Peloton has decided against building a wearable of their own, and will instead try to work with as many of the existing ones as they can.
The topic came up during Peloton’s Q4 fiscal year 2026 earnings call, when an investor asked whether the company was approaching the wearable space as a partner or as a potential competitor, given how well Peloton already knows its members.
CEO Peter Stern said it is a question Peloton has revisited before and settled:
“It’s something that we’ve thought about in the past, we’ve decided that given that there are so many compelling wearable options available to our members, in many cases offered by a range of extremely powerful and large companies to some also very innovative startups in that space. Rather than us attempting to compete with the players in those markets, the best way for us to work with the wearables industry is essentially to sort of play Switzerland here.”
Playing Switzerland, in his description, runs in both directions. Peloton wants to pull wearable data in, and with member opt-in, push Peloton data back out so the wearable companies can use it in their own coaching. He also mentioned co-marketing deals with some of them.
Three integrations are live today, and Stern named all three on the call:
“To date, we’ve integrated with Apple, with Google, with Garmin. We’ve got a couple more big ones on the way. We’ll have more to talk about that in the not too distant future.”
That maps to Apple Health, Google’s Fitbit, and Garmin Connect, all of which arrived alongside Peloton IQ last October.
The three have gotten steadily more capable since. Garmin became a two way sync in March, and imported workouts started counting toward Daily and Weekly Streaks in May. Strava sits slightly outside this group, since that connection only posts your Peloton workouts to Strava rather than bringing outside activity back in.
This decision to not make their own wearable is a change (as Stern mentioned it’s something the company has thought about before). Peloton acquired Atlas Wearables in 2021, a startup that built rep-counting fitness trackers and training watches. Peloton also sold a redesigned heart rate band in 2022 before discontinuing it the following year.
Stern framed the integration approach as the more useful path for members, and closed by pointing at where Peloton thinks its own limits are, saying they are “recognizing our unique strengths and what we can contribute, while not overextending ourselves into places where we may have difficulty differentiating our company.”
The wearable data feeds Peloton IQ, which Stern spent a portion of the call on. He said Peloton IQ has become the number one feature of interest among prospective customers in the company’s own research, and that members are now getting three to five weekly Insights about how to adjust their training. More than half of monthly active users are engaging with those, with the heaviest usage coming from owners of the Cross Training Plus devices who also get form feedback and rep tracking. He described deeper personalization as the next step, including open-ended goals and plans that adjust as members go, with more wearable data folded in.
This decision to not build a Peloton watch, a Peloton Whoop competitor, or other Peloton wearable comes as Stern has teased that Peloton has new products in entirely new categories coming in fall 2027.
Competing head-on with Apple, Google, and Garmin on hardware is an expensive fight that would be difficult for Peloton to win, while an integration costs engineering time and makes Peloton more useful to members who already own something else. The company also gets to reach those companies’ customers as potential subscribers, which Stern named directly as a way to grow the subscriber base.
Stern did tease that more integrations are on the way soon. We will share the details on those as they are announced.
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