John Foley, the chief executive of Peloton, seems a bit uncomfortable with sporting a company logo as a fashion choice.
“OK, I don’t wear our vests because I actually want to,” said Mr. Foley, whose wife, Jill Foley, heads the apparel side of the remote fitness business. “Makes me feel like a tool, being the Peloton guy wearing Peloton. Good to show support, though. Jill works so hard.”
As does Mr. Foley, 49, who put himself through college working nights at a Skittles factory, and who has been steadfastly evangelizing home workouts since 2012. (For years, he spent Sundays personally peddling Pelotons at Short Hills Mall in New Jersey.)
Mr. Foley’s sensitivity about being mocked is understandable. In late 2019, just when Peloton was gaining some traction as a publicly traded company, it released a holiday ad that was widely spoofed.
What a difference a year and a pandemic make. Since last November, Peloton bike sales have quadrupled in New York State. And the company’s new, smaller and more affordable version of its treadmill, Tread, is set to be released in March. The Foleys recently wedged a prototype into one of their two bathrooms.
The trick, of course, is affording the exclusive equipment (the new Tread will be priced at $2,495 — over $1,500 less than its current model — and the bike currently sells for $1,895, neither of which includes classes).
Mr. Foley lives with the rest of his family — Jill, 42, son Quinn, 12, and daughter Mae, 9 — in the West Village.
SINK DRINK Twenty years ago a colleague told me the key to your day is to hydrate at much as you can, so the first thing I do is drink 40 sips of water from my hand at the upstairs bathroom sink. It’s efficient. I drink until I feel like I’m going to throw up water. Every day.
THE PERFECT AMBIENCE Generally, I come downstairs and get the Dunkin’ Donuts French vanilla coffee going before the kids wake up — call it 6:30 or 7. My pot is weak because I like to drink it all morning. Then I’ll fiddle with probably 14 switches to get the perfect light in here. I’m a big dimmer guy. I do this several times throughout the day. Once the lights are right, I put Cowboy Junkies Radio on Pandora, which is really perfect for Sunday morning, kind of spiritual. I’ll work for a couple hours, catching up on the hundreds of emails I receive every day. I want to keep up.
BATHROOM RUN I work out before leaving the house. The other Sunday I did the new Beyoncé Bootcamp on Tread, which lives in our downstairs bathroom because we didn’t have anywhere else to put it. Jess Sims, the instructor, talked about the Harlem school where she used to be a teacher and principal, gave a shout-out to her librarian. Usually I think about which instructor I haven’t taken in a while — 80 percent of whom live here in the city — rather than which music I want to work out to. It’s kind of like your kids, you can’t love one of them more.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER And then a kid’s activity starts, for which my wife and I divide and conquer. Since Mae’s soccer ended two weeks ago, ice skating is her new anchor activity. She says she doesn’t like it because she’s not good, but we want to toughen her up (and get her outside). Coming off a soccer game, the place we loved and had been going to for 10 years, Hudson Diner, closed. Now, when I’m with Quinn, we go to this other pancake place on Hudson Street, Bus Stop Cafe. He orders strawberry pancakes; me, egg white omelet.
STUDIO DREAMS When the kids’ programming is done and I have time off, I like to go tour real estate. These days that’s Peloton’s new headquarters on 34th and Ninth Avenue, which will be finished this month. Feels cathartic walking around there, picturing where we’re headed as soon as Covid-19 is over. And I take my time because it’s not a workday and nobody’s there. We started out in a 900-square-foot space — hung up a black tarp to cover the kitchenette and delineate the cycling studio for streaming; tin foil on the windows.
SUSHI DATE Oftentimes Jill and I have a couple people over in the late afternoon. We’re in a pod within the kids’ school, which includes one of my best friends from business school, Amar Lalvani. We’ll all order sushi from Amber on Christopher Street, mix Manhattans, put the football on. It’s fun to have on in the background. Nostalgic, right? The sound brings me back to my childhood in Florida. We‘ll get the fire going and break down politics and life. Oh, and Amar is dating my ex-girlfriend, so we talk about girls.
A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY At 8, we’re kicking friends out, which isn’t difficult since they’ve got kids too. Doing laundry, organizing clothes. Then at 9, when I want people to get ready for bed, I adjust the lighting again — easier to get perfect in the evening. For the first seven or eight years of my son’s life, I sung him “Old Man River.” Now it’s like every third night. Having been born in Houston in 1971, I love ’70s country. Willie Nelson is a big deal in the Foley household, Dwight Yoakam. I want to sing to my daughter — sometimes I try that Kenny Rogers song “The Gambler.” Though Mae really is embarrassed by anything I do at this point.
Sunday Routine readers can follow John Foley on Twitter or Instagram @keylargofoley.
