Chris Gull got to talk to Jay about esmale and how he and Steve built the business.
Hi Jay, here at Scene we are keen to promote sex positivity and community, and we know that esmale.com is VERY sex positive and rooted in the community. We’ll start by asking you to tell us about the men behind the dildos and poppers
How did you meet, and what were you each doing before you decided to take the plunge to create esmale? And where does the name come from?
Jay: Hi Chris, thank you for your interest. There are a few questions in there but will do my best to get to them all. Firstly, yes, we are indeed focused on sex positivity. We feel it is important that everybody feels the freedom to experiment with who they are and what they enjoy without any judgment or taboo around the subject. Even though we initially started marketing ourselves to gay men we have found that our customers are extremely diverse from all corners of the queer and not queer spectrum. Steve and I started the company back in 2011 some 10 years after we met on a night out in the 2Brewers in Clapham. Our backgrounds are far removed from gay sex toys or any sex toys come to that. Steve has a technical communication background and mine is based in marketing and advertising. I think we both got fed up with the daily grind and wanted to start our own online-only business in the hope we could one day run this from anywhere in the world. I have previous experience in adult retail, so it made sense for us to focus on this industry and make it our professional home. We are very glad we did as it is a welcoming industry and lots of fun.
The name esmale which we pronounce ES-Male is short for essentially for men. To start with were intended to focus only on essential “better sex” products but soon found ourselves having a full lifestyle store that also features Fashion, Kink and Sex toys. Much more than just Anal lube and other essentials. In our sister store we sell poppers to the UK only and stock all the big brands like Liquid Gold , Berlin and Power Rush.
Overall, we try and aim to supply quality products of an adult nature that put a big smile on your face. We used to say “Feel good – be bad” till someone pointed out that using adult products is not bad….oops.
Chris: You’ve constantly built and extended the brand, selling not only toys, but underwear and fetish, a poppers store, and large followings on your various social media channels and platforms. Can you tell us about that diversification, and your plans moving forward?
Jay: as mentioned above the store has indeed grown to include many products to support a healthy active adult lifestyle. We are looking to be a one-stop shop for all your adult needs. The plan moving forward is to grow our ranges. There are areas that can be built out more, but this is a slow process as everything costs time and money ☺ We are fortunate enough to have a big social reach, and people are responding positively to our brand which is a great feeling. In return, we have a great team that responds in the same way to anyone who contacts us. People email and call us for a variety of reasons and no question is off the table. We are here to help and love talking to our customers.
Chris: Presumably there are “trends” in what people are buying, and when. Have you noticed how the cost-of-living crisis for instance influences what people are buying?
Jay: there are certainly trends. For example, we sell more anal toys for men than we do manhood products. I always thought it would be the other way around. Another thing we have been noticing for the last few years is that customers are more knowledgeable about what they want. This is great as I hope, this means that more people are on a self-exploration journey. It also means that manufacturers can no longer get away with certain products and need to deliver quality products at good value, which is what they are doing better now.
Chris: What are your current “hot” products?
Jay: with thousands of products in our warehouse it is hard to select “hot” products as many sell well. From bulge enhancing underwear to certain dildos, kink and masturbators they all have favourite products in the different departments. In terms of being a hot product, we do see that customers like things a bit more extreme these days. With large toys, BDSM, fetish gear and products that have something extra like electro-stim or vibes being in demand.
Chris: As we´ve already mentioned, you have hundreds of thousands of followers on your various SM channels. Please tell us about those channels and where to find them.
Jay: We do indeed, these are spread over various platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For the nature of our business Twitter and Instagram are a bit more friendly. We also have pages that are not per se related to our store but are more general towards a LGBTQ+ friendly audience.
Here are just a few of the places you can find us on social media:
You can find our stores here:
For all your adult tools and gear: https://www.esmale.com/
For all your poppers shop here: https://www.poppersupershop.com/
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