Ever since its release in 2014 of the first at-home indoor cycling bike with live and on-demand streamable classes, Peloton has dominated in this particular at-home market segment. It is not hard to see why - with a user base of over 1.4 million users and a motivating app experience, it remains a strong presence in the fitness community. With a rumored release in the next few months, Soul Cycle now has an at-home indoor cycling bike as well, currently available for pre-order. Is it enough to disrupt the market space and prove to be formidable competition to Peloton?
Price
Soul Cycle’s offering is $250 more than Peloton’s bike at a pre-order price of $2,500. It will launch with Equinox media through Variis, a digital platform that includes brands such as Equinox, Soul Cycle, Pure Yoga, Precision Run, Myodetox, and HeadStrong. This contrasts with Peloton’s app which features only said brand. When is Soul Cycle’s bike available? According to their site, it is available for pre-sale beginning in March 2020 in Austin, Dallas, Houston, New York, LA, and Chicago.
Physical Comparison
For a quick, high-level comparison, the features that stand out to be strikingly similar are is the screen size is same at 21.5”.
What is different?
- Soul Cycle RAM is twice that of Peloton’s at 4GB
- Speakers on Peloton are slightly better at 2x10 watt compared to soul cycle’s 2x8 watt speakers
- Regarding footprint, Soul Cycle is slightly longer at 62.2” in length (little over 5 feet) and less in width at 22.2” (slightly under 2 feet). Basically it is a bit longer and slightly less wide. This contrasts with Pelton’s 4x2’ footprint.
- Both of these following comparisons include the weight of the tablet: Soul Cycle’s offering weighs more at 142 pounds versus Peloton’s 135 pounds. Peloton has a welded steel Fram construction and Soul Cycle doesn’t mention the frame materials on their site so far.
- Soul Cycle doesn’t mention anything regarding their resistance, drive, seat, pedal, crank arms, or bottom bracket whereas Peloton has specifics for all of those areas.
Membership & Warranty Comparisons
Soul Cycle’s at-home bike is powered by Variis, which requires a $40 a month, 12-month membership to access all on-demand classes on your bike. This contrasts with Peloton’s which you can subscribe to on a monthly basis. However, as mentioned before, the Variis app has other brands such as Equinox, Pure Yoga, etc. to name a few.
Their warranties are identical with a 1 year limited warranty for display and bike components as well as a 5 year warranty on the frame.
Both bikes offer a 30 day home trial period however you will need to pay for the $250 return shipping.Company Comparisons
Company Comparisons
Soul Cycle was founded in 2005 with the first studio opening in 2006. In 2009, their first instructor training began. They partnered with Equinox in 2011. In 2012, they launched their first SoulCycle bike as well as opened their first west coast studio. In 2015, they launched the SoulCycle mobile app.
Peloton was founded in 2012 by Graham Stanton, Hisao Kushi, John Foley, Tom Cortese, and Yony Feng with, as their site mentions, “the ambitious goal of bringing the community and excitement of boutique fitness into the home.” They released their first spin bike 2 years later in 2014. 4 years later in 2018, they launched the Peloton Tread with a hefty price of $4,295. At an entire $2,000 more than their spin bike, there has been criticism that the tread is overpriced. On the reddit community, they have even compared the Peloton Tread to a rebranded “Woodway” tread. However, the quality remains top-notch and one user made the comparison: “Do you purchase a Nordictrack for their iFit classes? No. They buy them because they have a history of being a brand people trust.” There are rumors that a less expensive option will be available sometime in 2020.
Current Events surrounding the at home indoor cycling space
An article on Yahoo! finance suggests that “SoulCycle will likely become a major competitor for Peloton. While SoulCycle has driven much of spinning’s popularity over the last several years, it hasn’t had a dedicated at-home spin bike. Peloton has dominated that space. It even sued Flywheel Sports and Echclon Fitness LLC for allegedly mimicking its offerings. We’ll see how Peloton and SoullCycle go head-to-head now that they’re in the same space.”
For a bit on the Flywheel Sports lawsuit, their online live and on-demand classes have been shut down effective March 27, 2020. The bike of course can still be used, but according to EnGadget, this “makes them not much better than ordinary stationary bikes”. Interestingly enough, Peloton is offering a deal for Flywheel customers to trade in their existing bikes for a “like new” Peloton bike at no cost to them. Flywheel also admitted to copying Peloton’s technology with the inclusion of the leaderboard display, as an example.
Now regarding Echelon; Peloton filed suit against them for broadcasting live and recorded classes “imitating the Peloton bike experience”. They were also accused of copying Peloton’s logo, coloring, and font.
As of Monday, April 6, all live classes have been cancelled as one of its New York employees tested positive for coronavirus. They have suspended production in its NY and London studios until April 30. They have also released “family classes” that are aptly well-released during this pandemic, geared towards those 5 and up between the lengths of 5 and 20 minutes.
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