Kendall Toole, a well-known Peloton instructor, announced on Thursday that she was leaving the home workout company. Her departure comes amid financial challenges for the company.
“I am choosing to close my chapter at Peloton,” she said in an Instagram reel on Thursday morning. In the video, she also offered thanks to Peloton and the community of members who took her classes. “I will see you in the next adventure.”
Ms. Toole is known for leading riders in challenging workouts set to playlists with pop punk and metal music. She often spoke about the importance of mental health and her own struggles with mental illness in her classes and online posts.
Her fans lamented her departure online on Thursday, with some posting on the Peloton subreddit that there would be a gap in the offerings of their favorite music genres.
Peloton and Ms. Toole did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Peloton was popularized at the start of the pandemic as people sought to exercise at home, but it has more recently struggled financially. Ms. Toole’s exit comes about a month after the company announced the departure of its chief executive, Barry McCarthy, as well as a slew of layoffs. The company has not turned a profit since December 2020, and it voluntarily recalled more than two million exercise bikes in 2023, causing its shares to tumble.
Many instructors at Peloton have attracted social media fame and created a loyal following. The most popular instructors have paved paths in media beyond their exercise classes, such as Cody Rigsby, who has 1.3 million followers on Instagram, appeared on the 30th season of the televised dance competition “Dancing with the Stars” and published a memoir last year. Another popular instructor, Ally Love, became a host for the Netflix series “Dance 100” and a contributor on NBC’s “Today” show.
Ms. Toole began working at Peloton in June 2019, according to her LinkedIn page. Before that, she was a trainer at a boxing gym in Los Angeles and worked for several media companies, including Snap Inc. She has not announced her future plans.
Source Agencies
