Earlier this year, Peloton acquired a small number of patents from the company Ghost Pacer. Terms, and cost, of the patents are not known at this time.
Ghost Pacer was developing a set of virtual reality / augmented reality glasses – which would have the ability to “project a live holographic opponent into your field of view that paces you and pushes you to perform at your best.” The one line version of their technology was “AR Glasses for Runners”. You can see more information on The Ghost Pacer website here, which at time of publishing, is still available.
In an Instagram post about the glasses, Ghost Pacer described the use case as:
You put on the glasses, set up your avatar, and try to catch up with them as you run on your route. The faster you go, the closer you’ll get to them!
Your Ghost Pacer won’t remain at the same distance from you forever… if you run faster than your avatar, you can overtake it… but slow down, and it’ll leave you in the dust.
Former employees confirmed the acquisition via their job descriptions on LinkedIn.
The acquisition comes after Peloton surveyed the community about their thoughts on virtual reality headsets & gaming – potentially doing their due diligence on whether the acquisition would be worth it.
Following the acquisition, Peloton has now submitted some of those patents, originally created by Ghost Pacer employees, into the international patent system. One of those, which was publicly released today and listed under Peloton’s ownership, is a patent for “Hardware and Housing Setup for Wearable Augmented Reality Apparatus”
Ghost Pacer had launched a Kickstarter in 2020 – and hit their funding goal within 1 hour. Over the entire time the project was live, more than 800 people contributed – bringing the amount raised to at least $150,000.
The Ghost Pacer glasses were going to cost $349 at retail MSRP, but were being offered at 43% off for $199 for the earliest Kickstarter backers. The Ghost Pacer “Pro” version would retail for $399, but was available for $219 during the Kickstarter.
The initial goal was to deliver the glasses by June 2021. However, updates posted on the Kickstarter indicate that supply chain issues led to delays, and they were working to “get manufacturers to provide us with a few remaining key components”. At some point, Ghost Pacer ended up canceling the project and appears to have provided some refunds to backers. In 2022 they posted an update saying the project would no longer be monitored or checked for comments.
Given the Kickstarter project shut down in 2022, many of the Ghost Pacer employees left to go to other companies. The fact that the vast majority of the employees had left leads us to believe this was a patent/asset acquisition rather than an acquisition of whatever remained of the whole company.
Note that just because Peloton acquired these patents or designs doesn’t necessarily mean they will be launched as Peloton products or accessories to Peloton members.
For example, previous companies Peloton has acquired which have yet to lead to obvious similar products have included Atlas wearables (who made a smart watch), Latitude 32 Engineering (who also worked on wearables), and Otari Studios (who made a smart yoga mat).
Other Peloton acquisitions have included Aiqudo (who made AI voice technology) which has likely been integrated into the Peloton Guide, and PeerFit – who created a corporate wellness platform which is likely being integrated into Peloton’s Business / Corporate Wellness offerings.
Peloton’s biggest acquisition was spending $420 million for Precor – who make fitness hardware – which is now running as a freestanding business with it’s own CEO.
Would you like to see Ghost Pacer come to life as a Peloton product or accessory one day?
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