Peloton, the fitness company best known for its interactive and interconnected spinning bikes, is launching a treadmill, called Tread. Last week, Peloton also announced that it is opening a dedicated production studio with full-service classes in New York City.
Tread won’t be available to purchase until this coming fall, but runners in NYC will now be able to attend boot camps, circuit training, running, and walking classes in the new studio in the heart of the West Village in Manhattan.
While the studio will serve locals who want to get a feel for the product in person before it goes on sale, it is also where the company’s live-streamed treadmill classes will be filmed once Tread is available elsewhere.
“The launch of the Peloton Tread Studio will enable us to provide our members with a breadth and diversity of live, authoritative fitness programming that is unrivaled in the industry,” said Fred Klein, chief content officer of Peloton, in a statement. “And our new cast of Tread instructors will further solidify the superiority of our product and experience, inspiring a new generation of people to join the Peloton family.”
Peloton is quickly coming to dominate the upper end of the fitness market. This second studio in Manhattan—the first is a spinning studio—gives the company a larger presence in the United States’ most populated urban center. Peloton’s live-streamed classes give its growing customer base the same sort of experience they might seek in spinning or treadmill classes, but at home.
Peloton’s strategy is similar to Apple’s: By creating a physical space where the public can take classes and get a feel for the Tread, Peloton is building an attachment to its physical and digital products that will serve to build customer loyalty and develop its own ecosystem.