Gyms After Coronavirus: Winners & Losers

COVID-19 has forced the mass closure of gyms and fitness studios all over the world.

With it, we’ve seen a spike in the popularity of both online fitness classes as well as home workout equipment.

According to retail intelligence company Stackline, ‘weight training’ is the 8th fastest growing e-commerce category, recording a 308% year-on-year increase in March 2020. The related category, ‘fitness equipment’, came in 31st with a 170% bump.

The Google Trends snapshots below, for fitness equipment and kettlebell respectively, echo these numbers.

Empty Shelves

Fitness retailers everywhere, including big box retailers like Rebel (below) and Kmart in Australia, found themselves with empty shelves, after an initial flurry of panic buying by gym bros and girls fearful of lost gains!

Two months after this flurry, shelves still remain bare at most retailers.