Yesterday we reported that a new Peloton-style connected fitness bike had hit Amazon with Prime branding, from a company called Echelon. As it turns out, said company was (ahem) exaggerating its relationship with Amazon. And by “exaggerating,” I mean “basically entirely fabricated.” Today Amazon told Bloomberg, “This bike is not an Amazon product or related to Amazon Prime.”
Amazon has apparently removed the $500 Smart Connect Fitness Bike EX-Prime from its listing page, though the more expensive versions of the bike (without the “Prime” name) remain for sale. The original press release, which claims that the EX-Prime was developed “in collaboration with Amazon” and that Amazon was “looking to us to partner on their first-ever connected fitness product,” has also been taken down.
Amazon threw cold water on those statements today, further clarifying: “Echelon does not have a formal partnership with Amazon. We are working with Echelon to clarify this in its communications, stop the sale of the product, and change the product branding.” In short: Echelon dun goofed.
The EX-Prime might return to Amazon under a different name, presumably with the same $500 price and features. Echelon’s products have often been called knock-offs of Peloton’s famous (and famously expensive) bike, to the point that the latter sued the former for trademark infringement last year. But Amazon doesn’t have any particular issue with imitation products so long as they’re not flat-out counterfeit. The same stationary bike, labelled the “Connect Sport” sans Prime branding, is available from Walmart for the same price.
Source: Bloomberg