About Us

In 1986, Murray Fraser picked up a Gnu snowboard from Mike Olson, founder of Mervin Manufacturing, at the ski & snowboard show in Las Vegas. That first board would go on to change the course of Murray’s life and the West Coast snowboarding industry. Having fallen in love with Snowboarding, Murray would go on to open Brighttrade Snowboard Shop. Murray’s passion for the industry and refusal to follow the crowd fueled the stores success and helped it to grow into what it is today.

In the late 80’s, there were only two shops selling snowboards in Vancouver. The sport was new but growing fast and Murray saw an opportunity to open his own store. In 1987, Brighttrade was opened on Pine St. at W 4th Ave in Kitsilano and began selling brands like Sims, Crazy Banana, Kemper, Gnu, and Checker Pig.

After the first few successful years on Pine St, Murray moved the store to 1717 West 4th Ave. In the new location, Brighttrade continued selling snowboard equipment, introducing the West Coast to the exciting world of snowboarding. Never losing sight of the values that founded the store, Brighttrade continued to shop around for product and discover smaller core brands that were on the cusp of making a splash in the industry. Brighttrade sold brands like Lib Tech and Rad Air, and also supported local brands like Option. By 1995, Brighttrade was selling an impressive, twenty-four board brands, including Ride, Airwalk, Lib Tech, Rad Air, Joyride, Barefoot, Avalanche, Liquid, Silence, Checkered Pig, Kemper, Sims, Heavy, Tools, and Hammer.

As snowboarding grew in popularity, snowboard style became popular on and off the mountain. To meet the growing demand for lifestyle products, in the summer of 1996, the shop expanded by introducing skate, clothing, and shoe departments, with brands like Sole Tech and the new kid on the block Sheep Shoes.

Since the beginning, Murray and Brighttrade have supported the snowboarding community and the industry as a whole. In 1997, the shop held Vancouver’s first snowboard contest series, Brighttrade Big Air. The event ran until 2005 and goes down in the history books as one of the largest shop contests on the West Coast. In the late nineties and into the early millennium the shop sponsored teams, supporting local riders in snow, skate, and wake. Brighttrade continues to support, celebrate and promote the industry by playing host to a multitude of snowboard events and movie premiers throughout the year.

Based on the success of the West 4th location, Murray opened a second location in North Vancouver in the year 2000. The 3,500 sq ft store at 21st and Lonsdale opened with an expanded skate department to serve the growing North Van skate scene. A few years later in 2004, the company expanded again taking Brighttrade online, bringing their products to people across Canada and the US via www.brighttrade.shop. In 2006, the North Van store expanded, adding an additional 2,500 sq ft to the retail space.

In 2007 Brighttrade celebrated its 20th anniversary and was awarded “SIA Canadian Snowsports Retailer of the Year”. Three years later in 2010, Murray and the team celebrated the 10th anniversary of Brighttrade’s North Vancouver location and welcomed the Olympics to Vancouver. With the eyes of the world on Vancouver, the local snowboard scene was pumped to welcome some of the world’s best riders to the city. To celebrate the Games, Nike wanted to pay homage to the industry. Recognizing Brighttrades history over the last 20 years, Nike partnered with Brighttrade to host their Aries Time Capsule event. It was a retrospective look at snowboarding with attendee’s and speeches from the likes of Terry Kidwell and Ken Achenbach.

The industry has grown and changed a lot since 1987 and Brighttrade has grown along with it. Today, the West 4th locations have 12,000 sq ft of retail space, backed by 5,000 sq ft of office/warehouse space. The North Vancouver location now has 5,500 sq ft of retail space and 1,500 sq ft of office/warehouse space. Over the years, we have helped introduce many people to the world of snowboarding, and one by one they fell in love with it just like Murray did over 20 years ago. Since the shop first opened, one of the company’s greatest strengths has been the staff who all share Murray’s passion for the action sports they work and play in. Over the past decades, we, at Brighttrade have definitely had our fair share of fun, parties, and contests all the while maintaining Murray’s original vision of selling core brands and quality gear with uncompromising customer service. From the beginning Brighttrade has done it’s very best to give back to the industry and community that helped shape it and we look forward to being part of the industry for the next 20 years.