March 2021: Peloton warns parents to keep children away from its Tread+ treadmills after a six-year-old child was killed after being pulled under one of them
May 2021: Peloton recalls running machines after reports of at least 72 more injuries surfaced. Class action lawsuits are filed against the company
June 2021: The company is accused of greed after disabling the “Just Run” feature on Tread+, which allows users to run for free instead of forcing them to pay a $39 fee. Brought back the free option after an outcry
August 2021: Peloton cuts cost of its entry-level bike by $400 as sales growth slows
November 2021: Peloton reports that sales of its products fell 17 percent in the most recent quarter, with the smallest increase in subscribers since its IPO in September 2019. As a result, Peloton’s market cap fell by $8 billion and John Foley lost his billionaire status
December 2021: Mr. Big – played by Chris Noth – dies of a heart attack after using a peloton in the ‘Sex and the City’ and ‘Just Like That’ reboots. Stocks keep falling. Days later, Peloton is credited for producing an ad in which the revived character jokes about the exercise bike. But it’s been forced to pull the acclaimed commercial after Noth was hit by multiple sexual assault allegations, which he denies
The company is hit with a new scandal after John Foley throws a lavish Christmas party for select employees after the annual party for humble employees was scrapped
Chris Noth, who plays Mr Big in Sex and the City, dies of a heart attack after using his peloton
January 2022: Leaked audio reveals plans to lay off 41% of sales and marketing teams. The stock price continues to fall after it emerged that production of bicycles and treadmills would slow due to falling demand.
Calls for Foley’s sacking grow louder.
The PR gets even worse when another TV character nearly dies of a heart attack after a peloton session. Showtime’s popular series Billions used the bikes to scare Mike Wagner, played by David Costatable, in the sixth season premiere. He survives, stating he will not die “like Mr. Big.”
Mike Wagner, played by David Costabile, appears in the season 6 premiere of Showtime’s Billions suffering a heart attack after riding a Peloton bike
February 2022: Peloton executives reportedly hatched a plan to use a chemical solution to hide rust and corrosion on their high-end bikes.
When employees noticed the paint was peeling off some of the machines last year, the company reportedly began using a chemical solution that masked the corrosion on the bikes by “reacting with the rust and forming a black coating,” according to the Financial Times formed”.
May 2022: Peloton’s shares plunged nearly 90 percent over the past year as company executives revealed it lost a staggering $750 million in the previous quarter on unsold inventory and rising costs.
The company lost $757.1 million in the three months of 2022, which is about $2.27 per share. And if you take non-recurring items out of the equation, a survey by Zacks Investment Research found it lost 98 cents a share, beating forecasts of an 85 cent loss per share.
August 2022: The company announces it is cutting 784 jobs, raising equipment prices, closing retail locations and requiring employees to return to the office by November to secure their bottom line.
Peloton reports a whopping $1.2 billion loss, the sixth consecutive quarter of reported losses, which has sent shares down 15 percent.