By Tobias Carroll

May 24, 2025

The memorably-named fitness wearables company WHOOP has experienced tremendous growth in the last few years, reaching a $1.2 billion valuation in 2021. By earlier this year, that valuation had effectively tripled. In a 2024 post on LinkedIn, founder and CEO Will Ahmed addressed the importance of being a subscription-based company.

“As a subscription, we need to win the business of our existing members every day, every week, every month, every year,” Ahmed wrote. Thus far, WHOOP’s customers seem largely satisfied — but an issue has recently come into focus with the WHOOP 5.0 and the WHOOP MG, two new wearables launched earlier this month.

On Friday, Android Police’s Karandeep Singh Oberoi reported that some of the new devices were ceasing to function properly for their buyers. According to the report, WHOOP buyers were experiencing serious issues and took to the company’s online forums to share their frustration. This, in turn, led WHOOP to send out new devices to at least some of the people who were affected.

Android Police cited one email from the company to a device owner: “We’ve noticed your WHOOP may not be syncing as it should. We have proactively sent you replacement WHOOP right away.”

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In comments made to Engadget’s Ian Carlos Campbell, a spokesperson for WHOOP stated that the device issues were not widespread, and were “rare and isolated, impacting a small number of members.” They added that they were not charging subscribers for the time they spent without a functional fitness wearable.