Peloton vs. Tonal: The Ultimate Fitness Showdown

Recent Peloton job postings for the position of “VP Product Marketing for Peloton Strength” indicate that Peloton may have another product in development or is planning to acquire it. After receiving more than 400 applications for the job, the job posting was removed about four days ago. Let’s discuss the meaning of the job posting and share the relevant parts.

The VP of Peloton Strength Product Marketing will report to the Head of Product marketing, the SVP. As the marketing GM for the Strength product line, the VP of Product Marketing will be responsible for overseeing the Go-to-Market strategy for this new content discipline at Peloton.

• As the Peloton Strength marketing GM, a new Content discipline and a completely new and confidentially connected fitness category, for Peloton Interactive
• Responsible for all aspects of the Peloton strength product go-to market strategy, including product positioning, placement and promotional strategies. Assist/partner with other stakeholders regarding product pricing and the business roadmap.
• You will lead the marketing strategy for Strength.

It is unclear if this job would only oversee existing strength content that is available on all platforms or if it would lead to a new product. The job posting talks about product pricing - which would mean that a standalone product must have a price. The job posting also mentions the “completely new and confidential connected fitness category”, which is also a language that tends to signify a new product. Peloton previously expressed interest in the connected strength category. reports earlier this year indicated that Peloton approached Tempo, who makes one of these devices, to inquire about acquiring them.

We also know that John Foley, Peloton CEO, has spoken out about how Peloton R&D has always been working on new products. In fact, he appeared on the “How It Built This” podcast last month and spoke specifically about how Peloton has been investing heavily in R&D in recent months. Peloton should consider entering the strength market due to the increasing interest in staying home but still pursuing dedicated strength training. This is especially considering the success of other companies that have connected strength products. Peloton has already hired some experience in-house - Sam Bowen , their SVP for Hardware, was hired in November 2019 from
Tonal. He had previously spent 2 years working with Tonal’s connected strengths hardware.

Tonal is clearly a leader in this category and is growing in popularity. Peloton users have taken to the Tonal. There is even a Facebook group called The PeloTonalGroup. There are many other companies that are also trying to compete, such as Forme, Temp (the company Peloton approached about buying), carbon and many more. Another company is Mirror, which was recently purchased by Lululemon and now has a fitness class in your home. However, it does not have any strength training attachments.

If the job listing is correct and points to a new connected strength device by Peloton, what does it tell us about its design or function? There are many ways to implement connected strengths devices, just by looking at the few companies listed above. Although we don’t yet have enough information to give an idea of the Peloton device’s design, we will be reporting back when we do. Based on what we have so far, however, we don’t think we’ll see the new Peloton strength product in the coming months. It seems like it’s still very early in development.

Another option is to buy an existing connected strength device from Peloton and incorporate it into the Peloton brand. This could allow the new hire to be in a position of overseeing the newly acquired product. This would allow Peloton to bring new hardware to market faster.

We expect to see the premium Peloton bike and the cheaper Peloton Tread in the coming weeks. The Peloton rower is not due to be released any time soon.