The Short Version
WHOOP is testing a model where the device costs money upfront, separate from the subscription, to make monthly prices look lower.
WHOOP built its whole business on giving away the hardware and charging a monthly fee to actually use it. Now it's testing whether selling the device separately, while lowering the visible subscription price, gets more people to sign up. The logic: a cheaper-looking monthly number on the screen beats a free device most people don't fully understand they're paying for anyway. Whether the math works for existing members who already swallowed the old deal is a different question entirely.