Adidas and Peloton team up

Adidas and Peloton have teamed up to ‘own the game’ in corporate fitness.

 

As a global sporting brand with a publicly declared business strategy to ‘own the game’, installing Peloton bikes at the Adidas UK headquarters in Stockport was a no brainer for the company’s Sports and Training Manager, Matthew Thompson.

 

He says: “We’re a sport brand, so fitness is a massive part of who we are and our brand identity. We want to be owning corporate fitness too, and be the best in world with our offering.

 

“Having Peloton bikes on site aligns with that. We all know the benefits of exercise, both physically and mentally – they go hand in hand. The bikes are so flexible for staff to use whenever they want. If they’ve had a stressful day, they can simply jump on a bike and get that frustration out; it’s massively beneficial.”

 

As you’d expect, Adidas has a multitude of sports and fitness facilities within the Fitbox at its Stockport site, including a 4g indoor football pitch, a multi-sports pitch for basketball, tennis and badminton, a small gym with traditional equipment such as treadmills, crosstrainers, a rowing machine, free weights and strength equipment, a large group exercise studio and a functional training gym.

 

Four Peloton bikes were added to this offer in May.

 

 

In addition to the 400 staff who work out of the Stockport offices, the marketing team use the facilities for photoshoots, content creation and brand campaigns, including hosting photoshoots for the Adidas teams and the athletes they partner with worldwide.

 

It means Thompson wears many hats, managing everything on site from the facilities and equipment to writing programming, training staff and offering wider business support for the sports marketing and sales teams.

 

As the only full-time member of staff for the Fitbox, Thompson explains: “I wanted to create a more agile workspace, more in keeping with the company’s new, flexible way of working since the pandemic. The traditional model for indoor cycling classes just won’t work anymore. The classes had to be fixed to set times and we had the expense for an instructor for each class – overall it just wasn’t ticking all the boxes, so we explored other ideas.

 

“The Peloton branding and how we market it works very well. We did look at other options, but they were expensive for the quality they offered and Peloton was also the most established. Plus, we already have a connection with Peloton as many of their instructors wear Adidas kit.

 

“We’ve had the bikes for four months now and the staff that use them love them, often booking in together so they can compete against each other. From that competitive nature it really appeals to people, although, whilst some like to aim for top of the leader board, others just prefer to look at the scenery!”

 

Staff pay just £10 a month to use the sports and fitness facilities, including the Peloton bikes. They can book in to use the bikes in hourly slots and, since their installation in May, bookings have not only consistently risen each month, but are spread out evenly across the week, even on days when traditionally more staff work from home.

 

“People’s desire to train at work ebbs and flows with how busy they are, but that’s the beauty of the Peloton classes streaming 24/7; even the company directors that generally finish later can just do 10 – 20 mins and they’ve got some exercise in for the day,” says Thompson. “At the moment we are really busy preparing for the 2023/24 product launches, so some people will have parked their training for a bit, and when we have photoshoots taking place the bikes are unfortunately out of action. But even so, the retention rate of staff using them is really good.”