Clearly many businesses have been challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. But in the fitness space, there are commonalities among the companies that have performed well. In this video clip from Motley Fool Live, recorded on June 15, Fool.com contributor Jon Quast discusses with Motley Fool bureau chief of consumer goods Jena Greene and bureau chief of healthcare and cannabis Corinne Cardina what helped some fitness companies succeed.
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Jon Quast: Well, for my not-so-great stock was Under Armour (UAA -1.07%) (UA -0.88%). Like you said, it was a hard space to be in when you're an athletic apparel company and a lot of sports were canceled and what not -- supply chain issues across the board.
What is interesting, and I just want to tie this in maybe to the conversation we're having about connected fitness is -- we talked about Peloton (PTON -4.41%) -- but this played out in other ways during the pandemic and Under Armour as well. Their strongest part of the business, or one of the strongest, was their connected shoes. People were buying running shoes that have metrics that are tracked with the phone. They can go out on a jog. New users were doubling during the pandemic, so if there's one part of the business that did well it's that connected aspect. I think we're going to see a lot of companies merging this into more of a hybrid thing where you take the traditional and merge it with these new technologies.
Jena Greene: Yeah, I think if we've learned anything from the past year, the name of the game is people want to be alone together. They might not want to be breathing your air next to you on the treadmill, three feet away from your friend. But they do want to see what you're doing. It's fine to be able to log onto your Peloton and ride against a friend or compare your running route with your next door neighbor or whatever the case maybe. People still crave that social networking, even if it's not communal per se.
Corinne Cardina: I'll just throw in that the other trend to pull out on the stocks that did really well is diversification. Lululemon (LULU -0.64%), Peloton, Nike (NKE -0.71%), they all do apparel, footwear, gear. Then they have technology, hardware, like all these things. I think that is definitely something as an investor to keep an eye on, and that's what makes some of these businesses anti-fragile.
Greene: Definitely. Especially when it comes to acquisitions as well. Lululemon just acquired MIRROR last year. So, great points, all of you guys.
