Board Retailers Association
The Board Retailers Association (BRA) is the board sport industry's preeminent voice for independent retailers. BRA gives Board Sport Retailers - surfboard, skateboard, snowboard, and wakeboard - a cohesive voice on a grassroots level with manufacturers, trade show representatives, and other associations.
Our Purpose
With current market changes, it is important to the board sport business that we have a say in the direction that our industry is headed. BRA communicates and negotiates regularly with manufacturers and trade shows, improving business conditions and profitability for retailers, while working for the betterment of the industry as a whole. BRA members also benefit from valuable education programs and exclusive savings with insurance companies, freight distributors and many other day-to-day business partners. All of this for $125 membership dues per year.
BRA has seen department stores and discount houses taking core pieces of the independent retailer business. Top brand retailers have become "softwood," leaving other board retailers on weak footing as we fill our stores with the hardwoods necessary to perpetuate our sport, not necessarily our bank accounts. With a united voice, we can keep the playing field in check. One Mission, One Voice!
BOARD RETAILERS ASSOCIATION RETAIL SUMMIT V
THE BOARD SPORT INDUSTRY JOINS TOGETHER IN EDUCATION AND FUN AT BRA SUMMIT V
The Board Retailers Association (BRA), a non-profit representing almost 500 specialty board sport retailers in the surf, skate, snow and wake industry, hosted the fifth annual Retail Summit in San Juan, Puerto Rico April 30 – May 4, 2008. Retailers from across the country came together for three days of educational seminars on topics ranging from merchandising to the current state of the board sport industry, interactive workshops focused on opening a dialogue between retailers and manufacturers and networking opportunities where attendees had the opportunity to reconnect with old friends while building new relationships. While the primary purpose of the Retail Summit is to educate specialty retailers, the underlying result of the Summit was a shift of consciousness amongst all the retailers and manufacturers in attendance toward a more productive effort in promoting our business and the board sport lifestyle.
“I’m so glad that I decided to attend [the Retail Summit] this year as this experience was truly educational [and] enlightening. It wasn’t necessarily the introduction of new ideas or topics that was most important as much as it was the depth of which was covered by the presenters and participants. This was most definitely a very informative and rewarding experience and one that I found to be most valuable in moving on in a positive way during these tough times,” said Mark “Wally” Richards of Val Surf. Wally’s sentiments were reiterated by Pete Censoplano of Sun Diego who said, “I’ve been doing this retail thing for a long time and sometimes it can be quite uninspiring. I walked away from last week feeling re-charged and inspired.”
Manufacturers like Glenn Brumage of IASC agreed. “I look forward to helping further the retail/manufacturer relationship in the future. There is so much to consider with fully vertical retailers, internet sales, domestic and international economic pressures and our customers changing lifestyles. The more we all understand our changing business environment and the effect on each other, the better chance we have to grow our business together. I’m still reeling from the stoke.”
BRA would like to thank all the speakers and sponsors that helped support the Retail Summit, especially Surf Expo, Quiksilver, ASR, SIMA, IASC, Reef, Volcom, Rip Curl, Tum Yeto, Heartland Payment Systems, Transworld, Propoganda HQ, GSI, ActionWatch, Global Wave Ventures, Board-Trac, ASEC, SIA, 3Point5.com and Santa Cruz Surfboards. Without your continued support, this event would not have been the success it was. We are excited to continue to build on the momentum began at the Retail Summit and look forward to seeing all of you in 2009.
For additional coverage of the Retail Summit including photos, testimonials, highlights and video coverage (coming soon) please visit this site next week, http://boardretailers.wordpress.com, www.propagandahq.net/imagebank, http://www.surfexpo.com/IndustryNews/PhotoGallery/tabid/89/Default.aspx, http://www.shop-eat-surf.com and http://business.transworld.net/.
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