any new hardware announcements.
A new machine may not be on the immediate horizon, but members can seemingly now look forward to a new strength studio from Peloton, paving the way for some other exciting updates.
Peloton to close strength studio for 2.5 weeks
In a post on the Official Peloton Member Facebook group, the fitness company announced the upcoming closure. Here is the full message:
From Thursday, May 27 through Sunday, June 13, our Strength studio will be closed while we work on some new and exciting things! During this time, there will be no live strength classes. New classes will be released on demand, and Encore classes will still be available on the schedule.
As PeloBuddy so thoroughly pointed out, Peloton offered virtually the same message last month when it temporarily closed its Yoga studio. When the studio reopened, it had seen a complete overhaul, so there’s a good chance this strength studio closure will lead to a complete redesign from Peloton.
This again circles back to the rumors of a strength machine from Peloton, too. What better way to introduce the return of live content from Peloton’s newly designed strength studio than with a brand new product?
A potential Peloton strength product for the new studio?
It would certainly be cool and welcomed by the Peloton community, but this feels unlikely for a number of reasons. First is timing — we are just weeks removed from Peloton’s annual Homecoming celebration, which promised big announcements. The keynote speech from Foley did not exactly disappoint but did leave something left to be desired in terms of new product announcements.
If Peloton chose not to announce a strength product in front of arguably its largest simultaneous audience, why announce it now? Furthermore, Peloton has its hands full with a safety recall on its Tread and Tread+ due to safety concerns and injury. On its quarterly report call with investors, Foley relayed that the company is anticipating a $165 million loss as a result of the recall. This estimate is due in part to lost sales, customer refunds, and free subscriptions for current owners urged not to use their Treads.
This will likely keep the company quite occupied throughout 2021 as it looks to re-release both treadmills with added safety components that have yet to be developed or approved. This feels more like a more cost effective set redesign than the rolling out of a new product, but we will keep an eye on Peloton’s progress and will learn much more when the strength studio reopens mid-June.
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