In 2018, a total of $1.8 trillion in new equipment was sold to U.S. businesses and consumers, according to a study by Accenture.
And the market is only expected to grow.
“We expect that in 2020, the industry will be worth $20 trillion,” said Michael A. Bivens, Accenture’s chief investment officer, in a conference call with analysts.
“And in 2021, we believe it will be $80 trillion.”
It’s a stunning rise in value for an industry that is struggling to find a sustainable growth rate.
It’s also a huge jump from just a few years ago, when the industry saw a 30% to 50% drop in sales due to a drop in popularity of traditional gym equipment.
This was largely due to the increasing popularity of a new, more affordable version of traditional equipment that has seen sales surge in recent years: the elliptical.
“The demand for ellipticals has gone up,” Bivons said.
“A lot of people are starting to realize that there’s a lot of value in a machine that is not a weight machine.
A lot of them are beginning to think about using the ellipticals as a personal fitness machine.”
The trend has been fueled by a surge in people switching to elliptical machines for weight loss.
“This is a huge opportunity for the gym,” Bixler said.
As for the new ellipticals, there are a lot more of them out there now, so you’ll be seeing them everywhere from fitness gyms to gyms where people are going for a quick workout, to a gym that’s hosting a wedding, to even a gym where people will be doing a yoga class, Bixlers company says.
“There’s a whole range of different kinds of equipment that is now being used to increase performance and reduce injury risk,” he said.
