ROCKY RIVER, Ohio — When gyms across the country shut down in the spring due to COVID-19, many turned to a home workout routine.

What You Need To Know

  • At the begging of the pandemic, many people flocked to the stores to buy home workout equipment

  • Now many stores that specialize in selling workout equipment can't keep their supply up with the demand

  • Some stores have waitlists of hundreds of people hoping to receive workout gear

Joe Balbo is the owner of Fitness Serve in Rocky River, a store that specializes in workout equipment.

“When the gyms closed, we got cleaned out. It looked like someone broke into my store and stole half of my stuff because everything was taken out," Balbo explained.

Normally, selling everything in the store would be a good thing.

But Balbo said he hasn’t been able to restock his inventory.

"The problem is that the fitness equipment industry, the distributors that we buy from, which is only about five of them in the country, stopped buying in February. The dealers stopped buying in March and COVID hit in the middle of March, and we go back to the distributer and they didn’t have anything. But they go back to Asia to get it, China, Taiwan and Japan and they are closed for 120 days.”

Balbo says that he has a waitlist of about 200 customers hoping to receive equipment like weight plates.

“We can’t get the product. We got flat weight plates for the first time since May or June. And we only get a little bit; we order 80,000 pounds of steel — it could be dumbbells, kettle bells and weight plates, and they send you 900 pounds, so it has been very frustrating. It’s been a long summer.”

With the holidays quickly approaching, Balbo says many people are opting for items that are in stock like resistance bands. He also suggests getting your loved one a gift card the can use when the equipment comes in.

"The business is up, but it could be better. It’s about maybe 20% to 30%, but if we had all of the product and the demand was there, we would be up 50% to 100%, but we can’t get it. So, we are scrambling all the time to find something, but you can’t sell from an empty wagon.”