These innovations revolutionized home fitness in 2018

Peloton

High tech, at-home fitness companies are gaining ground and putting traditional players under pressure.
Peloton, which is widely considered to be a pioneer of the home fitness industry, was valued at $4 billion in August after raising an additional $550 million in venture funding.
These are some of the most exciting at-home fitness innovations to come out over the past year.

America is exercising more than ever, but people are becoming lazier when it comes to where they do it.

Home fitness has become one of the biggest trends of 2018, as a series of high-tech fitness companies have swooped in to create more advanced ways to replicate a boutique class-style workout from home.

According to insights firm Alpha, the home fitness equipment market is currently worth $14 billion and is gaining more traction among traditional gym-goers. Of the people it surveyed, 54% said they would be interested in buying an at-home fitness system, Fast Company reported earlier this year.

By comparison, the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) estimated that 60.9 million Americans have a gym membership, which generates $30 billion in revenue annually.

Peloton, which is widely considered to be a pioneer of the industry, was valued at $4 billion in August after raising a further $550 million in venture funding.

Recent data released by analytics firm Second Measure, which tracks the credit and debit purchases from a pool of four million US customers, showed that Peloton is increasingly stealing market share from the traditional market leaders. According to the report, during the third quarter of 2018 Peloton overtook SoulCycle for the first time ever, drawing in 4% more customers, though SoulCycle strongly denied this analysis in a statement to Business Insider this month.

These are some of the most exciting at-home fitness innovations to come out over the past year:

Peloton Tread

Peloton is best known for its wildly successful exercise bike, which paved the way for other high-tech at-home fitness options.

Its new product — the $3,995 treadmill — launched this fall and works in a similar way to its indoor bike. It has an HD touchscreen that streams thousands of live and on-demand classes, which users can join from home.

Classes cost $39 a month and include high-intensity boot-camp routines, running drills, and mat work.

When Business Insider trialed the treadmill in February, we were impressed by the style and range of classes but were overwhelmed by the size of the machine.

Mirror

New York-based startup Mirror launched its $1,500 interactive mirror in September.

The machine looks just like a standard mirror but has an LCD screen that streams live and on-demand workout classes into your home. These classes cost $39 per month.

Customers connect to the Mirror using a Bluetooth heart rate monitor or an Apple Watch.

Flywheel — FLY Anywhere

Boutique indoor cycling studio Flywheel made the move into home fitness in November 2017 with the launch of its FLY Anywhere bike.

The bike starts at $1,699 and functions in a similar way to Peloton's version: it allows users to stream on-demand and live classes from their home. The main difference is that customers have the option to stream classes from their own device or pay extra to have a screen included on the bike itself.

In September, Peloton filed a lawsuit against Flywheel accusing the bike of being a copycat version of its proprietary bike.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider