Pedalling Towards a New Future of Sport

What does the future of sport look like? Will people even leave their homes to reach their exercise goals? Should you exercise from home and forget about the gym? These questions are looming, but by looking somewhat briefly at the mammoth rise of the world-renowned Peloton fitness company, this may allow for a predictor of future sporting trends and what is to be expected.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Peloton (where have you been?), this fitness focussed business looks to provide everyone with the opportunity to get active via virtual live fitness sessions. By the term virtual, I don’t mean those clunky virtual reality headsets, but via a screen on an indoor bike, treadmill or even your TV. It’s not only participation however, the opportunity to compete against your friends, family or even Mark Cavendish himself (good luck!) in cycling is a unique selling point.

On first impressions, Peloton inherits a simple website that markets an even simpler idea. Within seconds, the consumer is familiar with the product and could even envision when they could fit a half an hour cycle into their daily routine.

The rise in social media has also seen the growth in fitness influencers, bloggers and businesses- all with one thing in common; they each want a slice of the ludicrously rich fitness industry currently worth £4.9bn (Kale, 2019). With such a huge wealthy industry comes the need for innovative thinking and new marketing approaches to capitalise on the growing market.

As a method to exchange futuristic technological advances with sport, larger sporting teams and their stadiums are offering consumers the opportunity to be at the game from home (Lee, 2018). But as useful as this may be to introverts or less able-bodied individuals; the consumer experience is diminished dramatically.

However, what Peloton do is different- providing the user with the opportunity to experience sporting competition and the ability to develop that community with other consumers. The term ‘community’ used loosely, as virtual presence is different to physically interacting with other participants.

To develop a richer community, should Peloton seek to provide meetups with instructors every month or so? Currently, probably not, as the focus is solely on developing a business that caters for a niche market. Perhaps when the ever-changing technology market shifts, will they need to tap into this aspect of community. This link between virtual brand communities and the sponsorship or marketing forces, has been outlined as an area that may present more understanding into these social engagements (Alonso-Dos-Santos et al, 2018).

Allowing consumers access to such a range of sports media, experiences and fitness opportunities from the comfort of your living room is a positive move. Don’t get me wrong, the wider benefits of decreased anxiety, general mood and more regular participation received from participating in team sports is well documented (Pluhar et al, 2019), but could this new wave of individualised virtual sport competition with the opportunity to interact with others be just what sport and fitness needs?