Meet Peloton Head of Pilates Dr. Kim Clayton

From Connected Reformer Startup to Peloton’s Pilates Lead

The woman now serving as Peloton Head of Pilates spent seven years building the company Peloton just acquired. Dr. Kim Clayton, founder and former CEO of Skōp, confirmed her new role on LinkedIn on June 6, 2026, describing Peloton as “the gold standard in connected fitness” and calling the transition the beginning of an exciting new chapter.

Her title: Head of Pilates Experience at Peloton Interactive.

Who Is Dr. Kim Clayton

Dr. Kim Clayton, Peloton Head of Pilates Experience, is a certified athletic trainer who earned her Bachelor of Science in Athletic Training from The Ohio State University in 2014. She went on to earn her Doctor of Chiropractic from Southern California University of Health Sciences, graduating magna cum laude, and later became a Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician through the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians.

Her clinical work has centered on biomechanics and rehabilitation, and she previously taught Pilates at Coreology in Manhattan Beach, California, before founding Skōp. That overlap between clinical movement science and Pilates instruction became the foundation of everything she built.

Seven Years at Skop

Skōp was not a conventional fitness company. Clayton built it as the world’s first patented data-analytic Pilates reformer, a device designed to track movement in real time and score a user’s form against baseline data. The technology had applications well beyond the home market, including physical therapy, rehabilitation, and commercial studio settings where instructors could deliver visible, real-time feedback to clients during a session.

The company took seven years to build. In a 2023 interview with HALO Talks, Clayton described Pilates as foundational but not sufficient on its own, emphasizing that a well-rounded fitness practice requires cardio alongside Pilates work. That philosophy, grounding the practice in sport science rather than wellness trend culture, runs through everything Skōp was designed to do.

She credited co-founder Juha Nieminen and investor Tom Bergmann specifically in her LinkedIn post, describing Bergmann’s decision to back the company as something that “changed the trajectory” of Skōp entirely.

The Acquisition Behind the Hire

Peloton announced the acquisition of Skōp in early June 2026, framing it as a targeted investment in technology and expertise rather than an immediate new product for its lineup.

CEO Peter Stern described the rationale plainly: “Pilates is a category ripe for the same kind of experiential reinvention we brought to cardio.” The deal marked Peloton’s first direct investment in connected reformer hardware and folded Skōp patent-pending form-tracking capability into Peloton’s R&D pipeline.

The timing was not accidental. Peloton member engagement with Pilates content grew 48 percent year-over-year in Q3 of fiscal year 2026. The 2025 Sports and Fitness Industry Association report identified Pilates as the fastest-growing fitness modality in the United States, with participation up nearly 40 percent in recent years. Peloton had already elevated Pilates to a standalone top-level modality on its platform in January 2026, separating it from the Strength category where it had lived since its 2020 launch.

Clayton’s hire converts the acquisition’s technology investment into a leadership appointment. She is not joining a generic content team. She is leading the Pilates experience at a company whose Pilates infrastructure has been growing steadily for five years and just made its first hardware bet in the space.

Peloton Head of Pilates Joins a Rebuilt Leadership Bench

Clayton’s appointment as Peloton Head of Pilates Experience fits a broader pattern of deliberate, credential-forward hiring under CEO Peter Stern. Over the past 14 months, Peloton has assembled a substantially new leadership team at the top level.

Sarah Robb O’Hagan joined as Chief Content and Member Development Officer in April 2026, bringing roughly 30 years of experience across Nike, Gatorade, Equinox, Flywheel Sports, and Strava. Sid Thacker was named Chief Financial Officer in late May 2026, following Liz Coddington’s departure earlier in the year. Megan Imbres joined as Chief Marketing Officer in July 2025, coming from Apple, and Francis Shanahan was elevated to Chief Technology Officer at the same time. Charles Kirol was brought in as Chief Operating Officer in April 2025.

That is a near-complete rebuild of the C-suite in roughly 14 months. Clayton’s appointment operates at a different level than those roles, but it follows the same logic: bring in people with specific domain expertise, not generalist fitness industry credentials.

Clayton built a company around the clinical science of Pilates movement. That background, combined with her direct experience running a connected hardware and software operation, makes her a different kind of hire than a content strategist or a former instructor stepping into an administrative role.

What This Hire Signals for Peloton Pilates

Peloton has been methodical about building its Pilates program. The category launched in December 2020 with 20 on-demand classes taught by Hannah Corbin, Emma Lovewell, Kristin McGee, Aditi Shah, and Sam Yo. It grew steadily, added instructors including Rebecca Kennedy, integrated a monthly challenge, and was elevated to its own platform tab earlier this year.

The Skōp acquisition moved the investment from content into hardware and technology. Clayton’s appointment moves it further: from a technology deal into a named, accountable leader who has spent her career at exactly this intersection. Read more about the acquisition here.

Peloton has not announced a product launch timeline for Skōp-derived technology and has declined to comment on R&D specifics. But the company now has a head of Pilates who built a connected reformer from scratch, understands the clinical side of movement tracking, and has direct experience making a hardware-and-software product work in commercial, rehabilitation, and home settings.

The Clip Out is an independent Peloton news site with reporting, analysis, and community insights. We deliver breaking updates, feature reporting, and expert context on the stories driving the community and the industry.

Our weekly podcast offers deeper conversation and perspective, and you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, TuneIn, and YouTube Music. You can also follow us on our socials on Facebook, Threads, Instagram, BlueSky, and YouTube.

See something in the Peloton universe that you think we should know? Visit us at theclipout.com and submit a tip.