Dive Brief:
- Peloton hired Cédric Fletcher as its new senior vice president of apparel and accessories, the company confirmed in an email to Retail Dive.
- Fletcher most recently served as chief product officer at menswear brand True Classic for about a year.
- According to LinkedIn, the executive also held various leadership roles at apparel and fitness brands, such as chief merchandising officer at Under Armour and vice president of global merchandising for the Jordan brand at Nike.
Dive Insight:
Peloton’s new apparel executive joined the company about two years after it entered the category.
The at-home fitness company in September 2021 launched its private label apparel brand called Peloton Apparel. The launch marked the company’s first time releasing apparel that wasn’t in collaboration with other brand partners. The products had been tested and influenced by Peloton instructors, members and non-members.
About a year after its initial launch, Peloton settled lawsuits with Lululemon — who Peloton has previously worked with on co-branded apparel — related to its apparel line. Lululemon has alleged in a lawsuit that Peloton had copied its apparel designs. The settlement last year meant that Peloton, without any admissions, would phase out certain designs identified in Lululemon’s complaint.
Aiming to reach more consumers, Peloton in May released a new brand campaign aimed at repositioning itself as “more than a bike company.” The new brand identity was revealed along with an expanded range of tiered content memberships, including a free option.
Peloton’s latest earnings results in August showed that its fourth-quarter growth was impacted by its bike seat recall. Total revenue declined 5% year over year to $642.1 million while net loss improved from $1.25 billion to $241.8 million. The company missed total gross margin expectations of 41% by bringing in 31.3% for the quarter. Peloton received more requests for replacement bike seat posts with approximately 750,000 inquiries and saw higher costs related to the recall that caused an extra accrual of $40 million during the quarter.
