Meet the New-Age Strength-Training Tool That Firefighters Swear By Tanner Garrity, provided by FacebookTwitterEmail A few months ago, the Los Angeles Timesreported on a Southern California man who was collecting discarded dumbbells from dumps, garage sales and dark corners of the internet, then selling them for absurd profits. He detailed his process with a measure of pride: soak the weights in vinegar, scrub them with a steel brush, spray-paint them black. He sold one $50 pair of weights for $500. It’s a predictable, Mad Max-esque endgame in a world where demand for home fitness equipment has far outpaced the production capacity of a broken supply chain for almost a full year. The dumbbell shortage is real, it’s still going strong, and Americans — unable or unwilling to return to the gym — are paying more for someone’s 30-year-old 10-pound weights than the most respected fitness manufacturer in the country would normally charge them for a pair of