Just months after its mishap with Amazon, Echelon announced that its Echelon Sport-s connected bike is available exclusively at Sam’s Club for $799 and includes a free six-month trial of its Sport membership.
Rivaling Peloton and SoulCycle, the Goldman Sachs-backed Echelon features 100 on-demand classes.
“Interest in indoor cycling is reaching new heights, but for many people, the reality of owning one still feels financially out of reach,” said president and CEO Lou Lentine.
This comes after the company released an ill-fated $499 “Prime Bike” in September made exclusively for Amazon.
“This bike is not an Amazon product or related to Amazon Prime,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC.
Lentine told Yahoo that the news was a shock for his company, as the bike had been live on Amazon’s site for a month before it was pulled, and there are documents indicating Amazon approved the Prime branding. The bike was renamed Echelon EX-15 and is back up on Amazon.
Peloton sued Echelon in 2019 with accusations of “cheap, copycat products,” citing patent and trademark infringement, which led Echelon to file its own petitions in an attempt to invalidate Peloton’s patents.
The setbacks aren’t slowing Echelon’s stride — revenue rose over 500% to exceed $100 million in 2020.
