New Marion store focused on volleyball

Need a football mouthguard? Sorry. How about a pair of basketball shoes? Uh-uh. Ted Moser and Matt Krug had one sport in mind when they opened their Vball Gear store last week at 1222 Seventh Ave., Marion, and that's volleyball.

The 300-plus different products crammed into the small store are all serious volleyball gear, for serious volleyball players.

Some products are so specialized you wonder if they'll ever sell, like the regulation volleyball pressure gauges.

“Volleyball referees check the ball pressure before every match,” said Moser, who has been a line judge at University of Iowa matches for the past eight years.

Moser and Krug expect to sell much of their merchandise directly to school athletic and club programs. They also sell some items useful mainly in league play, such as the sand socks used by sand volleyballers. The company has an exclusive Iowa territory for Kaepa-USA, a leading supplier of volleyball apparel and gear.

Despite the trend toward online retailing, the partners wanted a retail storefront where volleyball players could try on shoes and clothes and browse the selection. They found a unique storefront that had most recently been a massage studio and outfitted it for retail.

Before opening, Krug, who operates a marketing firm called MK Productions, began promoting it on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

The two men already have a leg up in network marketing through their volleyball affiliations. In addition to being a line judge, the 44-year-old Moser plays volleyball and runs the Rapid Spikers girls club in Cedar Rapids. He is on the board of directors for the Iowa Region of USA volleyball. Krug, 38, has been active in volleyball for 15 years.

Changes in the local retail marketplace fueled the interest of Moser and Krug in opening a volleyball store.

As big-box retailers such as Dick's Sporting Goods and Gander Mountain opened, one of the better volleyball retailers - John Wilson's for Sports - closed.

“Players had to drive to Iowa City to buy their gear,” Krug said. “We kind of put our heads together and said, ‘There's a market for this.'?”

The partners think the Marion location will serve the store well despite its small size and a curving wall that divides the retail floor in half. It's on a busy street with good visibility.

“We're a destination store,” Krug said.

• Vball Gear: www.vballgear.com; (319) 261-2255