ManThings: Practical Kit With a Purpose Behind It

Every now and then you stumble across a business that makes you stop and think, "more people should know about this." That's exactly what happened when we came across ManThings. We liked what they were doing so much that we got in touch and offered to write them up — not because anyone asked us to, but because what they're building deserves a wider audience.

What They Do

On the surface, ManThings is a straight-talking online shop for practical, no-nonsense gear. Camping and outdoor kit, DIY tools, garden and irrigation supplies, car accessories, power and charging equipment, low-voltage 12V gear — the stuff you actually use, not stuff that gathers dust. A good chunk of their stock comes from auction and clearance finds, which the team check over, repackage where needed, and sell on properly inspected and at a fair price. If you like a bargain that's still built to do the job, it's worth a browse.

They've also got a cheeky, self-aware tone running through the whole site — "zero fluff," straight-talking product info, no lifestyle waffle — which, if you've ever tried to write honest product copy for a niche audience, you'll know is harder to pull off than it looks.

How It Started

The story behind it is a good one. The founder spent years building webshops for other people, but had never actually run one himself. So in March 2025 he started buying stock and set out to prove a point: that an independent trader can still make it work in Britain, even with the odds stacked against small business. What began in a spare room in the North of England, surrounded by boxes, became ManThings — and it went properly live on 2nd September 2026.

His frustration is one a lot of us will recognise. High streets closing, tradespeople fighting for scraps on apps, local shops priced out of their own customers, and the big platforms taking their cut from everyone in between. Rather than just moan about it, he decided to build an alternative — and then use it to teach other people how to do the same. You can read the full story on their About Us page.

The Bit That Actually Matters

Here's what made us want to get involved: ManThings is the trading arm of Achivo CIC, a Community Interest Company built around a genuinely good idea — using a real, live e-commerce business as a training ground for people who've found it hard to get back into work.

Rather than theory or classroom-based courses, people coming through the programme ("Achievers") get hands-on experience running an actual shop — handling stock and suppliers, writing listings, managing orders, dealing with customers, and using modern tools like accounting software and AI to work smarter. Real business, real stakes, real skills. They call the model the Achivo Blueprint: learn by doing inside a working shop, then leave with the skills and confidence to set up your own.

It's a smart way to structure support, too. ManThings isn't asking for donations — it's asking people to buy things they'd probably want anyway, and letting that spending fund something bigger. Every order helps cover the training, and every Achiever who comes through the programme leaves with skills they can actually use to earn a living, whether that's with ManThings, another business, or one of their own.

Why It's Worth Backing Early

Having only launched in September, this is still very much early days — small sales, big rent bills, and all the usual growing pains of a new e-commerce business. But the mission behind it is exactly the kind of thing that's worth supporting from the start, before it's had the chance to prove itself at scale.

There's something refreshing, too, about a business built explicitly as a counterweight to the big platforms — a bet that independent trade, local skills, and honest small business still have a place. Having built an online business from scratch ourselves, we know how much graft sits behind even the small wins in those early months — so when we saw someone taking that on with a genuinely good cause attached to it, we wanted to do our bit.

Have a Look

If you're after decent, practical kit — for the workshop, the garden, the car, or just knocking about — it's well worth a browse. And unlike most online shopping, every order you place there is doing a bit more than just landing a parcel on your doorstep.

Shop ManThings →
Read their story: Why we built ManThings →
More on ManThings & Achivo →