NSSRA History

Founded in 1988, NSSRA is the retail voice for the ski and snowboard industries and provides information and services specialty snow sports retailers need to operate more successfully.

For years following the formation of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Committee on snow skiing, several independent shop owners worked to represent retailers’ interests. By 1987, it became apparent that a separate organization was needed to represent retailer interests in the ski industry on a nationwide scale. The National Ski Retailers Association (NSRA) was born.

To better represent the changes taking place on the slopes, the association changed its name in 1996 to the National Ski & Snowboard Retailers Association (NSSRA).

The National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) has managed NSSRA since its inception in 1988 and provides a variety of services to specialty snow sport retailers such as corporate advocacy and legislative advocacy efforts including:

• tax policies affecting small businesses
• managing employment-based costs
• trade and tariffs
• anticompetitive behavior and marketplace fairness
• loss prevention
• sustainability/protection of the outdoors
• sports participation

NSGA’s Research Department also provides data to help NSSRA retailers succeed in their store operations. All retail members of NSSRA enjoy dual membership in NSGA.

NSSRA is working with other snow sports industry stakeholders to help grow participation in skiing and snowboarding.