Protecting Retailers and a Lifestyle
In 2003, two resourceful North Carolina surf shop legends Roy Turner and Mike Duncan came together to form the Board Retailers Association (BRA) as a 501C(6) non-profit organization with the Mission of consolidating the voices, experiences, and visions of board specialty, outdoor specialty, and lifestyle retailers into a cohesive organization.
They brought East Coast and West Coast Shops together in a way that had never been done before. Over the past 20 years, BRA has been “Protecting Retailers and a Lifestyle” by helping specialty retailers throughout the entire USA and its territories to survive and thrive in the ever-changing, always-challenging specialty retail environment. The Association serves as the preeminent voice for independent retailers on a grassroots level with manufacturers, trade show representatives, and others.
The name Board Retailers Association reflects the multidimensional aspect that most retailers in our industries have. Retailers that promote surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, SUPing, wakeboarding, skimboarding, kiteboarding, windsurfing, outdoor adventure activities, and/or lifestyles all share a central theme as board specialty retailers. BRA organizes and expresses the views and concerns of independent board specialty and outdoor specialty retailers in an effort to help promote our industry and support the independent specialty retailers.
Read more about our BRA Retail Membership options via this link.
BRA Mission
As referenced above, the Mission of the Board Retailers Association is to consolidate the voices, experiences, and visions of board specialty, outdoor specialty, and lifestyle retailers into a cohesive organization.
We provide the resources, educational programming and connections that keep specialty retailers competitive and profitable. This goal is in part achieved through the identification of ways to help lower the day-to-day costs of doing business, to increase profit margins and to create more remarkable customer experiences. We negotiate as a group what is beneficial to individual stores. This strengthens our base and helps the industry grow.
BRA strives to be the most effective provider of quality information and services to members, which in turn fosters an environment conducive to business success.
BRA also contributes to the industry through its non-profit foundation. The Board Retailers Association Foundation, Inc. raises money through sponsored charitable events.
BRA Vision
The Board Retailers Association will continue to act as the primary voice and action group within the specialty retail industry. The Board Retailers Association will continue to organize and express the views and concerns of board specialty and lifestyle retailers to manufacturer’s associations, trade show organizations, and others in an effort to help promote our industry and support the independent retailer.
BRA Motto
Since Roy and Mike founded the Board Retailers Association in 2003, our motto has been “Protecting Retailers and a Lifestyle”. We have continued to do that for more than 20 years and are not going to stop.
