Ideas Dispenser

On the night of 7 December 2016, we attended the VIP shopping event of menswear meets sportswear concept store, The Practical Man on Flinders Lane. We met the co-owners Brett and John, and also met other shoppers who were regular clientele of the shop, as we believe it’s very revealing who the other shoppers are eg. their profile, to see if the branding of the store indeed matches up to their ideal target audience they set out to reach.

And we have to say it’s pretty spot on. There’s a good mix of male and female at the event, races and ages groups, that’s an achievement considering the menswear meets active wear concept that they’ve chosen to position themselves is not exactly mass market, but their appeal, as shown by the variety of people at the event, has gone beyond just men and the male sporting type.

Brands represented in the shop include Ron Dorff, Triump & Disaster, Hunter Lab, Timo Trunks, Buckler’s, Property Of, Monocle city travel guides and more lesser known (aka cool insider) brands that are clearly needed in most people’s wardrobes.

We’ve been to the store before, but the blue light installation in the basement never fails to impress and wow. It’s not a large installation by retail standards, but it proves that when a great idea/design is well executed even within a small space, it does wonders to the ambience and entire shopping experience.

Alpha Barbers (pictured above), just across the shop, partnered with the event to provide free hot shaves for attendees, which was a nice bit of inter-store collaboration.

We walked away with the Ron Dorff sauna massage candle that we’ve been eyeing for a while and the Buckler’s lip balm.

As we’ve said before, we’re big champions of local and independent businesses, as they’re the ones that make our streets, suburbs and cities interesting and therefore of a very high and rich standard of living.

We want to wish The Practical Man team a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and an even better 2017, see you guys on the other side of the year!