what will happen is all the talented fitness instructors from NY will be lining up to get the opportunity to be a peloton instructor as it catapults you to “fitness celebrity” almost instantly.
these popular instructors are now getting thousands of dollars for speaking opportunities as well, apparel deals, etc.
peloton is far more valuable to a spin instructor than a spin instructor is to peloton. simple as that.
I bet the talent is on mostly commission models, like the teaching pro at your club. I would argue that some of the talent might actually be underpaid. If I had to replace every Emma class with a Christine one I’d fucking quit.
and as consultants and other people that fancy themselves intelligent tend to do, I bet they lose sight of the big picture. part of the appeal of peloton is the library of available classes and that you never have to repeat one if you don’t want to. making a purely stream/class analysis justify it’s place on the server is shortsighted.
I did notice on an Alex ride recently that he took a veiled shot at other platforms, which I chuckled at. I wonder if this is related.
I miss Jennifer Jacobs (took a few of her rides before they pulled them off the bike) and she was a good instructor and incredibly attractive (never a bad thing). I followed her on Peloton along with a bunch of other instructors when I joined, and still do and wow, she’s a LOT. I’m sure she was expensive as hell, so if that’s why she’s gone, I get it.
That said, if they start getting rid of the “talent” folks will be pretty upset. I’m imagining how much leverage Cody has, as I think his fans are really loyal. Same with other instructors too, but perhaps no one as much as Cody.
I read something a while back that the talent was paid on a per class basis, but not sure if that changed as they company scaled. Also agree that some are underpaid (per @greebs point, Cody is likely underpaid).
What I wouldn’t give to see their OKRs or internal dashboards with all of their metrics. I have quite a few former colleagues that are there now. Maybe I should give them a call…
With the push they put behind Cody with Dancing with the Stars, you would think he is untouchable. They had instructors doing shoutouts in classes and all then all the Insta posts, visits to the set, etc.
Would have to think this was some sort of integrated campaign to get more subs and bike sales in the run up to Christmas? I thought it was pretty clever.
Peloton fell into the same trap that a lot of one hit wonders fall into. Namely, they thought the covid surge was the new normal and not just a temporary blip. Had they been smart they would have been telling wall street and other investors that, and that when covid was over they would have a much bigger base of members but that the new hardware sales and new users would slow back to more normal levels. And they would have run the business with that in mind.
Instead like a 1 hit wonder who is sure the hits will keep on coming and spend themselves into bankruptcy, Peloton was sure the covid surge would never end and did the same.
I hear you, but I think only if he pivots to full out “celebrity” and hosts a TV show or something. But if he’s the top paid spin instructor in the world (or one of the top 5, among some of his colleagues at PTON), he may not be. if no one will pay him more to do the same job, then he’s not overpaid. Sure if he has a good agent he can show how he’s “worth” more, but until you get a competing offer from Nordic Track… are you though?
At the end of the day, PTON can probably look at a lot of these people and say “look, we love you, you’re a part of our brand, but before us you were working at a soul cycle.” Harsh i know!
Yep, that makes total sense and I do see this as a stepping stone for him to go full celebrity status. People take Cody’s classes for his stories, anecdotes, jokes. They’re not taking it because he’s really good at calling out 35-55 resistance at 75-90 cadence and I’m sure he and his agent know that.
It’s ultimately one of the biggest problems PTON has right now. Instructors have a ton of leverage and could bleed them dry, but is it worth tossing those top names to the curb for the next up & comer? This is why John Foley (or McKinsey) gets paid the big bucks.
Also, just to comment. I love this discussion. Thank you all.
it’s honestly a lot like the sportscenter anchor thing. at a certain point, Dan Patrick isn’t worth it when you can get “the next Dan Patrick” for a nickel on the dollar. ESPN has evolved it’s talent thing big time and invested in guys like SVP & Greeny (and Stephen A and other hot take-guys) but a lot of the other hosts get paid “well” but also pretty modestly in comparison.
So far, probably 90% of my rides have been with AT.
I am trying to honestly think about why this is, and how committed I am to him specifically. I would say I only began choosing him because I like rap music and want to do those rides. I stuck with him because I like his attitude and he is motivating and clever without being overly cheesy or anything like that.
It’s really hard to say how I’d feel if they sent him packing and got another AT to do the same thing with the same type of music. It’s easy for me to say I’d keep it rolling, but maybe I’d find it to be a bigger impact than I currently believe.
I’m right there with you on AT. I don’t know what I’d do if they replaced him other than probably take a bunch of emo rides with Emma to dull my pain.
I’m still recovering from @tnord ‘s comment about what he would do if they got rid of Emma and replacing her with rides with ones from Christine. Not sure I could recover from losing Emma
I was around pre JJ and post JJ… as well as Steven Little.
JJ was super fun and had really hard classes. I was bummed when they took down their old archived classes.
I also really like HMC who is an OG but I feel like she’s maybe on the way out or they keep trying to repurpose her as the “stretch” or “Pilates” person.
I’ve been doing more stretching classes lately and come across a few HMC ones. Made me think “does she still do rides?” since I feel like I never see her name pop up outside of a random ass country ride once a month.
She does a lot of low impact classes (and they’re very good for that). Not sure about other stuff. Her stretches are literally too stretchy for me. I can’t bend like that.
I’ve been thinking a bit about some of the decisions Peloton has made over the last few months. First, they cut the price of the hardware. Then a few months later, they raised the price of hardware and reinstated delivery fees, citing “inflation and other factors”. In such a supply-chain intensive business if you can’t see inflationary pressures that literally everyone else saw then it might be time to reevaluate some things. And if you did see them, don’t try to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. Meanwhile, John Foley publicly admits that the company lost it’s discipline during the pandemic boom and they need to get back to their roots. How these decisions show discipline in any way is beyond me. Maybe it’s that they recognize finally that they grossly miscalculated with their expenses and now they’re going to pay for it BIGLY.
On the positive side, while hardware sales may be slowing the users Peloton gained during the pandemic are still there. People will of course go back to gyms to some degree but Peloton has some of the highest NPS scores of any company on earth and for good reason, so I’d think many of these new users are sticky. Their valuation is basically where it was pre-pandemic but with more users. The foundation is there to rebound and I really hope they can do it. I mean, with that many users, many of whom are of very desirable demographics, I don’t see Peloton going belly up. I’d think some other tech company, Apple maybe?, would scoop them up but who could say? Will be interesting to watch!
The product itself is great. If you stick with it after getting used to it, it becomes a thing you do most days of the week (at least that’s the case for me). That’s a very enviable position for a company to be in. Even though I still lift weights at the gym, Peloton has more-or-less permanently solved my cardio problem, and it would take a mass exodus of talent to get me to leave I think.
I think we can all agree the easiest way for them to cut some cost in a way that would be universally applauded would be to cut ties with Kendall Toole.
If you somehow disagree, well fuck you let’s fight.
I largely feel the same way. We love the platform and convenience. Most days of the week the bike gets used by at least one of us in the house. Can’t imagine going to another service. Last weekend we walked around an outdoor mall here in town that has both a Peloton showroom and a Soulcycle studio. I know next to nothing about Soulcycle but I’ll admit I looked down upon them like a true snob. When we passed the Peloton showroom I thought, ahhh yes these are my people.