ShawneeDispatch.com

Photo by Kevin Anderson

The new Nills Bros. Team Sports store in Shawnee, 15810 Shawnee Mission Parkway, offers a wide selection of sporting goods and equipment in addition to team uniforms.

Shawnee sports teams now have a closer alternative for uniforms and equipment with the relocation of Nill Bros. Team Sports.

The store closed its Lenexa location and reopened a few weeks ago at 15810 Shawnee Mission Parkway in Shawnee, just west of the SuperTarget.

Randy Nill, owner, said his father, Bill, started the business in 1960 in Kansas City, Kan., to serve school sports teams. Eventually, Randy and his brother joined and expanded the business to three more locations in Olathe, Overland Park and Lenexa.

Nill is now the sole owner of the business, since his brother left seven years ago, and said the time was ripe to move to Shawnee for several reasons. The first was that construction on 87th Street in Lenexa had led to a slowdown in business at that location.

"The place just kind of died out on us," Nill said. "We were looking for a fresh, new start. We were really excited to get into the Shawnee market."

Nill said Shawnee provided the perfect location to move to because it was still fairly close to the loyal Lenexa customers the store had served for 15 years, but it moved the store to an underserved area in terms of sports stores.

"There's plenty of big boxes here in town, and we did see an area that certainly appeared to need a sports store of our type, our niche," Nill said.

Along with the move came a new management team. Manager Deb Schmidt said things have been going well.

"We've been pretty pleased with the amount of traffic," she said. "I think a lot of people don't know we're here yet or think we're still in Lenexa."

Schmidt, who came from the Overland Park store, said she sees a lot of potential for expansion in Shawnee.

"There's just so many young kids out in the De Soto school district, and being by Swarner Park and Mid-America baseball complex," she said.

The store offers sports equipment and uniforms for just about every sport imaginable, as well as screen printing and embroidery services for personalizing the uniforms.

Jim Willard, team salesman, said he is finding many new Shawnee teams to work with.

"I've been getting a lot of teams from Mill Valley, and my son goes to Mill Creek (Middle School), so we've been doing some networking," he said.

The store can be reached at (913) 754-1390. For more information, visit nillbros.com.