When Is The Best Time To Buy Home Exercise Equipment?

It’s no secret that the buying and selling of home fitness equipment is a booming business. In fact, it’s estimated that 2020 saw at least $10 billion in annual sales- and that’s probably a conservative estimate.

Home exercise equipment is always a pretty hot commodity though, especially in January when a lot more folks decide to make exercising part of their New Year’s resolution.

But with the recent worldwide pandemic, it seems like home fitness equipment has been in a constant state of increased demand.

And with more people buying, it can make getting your hands on the equipment you want harder and, more times than not, more costly.

So, the question is: when is the best time of year to buy exercise equipment?

And does it makes sense to wait for a sale or should you pounce on a purchase as soon as you can before it runs out of supply?

Well, these are the questions I aim to shed some light on within this article.

When Is The Best Time To Buy Home Exercise Equipment?

Unfortunately, there isn’t a black and white, one size fits all answer to this question- but I’ll try to cover all the bases as best as I can here.

I was inspired to write this post after discussing this topic with a reader a while ago. After our discussion, I thought it would be something more people might be interested in hearing.

Especially after 2020.

Traditionally, we would expect fitness equipment (like pretty much everything else) to go on sale at the expected times, like Black Friday, around the holidays, and in January.

But with the increased demand we saw in 2020, I don’t think the traditional expectations were necessarily true.

For one thing, we saw pretty significant price increases on most home fitness equipment in 2020.

Especially treadmills- I felt bad because my budget-friendly treadmill guide was kinda destroyed because half the treadmills I mentioned had significant price increases after the pandemic and were no longer “budget friendly”.

After some serious re-writing I was able to fix the guide for this year (and hopefully prices won’t increase the way they did in 2020).

And not only did prices go up, but it became nearly impossible to find the equipment you wanted.

A lot of the big name brands, like NordicTrack, Sole, and ProForm became harder to find- especially on retail sites like Amazon where inventory was completed diminished.

And if you tried to purchase directly through the brand themselves, you often found yourself waiting 6-8 weeks for delivery.

Ok, that’s the last of my 2020 complaining, but what I think I was talking about was how the traditional timelines for fitness equipment sales and what not didn’t really work that year.

Hopefully, this year and all the rest will be more “normal”.

So, even with all this info in mind, there are some times of the year that seem to be better than others for purchasing home fitness equipment.

January

January is one of the best times to buy exercise equipment because all the fitness brands know that this is when we decide to finally get our acts in gear and start livin’ right.

You know, eating clean, exercising, meditating… all that jazz.

Basically all the stuff we have to do to flush the last 3 months of eating and drinking out of our system.

And the marketers for these brands know that if they give us a little incentive, like free shipping or a couple hundred bucks off regular price, then it makes it a lot easier for us to pull the trigger and buy.

Now January is a time when a lot of people decide to start exercising from home, so supply can be more limited, but you may be able to get a good price.

I feel like the January sales are usually seen more when buying directly from the brands more so than through sites like Amazon.

Holidays

Holidays tend to be another good time of year to check prices on a piece of fitness equipment you may have had your eye on.

You may sees sales for Fourth of July, President’s Day, Easter, and Veteran’s Day. Then of course there’s the big ones you might see around Christmas and New Years.

And even though Black Friday continues to be a good time to find deals, nowadays Black Friday seems to start in October.

With retailers in an ongoing battle for shoppers’ attention, holiday deals are starting earlier and earlier each year.

And even though Christmas shopping in October might sound crazy to some, it can be worth it if you get a great deal.

Knowing this, I wouldn’t necessarily wait until Black Friday to try and find a great deal on a treadmill or elliptical- I’d start looking in early November or even October.

June

The beginning of summer, usually right around June, can be another great time to find deals on home fitness equipment.

I think it’s because the warmer weather gets people exercising outside more, so there’s less demand for indoor fitness machines. This decrease in demand motivates sellers to drop prices in an effort to move inventory.

Speaking of inventory, June is right in the middle of the year. This could be a good time for retailers to make room for the newer models that’ll be coming out in the fall.

So if you think there’s a chance you could be in the market for a treadmill or any other piece of home gym equipment later on in the year, I’d check prices in June.

To Buy Now or Later

This is a tougher one to answer because it really depends on your needs and finances. Does it make sense to hold out and wait for a sale or should you purchase now when the equipment you want is available?

I think it depends on the time of year you’re looking too.

If you started looking for a treadmill in August, I’d argue it probably makes sense to wait another 2 months or so for the end of year sales that’ll be starting in October.

A couple months isn’t that long and if it saves you a couple hundred bucks it could be worth the wait.

On the other hand, if $200 isn’t that big a deal to ya, you might not care as much about the sale. And if you’re eager to get your exercise on, by all means go for it.

But if it’s February or March, you could be waiting a while for any significant sales (I mentioned Easter as a possible sales event, but that might be a bit of a stretch).

And then there’s the random sales that happen on Amazon and other retail sites that you don’t see coming.

Sorry, I don’t feel like I’m helping much here.

Basically, you have to consider the benefits of getting your equipment now vs later and the potential savings you could benefit from.

In most cases, a sales price might be a couple hundred bucks (or less) off the normal price.

Sometimes a sales event is only free shipping (which can be hundreds of dollars) or free accessories.

Overall, when it comes to purchasing now or waiting for a possible sale later, I say go with your gut.

If you guys have any additional input on this topic I’d love to hear it. If you know of any other great times to buy home fitness equipment, please share- leave a comment below and I’ll get right back to ya.