Starting Block owner to start sister store, TSB Imprint

WICHITA — Starting Block owner Tammy Riffel is opening a new store close to her existing one near 13th and Maize Road.

“It’s going to be an extension of the Starting Block,” Riffel says of TSB Imprint.

The Starting Block sells swimwear, but Riffel has always outsourced orders for embroidery, logos, screen prints and T-shirts for school and club teams. Now, she’s going to do them herself.

“It’s obviously cheaper instead of having a middle man.”

The Starting Block is at 1444 N. Maize Road just north of the intersection.

TSB Imprint is in a separate strip center that faces 13th Street. It’s next to Howard’s Optical Dispensary.

Carl Hebert of InSite Real Estate Group and Janet Foster of J.P.Weigand & Sons handled the deal.

Riffel hopes to be open by July 1.

“Which is next week, isn’t it?” she says, noting that the summer is flying by.

“Oh, my gosh.”

 

Starting Block swim shop to open second store on west side

WICHITA — For five years, Tammy Riffel has had the Starting Block swim shop at the Wichita Swim Club at 8323 E. Douglas.

And for five years, she’s been silently studying.

“I just kind of sat back and observed,” Riffel says.

She’s seen a need for another shop, this time on the west side.

So she’s opening her second Starting Block in February at 1444 N. Maize Road, just north of 13th and Maize.

“This is going to be so nice,” she says of the roomy 1,300 square feet she’ll have.

That compares with 500 square feet at her first shop.

Riffel says being at the Wichita Swim Club is great, but she says, “There’s so many people that don’t know that I’m there.”

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