Sports Center

At Sports Time Fan Shop, sports fanatics find even the most obscure merchandise from shot glasses to scoreboard clocks.

When brisk weather rolls into town and ruddy leaves start descending, a familiar autumn itch rallies sports fans. It’s go-time. It’s time for tailgating parties and backyard football games. And soon, basketball season will tip-off. Tad Snarenberger, co-owner of Sports Time Fan Shop in Cambridge Market Plaza, says he has a hard time keeping sporting supplies in stock in the fall.

Two years ago, Snarenberger opened Sports Time in east Wichita. The store is larger than its west Wichita forbearer and contains 3,800 square feet of hats, hoodies, jerseys and memorabilia.

Inside, team colors mash together in a sporting free-for-all zone. The energetic décor includes murals of mascots, stadiums and other sports scenes by Wichita artist Rick Regan.

Under the glass counter, there is a selection of autographed items from sports cards to footballs. “When KU won the national championship, this is where everybody came to get their merchandise,” Snarenberger says. A banner signed by last year’s University of Kansas basketball team hangs on a far wall. It’s not for sale.

Hundreds of baseball hats cover the store. There is the usual stock of coffee cups, key chains and t-shirts, but Snarenberger also carries items such as toothbrushes, antenna toppers and digital scoreboard clocks.

“If we don’t carry it, we can usually order it,” Snarenberger says. —S.J.C.

EAST ADDRESS: Cambridge Market, 9747 E. 21st St. • PHONE: 316-634-6655
WEST ADDRESS: New Market Square, 2441 N. Maize Rd. • PHONE: 316-722-3000

Product Feature:

Hot Glass: Karg Art Glass
(111 N. Oliver, Kechi, 316-744-2442, rollinkarg.com)

Rolin Karg likes to work with his hands. He’s been an industrial engineer, photographer, potter and woodworker. In 1983, he scrapped them all to pursue his favorite handiwork, glass blowing.

With a homemade furnace, a five-foot blowpipe and a bevy of dichroic colors, Karg crafts molten glass into vibrant sculptures in his studio in Kechi, a small town ten miles north of downtown Wichita.

Locally, Karg and his wife, Patti, sell the translucent creations at Karg Art Glass, their Kechi gallery, and at the Wichita Art Museum’s store.
Karg Art Glass offers a variety of décor items such as the paperweight inclusion ($60) and large satellite disk ($369) and powder-coated steel sculptures accented with sparkling glass disks.