Fitt Insider Debrief: Peloton’s Apparel Line, WHOOP’s Latest Tech, Hyperice’s New Branding

Welcome to the Fitt Insider Weekly Debrief. Every weekend, we compile the top stories impacting the business of fitness and wellness from the past week.

Here’s what you need to know for September 11, 2021…

• Peloton pushes into apparel
• WHOOP upgrades its tech
• Hyperice evolves its brand

Peloton’s Private Label

Giving its obsessive fanbase more to love (and spend on), Peloton is launching its own private-label apparel.

What it is: Known simply as Peloton Apparel, the inaugural collection debuts fall 2021.

Work in progress. The connected fitness company first began selling clothing in 2014. But, according to Peloton’s vice president of apparel Jill Foley, the offering was limited:

“When we started, we would buy blanks and just slap logos on them. Then we got more sophisticated and would work with other brands to design for us. But it was still their label.”

Over the years, Peloton teamed up with brands like Nike, lululemon, Spiritual Gangster, and Outdoor Voices on apparel collabs. More recently, the company began stepping up its apparel game:

• 2019: reported $14.7M in apparel sales
• 2020: hired former SVP of Merch by Amazon
• 2021: partnered with adidas on instructor-designed apparel

The big picture: Launching private label apparel is the logical next step.

In fact, in an interview for the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference earlier this year, Peloton CEO John Foley hinted at as much, mentioning apparel sales “growing faster than the rest of the business” and adding:

“I think we’re going to surprise people in apparel… we’re building the best quality apparel in the world.”

Punchline: While Peloton no longer breaks out apparel revenue, Foley said the company sold 600K units of branded apparel in a single quarter last year. Now, bringing its clothing efforts in-house, Peloton hopes to scale another revenue stream while strengthening its position as a true lifestyle brand.

WHOOP’s New Tech

It has been a busy two weeks at WHOOP.

First, the company landed $200M in funding at a $3.6B valuation. Then, it announced the acquisition of PUSH — a wearable focused on strength training and velocity-based performance data.

More recently, the human performance firm debuted all-new tech for its health monitoring device. The latest update, dubbed WHOOP 4.0, upgrades the company’s personalized 24/7 digital fitness and health coach, offering:

• A smaller device with longer battery life
• Improved sensors for more accurate heart rate measurements
• A Sleep Coach with haptic alerts based on sleep needs and cycles
• Blood oxygen and skin temperature sensing

“Invisible” tech. WHOOP also introduced smart apparel equipped with Any-Wear™ Technology. According to the company, WHOOP Body garments allow members to wear their device on multiple locations across the body.

As WHOOP CEO Will Ahmed put it:

“We’ve always aspired to develop wearable technology that is either cool or invisible. With the launch of WHOOP 4.0 and WHOOP Body, we have accomplished both.”

The catch? For now, WHOOP’s apparel isn’t actually smart; it’s activewear customized to hold the company’s sensor.

Looking ahead: Given the popularity of health tracking and the rise of the quantified athlete, this move could signal a greater interest in bringing embedded or integrated tech to clothing.

High-Performance Wellness

Hyperice unveiled a new brand identity, moving beyond recovery tech to emphasize high-performance wellness.

Recovery’s rise. Once an overlooked category, recovery has become essential to performance. More and more, elite athletes, celebrities, and fitness fanatics alike are spending big on esoteric treatments.

As performance expands to include recovery, mental health, sleep, and seemingly every aspect of well-being, Hyperice is evolving its brand and product offering to keep up.

• July 2021: Acquired Core, a handheld meditation trainer and app
• January 2021: Acquired RecoverX, a thermal technology company
• March 2020: Acquired NormaTec, a compression technology company

Zooming out: Last year, Hyperice raised $48M in funding at a $700M valuation. At the time, CEO Jim Huether said the company had been profitable for five consecutive years. And, Huether added, he expected to top $200M in revenue for 2020.

Next up: As Hyperice forges ahead, the company is eyeing a $1B valuation and a larger slice of the sports technology sector.