Exercise equipment manufacturer Peloton has had to issue a recall for pedals on around 27,000 of its bike because of risks of injury. That’s come at a challenging time for the firm as it has faced surging demand but also logistics congestion that has slowed deliveries according to CEO John Foley who does “not expect to return to normalized order-to-delivery windows in the U.S. prior to the end of Q2 FY 2021“, or Dec. 2020.

Deliveries are at least arriving at the ports to meet demand though. Panjiva’s data shows that U.S. seaborne imports linked to Peloton, including peripherals and merchandise, jumped by 124% sequentially in calendar Q3 versus calendar Q2 and reached a record high in the month of September.

Chart shows U.S. seaborne imports linked to Peloton.   Source: Panjiva

Peloton, like other exercise equipment manufacturers, is having to fight for logistics space with a wider spread surge in imports of consumer discretionary products. As outlined in Panjiva’s research of Oct. 12 this is being driven by a mixture of underlying increased demand for stay-at-home products heading into the winter as well as an apparent assumption by retailers that shoppers will make holiday purchases earlier than normal.

The more established fitness equipment manufacturers have also seen marked increases in their imports. Total U.S. seaborne imports of fitness equipment jumped by 137% year over year in September and by 102% for Q3 as a whole. 

The fastest growth among the majors has been seen in shipments linked to Nautilus which rose by 406% year over year in Q3, while those linked to ICON Fitness rose by 106%. Traditional retailers are also scaling up their imports, likely to avoid being disintermediated by direct-to-consumer suppliers, shown by a 83.7% jump in shipments linked to Dick’s Sporting.

Chart segments U.S. seaborne imports of fitness equipment by consignee.   Source: Panjiva