Boards & Bottlecaps: UCLA student’s FratBoards gain traction among fraternity members

 

After a wild night, a piercing alarm wakes UCLA fraternity members with the unpleasant realities of adulthood. As they scramble for the door with just minutes to spare, there is only one method of transportation they trust to get them to campus on time: FratBoards.

Founded in 2011 by Aza Steel, a fourth-year sociology student, FratBoards feature a fraternity paddle, in place of the traditional skateboard deck, with a built-in bottle opener. In just more than two years, Steel’s web-based company FratBoards.com has made a name for itself within fraternity culture by combining two common loves: skating and beer.

Steel said the idea for the company originated when he needed to make a fraternity paddle for his “big bro.” Because his “big” also wanted to learn to skateboard, Steel said he decided to combine the two together.

“I needed to get him a paddle and he wanted to learn how to skate, so I bought a paddle, snuck into (an) engineering building to drill some holes in it and FratBoards was born,” Steel said.

Although the idea of FratBoards was intriguing, Steel said the first board rode terribly. However, after enlisting the help of his friend Nick Tyler, a fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student, to construct the board, the two began making prototypes on Steel’s cousin’s 4-by-8 balcony. After perfecting the prototype and experimenting with different parts, Steel said the next step was marketing FratBoards and getting the word out.

At this time, YouTube fraternity persona Jimmy Tatro had begun to make an impact on the Internet. Steel said he sent Tatro a Facebook message about FratBoards, which culminated in a promotional video on the website Total Frat Move (TFM) receiving 800,000 views.

“Over time, we’ve accumulated over 11,000 Facebook fans, who are pretty pumped about FratBoards,” Steel said. “It’s a playful board to ride.”

Daniel Brooks, a fourth-year ethnomusicology student, bought his first FratBoard a year and a half ago, during the company’s onset. He said he was initially attracted to the way the product was ingrained in the fraternity culture.

“It’s so funky and different. Everyone’s got a longboard or a skateboard, but no one has a FratBoard shaped like a paddle,” Brooks said.

Anthony Cognet, a FratBoards employee, said in addition to the paddle-board deck, there are several other features that create a novel product. He said customers have the option to completely customize the board by adding text and premade designs or creating personalized images in the design lab, which gives FratBoards an identifiable look.

“We want the company to become well-known,” Cognet said. “As soon as people see a paddle-shaped board, they’ll know it’s a FratBoard.”

Although customers may first be intrigued by the paddle-shaped deck, Steel said the built-in bottle opener is the fans’ favorite feature. When designing a FratBoard online, he said customers have the option to personalize which beer bottle cap they want – a win-win situation for the customer and FratBoards’ employees.

“In order to (allow users to customize their bottle opener) we have to buy the beer and drink it,” Steel said. “It’s a pretty good way to be drinking high quality alcohol that we wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise.”

As evidenced by the fans’ hype around the bottle cap feature, Steel said his company has seen tremendous growth since its onset. FratBoards are no longer constructed on his cousin’s 4-by-8 balcony. Instead, the company has continued to scale and is now located in central Los Angeles.

Cognet said the company’s growth has not only allowed them to produce a greater volume of FratBoards to meet consumer demands, but it has also given them the opportunity to broaden their horizons and create a new product: the FratDaddy.

“Pushing out our newest design has been the biggest challenge,” Cognet said. “Fans kept on hinting they wanted a bigger board, so we thought, ‘Why not make a longboard?’”

Steel said he expects the FratDaddy to be released within the week, and after the upcoming release fans can expect to see more FratBoards innovations hitting their online store soon after.

Three years ago, FratBoards did not exist.

Today, the company has a solid fan base and is about to have two products on the market. Steel said he is proud and humbled by all he has accomplished.

“I’ve created something that really didn’t exist before,” Steel said. “The concept of a FratBoard is completely novel and a contribution that I never really thought I would make.”