Peloton is a viral sensation in the home fitness space, achieving rapid growth since 2020, with its share price skyrocketing all the way. The adage "the higher you climb, the harder you fall" applies to all listed companies that benefited from the pandemic, and Peloton is a quintessential example. Its business saw a marked slump in the second half of 2021, with half-year total revenue dropping by over 50% on a sequential basis, driven primarily by a sharp decline in hardware revenue. In February 2022, Peloton announced a 20% workforce reduction and the resignation of its CEO.
Peloton's semi-annual revenue changes (unit: million US dollars) | Source: Peloton financial reports
(Blue: hardware revenue; Orange: subscription revenue)
Peloton is far from an isolated case. In July 2022, smart fitness mirror brand Fiture announced layoffs of around 500 employees. In the same month, smart home strength training equipment brand Tonal announced a 35% headcount cut.
All these developments have cooled down the home fitness equipment market considerably.
Yet even amid this prevailing trend, the author recently observed that Gymera, an overseas-oriented smart home fitness equipment brand, is running a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.After a brief review of relevant background materials, it is evident that Gymera is firmly committed to its investment in smart home fitness equipment, which appears "out of step" with peer brands in the same sector that were striving to weather the industry downturn in 2022.
Source: Kickstarter
Gymera has developed a solution that integrates the capabilities of "Tonal + Mirror + home theater"
Gymera launched its crowdfunding project on Kickstarter on December 8, 2022, with a target funding amount of nearly 20,000 US dollars, and has currently raised over 310,000 US dollars. The original price of Gymera's base configuration is 3,899 US dollars, with an early-bird price of 2,599 US dollars,which means Gymera only needs support from 7 backers on Kickstarter to reach its funding goal.
