Customers Waiting Weeks or Months For At Home Gym Equipment

The COVID-19 lockdown has prompted an industry-wide demand on home gym equipment, with some suppliers receiving 30 times the amount of orders compared to a month ago.

Many affiliates chose to rent out equipment while globally, government-mandated closures remain in place indefinitely. But for members who missed out or need a little more equipment to satisfy their fitness fix, distributors have warned they’re likely to be waiting weeks if not months on delivery as demand currently hugely outweighs the supply available.

Out of stock: That’s the message most retailers are passing onto customers in search of home gym equipment. In particular it’s barbells, weights and cardio equipment in hot demand.

• Concept2 has appealed for patience from customers. As of early April, the Concept2 site has asked customers to add their names to a waitlist. “We are currently out of stock of all Model Ds, all Model Es, the Dynamic, BikeErgs, SkiErgs and SkiErg Floor Stands due to high demand and production stoppage to fight the spread of the COVID-19 virus. We do not have a date of availability at this time.”
• Assault Fitness is also using a waitlist. All AirBikes are on backorder and any order made on or after April 6 won’t begin shipping before April 24.

• Rogue Fitness continues to update customers to changes to its operations as a result of COVID-19, although has no definite timeline to when products will be available.
• On the Rogue Fitness website, anything between a 2.5 – 95 pound dumbbell is unavailable until further notice, 8-30 pound wall balls are on backorder, nothing smaller than a 124 pound kettlebell is in stock and it’s a similar story with barbells, plates and cardio equipment.
• Customers simply have the option to be notified when desired products become available.

The demand isn’t unique to distributors in the US:

• Daniel Alenaddaf owns Gym and Fitness – one of Australia’s largest equipment distributors — and said orders have increased from 30 per day to 900 daily since gyms were mandated to close on March 23.
• “With the prime minister announcing up to 6 months of restrictions on gyms our customers are keen to stay fit and invest long term in their own home setups to stay fit” he said.
• Again Faster’s Australian website also has an extensive list of items on backorder and the brand’s Chris Partridge told the Morning Chalk Up they’ve seen unprecedented demand for products.
• “The things that people are jumping on the most are kettlebells, dumbbells, weight plates and bars, but we’ve also seen a huge demand for at home rigs as well. People are looking at building mini-gyms in their homes,” Chris added.

The demand has also prompted some opportunistic customers to create what we’re calling the “Backyard Black Market,” selling second hand, used equipment at prices higher than what goods retail brand new.

• A quick search of Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace and you’ll be hard-pressed to find any second-hand equipment without significant markup.
• In extreme cases, the Morning Chalk Up found one Australian seller pawning off a pair of damaged 50kg dumbbells for $400 AUD. That’s more than double what they’d retail brand new in stores.

But there’s no need to fork out your life savings: Recently Tommy Marquez delved into the CrossFit archives for makeshift equipment ideas and also a reminder of how effective bodyweight workouts can be.