Aussies buy home stripper poles during COVID-19 isolation but are being warned of fakes on eBay
Home stripper poles have become harder to come by than yoga mats as Aussie mums opt to learn new skills at home. But they are being warned of buying fake ones online.
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Forget toilet paper, pasta and paint-by-numbers kits, the hottest item of 2020 isolation is the home stripper pole.
Leading supplier X-Pole sold three months worth of stock in the two weeks following gym closures and has thousands of people on the wait list for their next shipment of poles.
Director Jessie Dee said people were buying whatever they could get their hands on to continue training at home.
“The girls who have been doing pole for a while are usually specific about wanting a specific finish and width but people are happy to have any pole at the moment,” she said.
“We have budget, entry-level poles and normally we would sell one or two a month but we have a couple of hundred girls on the wait list even for those.”
X-Pole was also cleared out of silks, lyra hoops and aerial yoga hammocks – and newly-introduced hand sanitiser has become a top seller.
Pole Dance Academy co-owner Michelle Shimmy warned people who had missed out on a pole in the buying rush not to be tempted by knock-off products on eBay.
“There are lots of really dangerous fake poles,” she said.
“Sometimes the parts aren’t even made of metal.
“It gives me nightmares to think of students going upside down and doing tricks and the pole coming down.
“You wouldn’t try a flying trapeze class on a dodgy trapeze set.”
The Dover Heights resident, who is currently running her pole classes via Zoom, was not surprised by the spike in demand for home poles.
“Pole dancers are pretty crazy about pole dancing, they are addicted and get withdrawals if they can’t go to the studio,” she said.
“When most people were out panic buying toilet paper, pole dancers were out buying poles.
“They put them in their living rooms, sometimes in the kitchen, wherever they will fit.
“Sorry to the hubby if they want to watch TV, there will be a pole in the way.”
Although often associated with stripping, Ms Shimmy, 38, said most people took up pole dancing for fitness.
“It’s a mental health thing as well,” she said.
“A lot of my students are mums that are going stir crazy at home with their children and they can put some music on and have some time for themselves.”
PhysiPole Studio instructor and student Cassandra Mitchell has a pole in her Coburg garage but said dancers without one could still do virtual classes while waiting for poles to come back in stock or for studios to reopen.
“The majority of my students don’t have a pole,” she said.
“All the PhysiPole franchisees got together and we redeveloped our syllabus … to go back to basics and focus on the underlying strength that we need for when we do get back into the studio.”
Ms Mitchell, 32, recommended pole dancing to “absolutely anyone”.
“It suits an 18-year-old that thinks gym looks boring and wants fun and fitness, it suits someone who is 30 and wants the social connection side of it … I know people who start when they are 60 and they get something out of it,” she said.
“It would be great to see more guys get into it.”
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