QBP’s Steve Flagg Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from BPSA

The Bicycle Product Supplier Association (BPSA) has gonged QBP founder and chairman Steve Flagg with its Lifetime Achievement Award, presented at Interbike in Las Vegas.

The annual award is given to one person “whose career has greatly contributed to the advancement or promotion of the bicycle industry.”

Factors considered in presenting the award include: span and scope of career, lives touched through the individual’s work, awards received and plenty more. For this year’s award, the BPSA’s small group of board members unanimously agreed on awarding Flagg.

“In light of all that he has done for this industry and the legacy he is leaving at QBP, we couldn’t think of a more deserving person than Steve,” the organization stated.

A respected cycling businessman and advocate, Flagg started out in the industry over 40 years ago. After founding Minneapolis’ first bicycle co-op, he and wife Mary Henrickson created QBP to help independent bike dealers acquire hard-to-find parts, resolve technical problems, and learn how to set themselves up for success. In 1981, QBP had just seven customers. Under Flagg’s stewardship, the company is now the largest distributor of bicycle parts and accessories in the USA’s industry.

Over the next three-plus decades, Flagg has established a reputation for integrity, innovation, and his defense of the bicycle as a powerful, transformative tool for change. Through the early adoption of e-commerce technology, investing in product development, however odd it seemed at the time (think fat bikes), to hiring the bike industry’s first full-time advocacy employee, Flagg put his ideas and those of his loyal employees into action, and the results were more often than not complete game-changers.

“I was an independent bike dealer for years,” reflects Flagg. “I believe in bike dealers. I have great respect for them. They are pillars of their communities, and I know the challenges they face. I’ve built my career on providing dealers with the support, education, and advocacy they deserve. I continue to work every day to further that mission.”