SoulCycle Once Had a Cult Following. One Decision Changed Everything

The company didn’t lose riders because the workout changed. It lost them when its actions conflicted with the identity customers had embraced.

A SoulCycle location in New York City. Photo: Adobe Stock

I used to schlep from my office to a 6:30pm Soul Survivor class, shower, and make dinner by 8pm. Every week. The waiting lists were insane. The bike you got mattered. Thirty-four dollars for a cycling class and nobody blinked. That wasn’t about fitness.

SoulCycle was always about selling a version of yourself back to you: one you could embody if you worked hard enough.

The brand said as much itself. Its tagline was never about the workout: “Take your journey. Change your body. Find your SOUL.” That’s a self-transformation pitch with a bike attached to it. When SoulCycle finally launched its first real ad campaign in 2017, the........

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