I was in my 2nd year of architecture when I realised it probably wasn’t the best fit for me. I started the degree with hopes that I would be designing luxurious mansions, tropical villas, entertaining rooms for millionaires, you know... the fun stuff. Unfortunately, the further I progressed in the degree the more that I came to realise that this was pretty unlikely. So I dropped out of Uni and put those mansions on hold.  

3 months pass and March 2020 rolls around. The whole of Australia is sent into lock-down and we’re not going anywhere fast. I really missed going to the pub, catching up with the fellas, watching Friday night footy, having a punt, all of those warm fuzzy things that I took for granted. So, a few close friends and I decided to bend the rules a little and build ourselves a man cave. 

With the majority of us being uni students, the budget was pretty limited. But we did what we could, and jumped on Facebook marketplace. Our initial haul included a 2nd hand fridge, a wide TV and two ancient lounges. We were stoked with what we had but the longer we spent in there the more that we exchanged ideas on what would make the space even better. As the conversation progressed, the products began to get more extravagant, from pool tables to jukeboxes, then complete home bar-systems and everything in-between, our hypothetical man cave was a place where dreams were made of.   

Curious to see what the cost would be to build our dream man cave, I decided to browse the internet to see what I could find. At least this is what I had intended to do. The ‘browse’ turned into hours of deep research. There were thousands of unbelievable items to build the perfect man cave but they were all spread out amongst about 100 different stores across the country, Arcade machines from Sydney, Bar Fridges from Melbourne, Pool Tables from Brisbane, if I was truly dedicated to building a man cave this would be a serious struggle. And that’s when I said to myself: 

“The boys and I have just spent a good 2-3hrs salivating over every single one of these products, each knowing full-well how ridiculous our man cave would be if we could have them delivered, only to find out that... 

1. No-one stocks even a quarter of these products.

2. Some of these suppliers don’t even deliver Australia-wide.

3. Someone's going to have to sell a kidney just to be able to afford the combined shipping costs from all of these different suppliers.

What if I made a one-stop shop where anyone looking to build a man cave could just jump online and get everything they needed from start to finish?” 

And that's how A Man & His Cave came about. Yeah, it might not be luxury villas or millionaire mansions but in my opinion, kitting out the best man caves in Australia easily takes the cake. 

Jaya Yoannidis,

Founder & Managing Director