Does Play It Again Sports Sell Dumbbells
The Play It Again sporting goods store on Sawmill Road on the Northwest Side features a minor space behind the register intended to mimic the free weight section of a neighborhood gym. A raised platform features a demote surrounded by racks of weights.
Only 1 thing was missing on a recent Mon: the weights. One of the racks was blank while another displayed only ii lonely mismatched barbells.
Hubby-and-wife owners Marlene and Andy Demain said customers accept been buying up complimentary weights nearly as fast every bit the couple tin can stock them.
"We had to shut on March 22nd" when Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine temporarily shuttered most not-essential businesses, Andy Demain said. "The week before that, every ii minutes, someone was coming in the door or calling and asking about weights, and that never abated."
Workout equipment is i bright spot in the coronavirus pandemic'due south retail mural. With admission to health clubs limited, owners of sporting goods stores say customers are interested in anything that helps them practice outdoors or in the comfort of their ain homes.
The spike in sales began the moment state officials started discussing the closure of gyms and other workout facilities in the early leap, and haven't let upwards since a almost ii-month lockdown ended in May, the Demains said.
"People are finding new outlets to exist good for you and active," said Jeff Henderson, general director of Armada Anxiety and FrontRunner, a central Ohio chain of running stores.
Prior to the pandemic, Marlene and Andy Demain were more cautious well-nigh stocking free weights, ordering only as many as they thought they could sell. Now they snatch up as many weights as they tin can find.
Whatsoever workout equipment involving outdoor exercise seems specially popular, store owners said.
Running shoes and clothes have been flying off the shelves in recent weeks, co-ordinate to Eric Fruth, co-owner of the Columbus Running Company, a sporting appurtenances store with five cardinal Ohio locations. Runners and aspiring runners are ownership shoes, watches, headphones, and seem especially interested in gloves as the temperature drops, he said
"Running and walking shoes have definitely been a hot detail," Fruth said.
Running gloves are the about popular detail behind shoes, he said. The store possessor suspects that people who ordinarily run on treadmills in the winter are buying cold weather condition gear to brave winter temperatures for the get-go fourth dimension.
Based on his conversations with customers since the starting time of the pandemic, Fruth thinks the bulk of the purchases come up from those who are not regular runners or joggers.
"They are not comfortable stepping into a gym or group setting, but (running) is something they tin can do outdoors on their own," Fruth said.
For their function, gym owners and managers say they've done everything they can to make their businesses safe. A group of boutique gyms even developed its own pandemic best practices, which helped form the ground for Ohio's gym guidelines.
Henderson also pointed to studies suggesting that concrete fitness can lower the chances of virus infection.
Organized runs experienced a slight drib off as runners have been reluctant to gather in groups, merely more than people seem to exist running on their own, said Eric McGraw, ane of the organizers of the Grandview Running Club.
"I definitely see more people walking and running these days," he said. "I accept a walk every day and commonly run five times a calendar week. The Scioto Trail has picked up, and the Olentangy Trail has been consistently decorated."
Membership requests to the Eastward Side Running Club are up 30% over previous years, said Penny Myers, the organization's president. The group moved to virtual workouts rather than gathering in person, she said.
"I tin can't say for certain if they joined us because they can't make it to the gym, but I retrieve they joined us because they want to exist role of something healthy," Myers said.
Running is far from the only sport to experience increased interest, store owners said.
When the pandemic beginning struck "two things people were looking for were rollerblades and bikes," Marlene Demain said.
Products for other sports such as golf game also saw an uptick in demand in the spring and summer, she said.
"Golf game probably increased 800%," she said.
Not all workout equipment is disappearing from store shelves. Gear for organized sports saw a drib in sales equally schools cancelled or scaled back actress curricular activities at the onset of the pandemic, Demain said.
Play It Once again saw a large drib in sales of equipment for specialized sports like lacrosse, and the store isn't selling wrestling products at all this yr, she said.
"With Covid-xix, we just decided to skip that," Demain said.
Henderson is confident the enhanced interest in exercise will outlive the pandemic. Need for running products, for example, has endured since the virus appeared in Ohio eight months ago, he said.
"Nosotros're getting to the betoken where people are coming back and they want to know how often they should exist replacing their shoes," he said. "That'south been fun to see. They've been enjoying it and they desire to keep going."
pcooley@dispatch.com
@PatrickACooley
Does Play It Again Sports Sell Dumbbells
Source: https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/2020/12/02/exercise-equipment-bright-spot-pandemic-retail-economy/6473516002/