Sure, after a few years of owning the kiosk game at The Galeries, she never saw herself running her own men’s grooming business right in the heart of Sydney, but here she is. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Founder and master of the gentSac, Shira O’Sullivan-Linker turned her years working in retail, merchandising, buying and just generally giving a damn about what the dude she introduced to everyone as “her boyfriend” looked like, into a small business operation that doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
She used to be a one-woman-band who occupied one of the central spots in The Galeries thoroughfare, grabbing men of all walks who were keen on a spruce-up or who looked like they might benefit from one.
By stocking products she believed in – not only for their ingredients, but the story behind them – Shira found something there.
“No longer was it embarrassing or ‘not manly’ to care about how you look or spend the time on yourself as a man,” she said.
Dudes were into it and so was she. For obvious reason. There’s something satisfying about being a man and being able to walk into a shop that’s nothing like a Mecca Maxima, for example, and shop products for men – often by men, too – in a disarming, casual and relatable space. That’s what gentSac prides itself on.
With products for face, hair, beard, and body, as well as the odd knick-knack for everything in-between, Shira and gentSac have managed to command the attention of a slice of the market that was largely unspoken for.
Now men in Sydney, thanks to the shop front in The Galeries, and all over the country, thanks to the gentSac website, have immediate and real-time access to their full range in a ‘no fuss, all frills’ service that packages everything you need into an easy-to-understand little pack tucked nicely into your very own sack.
And yes, the pun is an accident, but has fast become a proud trademark.
gentSac offers a subscription service for its customers, as well as one-off buys. An entry level gentSac can come-in at around $200 for a pretty broad range of products, and go up – or down – from there. Subscriptions are optional and can be tailored to your needs, like anything from monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly. Check out your options at the gentSac website.