Fitness moves in fads. We all know this, and we can all name past fads – Jane Fonda aerobics videos, Bowflex home gyms, shake weight, ThighMaster, Zumba. They start, spend a lot on infomercials, and then fade out. And the equipment gets left gathering dust in garages around the world.
And yet, despite our recognition that fitness moves in fads, investors keep falling for the next one. As we read this article explaining why we keep falling for fitness fads – it made us think of three recent business news stories.
The first two, the fall of two COVID-era darlings and recent fitness fads – F45 and Peloton. Both companies are down more than 80% in the past twelve months and both have seen their CEO and founder leave the company this year. But, when they both IPO’ed, they were some of the hottest stocks of the moment. A cautionary tale for our future selves thinking about investing in the next fitness fad.
The third story this article made us think of was Meta’s current antitrust lawsuit, as it tries to buy virtual reality fitness company Within. Beyond gaming, fitness is fast becoming the biggest use case for virtual reality headsets and Meta is doing all it can to acquire and build its way to a lead in this market.
But if history is any indication, it is important for us as investors to pause and ask ourselves – will VR change fitness forever, or will it just be the next fitness fad?
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