Peloton is name that remains synonymous with stationary exercise equipment, despite the company's ups and downs. It experienced huge highs as Covid forced people to exercise indoors, and became a market leader in the best treadmills and exercise bikes, even if it was never quite able to recapture the zeitgeist position it once held as restrictions lifted and people returned to their gyms.
Six years on, the premium exercise equipment company shows no sign of slowing down: its slickly-produced live and recorded classes feature instructors who are treated like celebrities in their own right, and its algorithmic, addictive content meshes with its high-end machinery to make for a 'magic formula' which keeps Peloton power users addicted to indoor cardio.
Now Peloton has announced a trio of new treadmills that will launch starting October 1: the Peloton Tread Flex, the Tread Vision, and the Tread Vision Plus.
Let's start with the Peloton Tread Flex. Costing $2,195 / £1,999 / AU$3,499, it's Peloton's cheapest treadmill, and its cheapest product so far, although it won't be available in regions outside the US until spring 2027. It's designed for smaller spaces and smaller budgets, and it's also Peloton's first folding treadmill, with four caster wheels to help you tow it around in its upright configuration without needing tools.
"We've put a lot of work into that," Nick Caldwell, Peloton's Chief Product Officer, tells me when I meet him and Chief Marketing Officer Megan Imbres at Peloton HQ in London. "It's 46% of the footprint of our Tread Vision base platform, and also super quiet... You're getting great value with the capability to do folding and flex, and you're going to get a ton of new software features with this as well."
Some of those software features include the great-looking ReRun feature, which extracts and replicates the elevation profile of real-world routes, like parts of the New York City Marathon, and replicates them on the Tread. The Tread will respond by adjusting the gradient automatically to replicate the route, and show you your progress on a virtual map. Not only is this cool in its own right, it also allows runners hoping to tackle popular races around the world an opportunity to dry-run those iconic courses.
"Out of the box, we'll have some built-in ones," says Imbres. "We'll take the New York City Marathon and break it up into five digestible chunks... so you can get dialed-in training for the course." Imbres adds that runners will be able to upload GPX files from their outdoor runs and replicate them on the treadmill, too.
Next up is the Tread Vision, a more powerful non-folding, AI-powered model starting at $3,495 / £2,999 / AU$4,999. It features a new cushioning system underneath the tread for more comfort and energy return, and a redesigned button system with jump-up and jump-down options alongside the old dial system. But the real advancement is the Movement Tracking Camera.
"We've created a new form feedback system for runners", Caldwell tells me. "This is using vertical displacement to a) count your steps, give you a cadence figure, and b) it'll tell you whether or not your form is correct, and whether your running efficiency is being maximized".
Covering stats like vertical oscillation (how much you bounce while you run) as well as cadence, the system will give you a Running Efficiency Score, as well as personalized AI-powered feedback. We've seen similar features in products like the Peloton Guide, and incorporated into earlier Cross Training labelled devices, but here Peloton has applied it to a treadmill.
"We've already seen this improved folks who are trying to do marathon prep, and things like that," adds Caldwell, indicating that it's more accurate than similar running efficiency-based metrics from wearables such as the best Garmin watches.
Finally, we have the Tread+ Vision, priced at $6,695, with pricing for other regions TBC. This treadmill also features Sled Mode, a Hyrox-style workout that has you grip two vertical bars and replicate a sled-pushing exercise against variable levels of resistance.
"There is one other competitor that has this on the market, that treadmill costs $15,000," says Caldwell. "I know this thing isn't cheap, but, like, you know, for around seven grand US, you're getting an immense value in the form of the highest-quality energy return service, and now Sled Mode."
With all these treadmills, you get Peloton IQ features such as the new ReRun functionality and an IQ Pace Target, which uses AI to calculate times for you to aim to achieve for various distance. These features are also coming to historic treadmills too.
"The only thing that is gated is the Run Analysis because it uses that Computer Vision camera," says Imbres. "Our philosophy is if the hardware allows it, to give it to everyone."
You also naturally get access to Peloton's smorgasbord of live and historic classes, depending on your subscription tier. Heart rate zone-specific workouts are a new addition to the roster, allowing people to connect heart rate monitors and wearables from Garmin, Apple, Google and now Whoop, alongside new running, walking and hiking workouts.
Seeing the Vision
Seeing as we were at Peloton HQ, I had the opportunity to have a quick go on the Tread Vision to try some of the new running tools for myself. The cameras were quick to set up, putting in some information such as my height and capturing my body in vertical orientation as a phone camera does.
During a brief 10-minute test run, I can attest to feeling as though there has been some improvement of the energy return of the belt compared to my experience with the previous model. The belt was nice and spacious, and using the jump-up and jump-down buttons as opposed to, or in conjunction with, the dial was helpful when following the class's cadence as dictated by the instructor. No more spinning the dial too far and trying to course-correct during a class.
After that short test, I ended up with a fairly pedestrian Running Efficiency Score of 66, viewable in the Peloton app, with individual scores for specific metrics, and some apparently genuinely helpful advice on working on my vertical oscillation. However, given the brief nature of the trial, I imagine the feature would become more accurate with longer workouts — at least, that's my excuse.
I'm looking forward to trying all three new treadmills over a longer test period — stay tuned.
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