We've Won Independent Retailer of the Year Runner-Up!

We are super stoked to announce that out of hundreds of entrants Australia-wide and up against big names like Aldi, Jeanswest and The Good Guys, Adreno was awarded Independent Retailer of the Year Runner-Up!

It's been an exciting 15 years, watching Adreno grow from a single shed store in Brisbane's outer suburbs. That one shed slowly grew to six and, noticing the demand for quality spearfishing, scuba diving, freediving and surfing gear around Australia, we were able to open three eCommerce stores spearfishing.com.au, wetsuitwarehouse.com.au and scubadiving.com.au very early on in 2005.

These three online stores are now supported by a massive warehouse location in Brisbane where our warehouse team diligently picks, packs and dispatches hundreds of orders per day all over Australia.

Some of our Melbourne team collect the ARA Independent Retailer of the Year Runner-Up award at the ceremony!

Since the beginning, Adreno has strived to create a culture of education, support and fun amongst our avid and passionate underwater enthusiasts - and this can only be created by employing those very enthusiasts within every position of the business to give the right support and advice at every step of the way - right from the top with the Australian Spearfishing Champion founder and managing director Tim Neilsen!

When Social Media came onto the scene we were able to use this passion, coupled with weekly emails, to further interact with our customers all over Australia. With an active community on Facebook, Instagram and even Snapchat we are now able to hear and see what our customers are up to, their wants and needs, on a real-time basis.

We're stoked to be a hub for the spearfishing, scuba diving and surfing communities! Here's 30 attendees at our free Melbourne store freediving seminar this week.

With our finger on the pulse and always listening to our community we soon discovered that Sydney and Melbourne customers were calling out for a retail megastore stocking all of their favourite spearfishing, scuba diving and surfing gear in the one location.

More than just a "shop" we always strive provide valuable info to our community - we've even got a cooking show hosted by Adreno's founder!

So in 2015 and 2016 we opened Sydney and Melbourne megastores - larger still than our six-lot long warehouse Brisbane store! To our surprise and delight, more than 400 people lined up for eachof those store openings - some even camping out overnight in the mid-winter rain of Melbourne!

Our packed Melbourne store full of underwater enthusiasts!

For the whole team, both of those store Grand Opening celebrations really cemented what we always felt - that we were more than just a retail destination store, we were a vital part of the diving community, a hub where people and passion could collide, the place where lifelong friendships and memories began.

This award is pretty cool, sure. But at the end of the day the most important thing to us is you. So a big thanks to you - our awesome spearos, divers, surfers and all-round ocean addicted community. You guys are the best and we certainly couldn't have come this far without each and every one of you.