Sleeptopia Sleep Business is Expanding for several reasons, including due to COVID-19

Kevin Kunz is expanding his Sleeptopia once again, and it’s kind of amazing to see how far he’s come in seven short years.

He started the “all things sleep” business — it sells in-home sleep study kits along with CPAP machines and nocturnal oxygen supplies — in a one-room building along East Douglas that had no heating, cooling or even plumbing. He used to have to borrow the bathroom at the Anchor across the street or the nearby QuikTrip.

Now, he’s buying the 6,000-square-foot building that houses his business, at 411 S. Pattie, adding an additional 1,500 square feet, and he purchased a nearby duplex to knock down for extra parking.

A growing awareness of sleep apnea is helping his business grow.

“That’s one of the big deals,” Kunz said. “We’ve added so many more patients on CPAPs with us.”

He said part of his expansion will be to have more products available on site. Kunz said one service he’s added to his business is resupplying other vendors, so it’s important to have products he can access quickly.

Also, he said a lot of customers stop by. Some of his favorites are CPAP-using musicians who come through Wichita on tour and need supplies.

His business covers the whole state and the entire Kansas City metropolitan area in Kansas and Missouri.

The pandemic has helped his business, too.

“Labs have had to shut down due to COVID,” Kunz said of sleep testing centers.

He said people still need to be tested, and his kits allow for that. They are now disposable, which is something new in the last year.

Kunz calls it “just absolutely remarkable from where I started the company.”

“I’ve just seen so many changes since ’13.”

• written by Carrie Rengers

  a reporter for almost three decades, including 16 years at The Wichita Eagle