Welcome from the BRA President

Change is inevitable and the great thing about specialty retailers is their ability to adapt to constantly changing forces in the marketplace. This past year reflected many changes of a maturing market sector including mergers, acquisitions, public offerings and expanding distribution channels. All of which, directly or indirectly challenged many independent board sports retailers.

While change is good, it is the hard goods retailer that provides the contact between consumers and sport, allowing our industry to entice the youth market of today. It is imperative that the specialty hard goods sector remain a driving force behind design and trends within the action sports arena. The last thing we need is to have our industry become represented in the “Block of Horror” found in every strip mall in every town in America. Communication and cooperation between retailers and manufacturers at the specialty retail level is the key.

Locally owned Surf/Skate/Wake/Wind Shops are often highly inefficient because they can't order by the truck full, they don't have access to national market research and advertising, and their design and marketing decisions are made unscientifically, according to individual taste. According to chain-think mentality that often comes with a maturing market, independent stores must be replaced so that chains can gain market share and dominate.

At Board Retailers we do not think so. We feel that a community or a sport that loses all local control or contact with the functions of the economy – production, consumption, meeting human needs – is doomed as a community. We believe in our sports community and our goal is to be the voice of independent retailers, helping to keep our needs and concerns in the forefront of our industry through a unified voice.

Take a minute to look at the big picture, fellow surf shop owners while competitive, are not your main competitors, they, like you are lifestyle partners. By sharing resources we can compete with the Old Navy’s, Hollisters and Targets of the world. Through Association we can find programs that help control day to day costs, insurance, banking, legal, etc. In cooperation with Surf Expo we can help to make your tradeshow travel and expenses more productive by offering educational seminars for you and your employees.

By becoming more involved as a group in industry process, we can continue to create a value of association between independent board sports retailers and manufacturers.