Candice Wagener
The store now carries more casual items, like learn-to-swim suits, swim diapers, floaties and more.
After 13 years, Susie Mather has returned home.
In May, she moved her store Simply Swimming from its 2,000-square-foot location on Mineral Point Road to the much larger 5,300-square-foot space at 6649 University Ave. in Middleton.
Her parents, Pat and Bob Fass, bought the building in the mid-1970s and operated a bike shop there until it moved next door a decade later. The space was then rented to Middleton Sport and Fitness, whose owners were ready to retire last fall.
“As a little girl I remember thinking, ‘This is the biggest space in the world,’” says Mather. She recalls her entire family painting and scrubbing the space from top to bottom before the bike shop opened in 1976.
Now in her new larger digs, Mather carries more specialty swim items, has larger dressing rooms to accommodate people with disabilities, and offers an entire room dedicated solely to high-performance compression suits ($100-$500) that require assistance taking on and off. She also now has a dedicated meeting room for her work with area swim teams. The store works with over 40 teams (nine out of 13 All-City teams, eight Tri-County teams, multiple teams from smaller leagues, and several USA Swimming Teams like Sun Prairie Aquatics Club and Badger Aquatics Club). Simply Swimming also provides team suits, logo T-shirts/sweatshirts and gear to area high schools Verona, Memorial, Madison West, Edgewood and, starting in fall, Middleton High School.
This community of swimmers keeps Mather going each day. Her goal is not to be the biggest swim store in the Midwest but, rather, the biggest service provider. This includes the proper fitting of equipment. Goggles, for instance, can be hard to fit to face shape, and they come in diffrent styles, depending on what kind of swimming is being done. Suits, too, come in a variety of styles, materials and fits.
Mather hopes to add more swim teams but also to reach non-team customers, including fitness swimmers, water exercisers, health club athletes and triathletes.
She already carries suits for casual swimmers and vacationers. The bigger space gives Mather room to add more fashion swimwear to the mix. For off-season vacationers, Simply Swimming will always have suits available, any time of year.
Just last summer, Mather, disabled by serious back and hip pain, was thinking about throwing in the towel and closing her business permanently after the fall season. That is, until the Middleton storefront became available again in October and Mather took an earnest look at her options. After hip replacement surgery in January, Mather was back to work in nine days and expanding her business less than four months later.
“Any type or level of swimming, we can handle it,” says Mather.
Simply Swimming
6649 University Ave, Middleton; 608-836-6649, simplyswimming.net, 10 am-6 pm Mon., Wed., Fri.; 10 am-8 pm Tues. & Thurs; 9 am-5pm Sat.
