Menkind Discount Codes July 2025

A Toy Store for Grown Men? Inside the World of MenKind

Scroll past the self-declared "beer-making kits" and drone toys, and it becomes clear: MenKind is less commerce, more curated nostalgia for the terminally adolescent. A UK-based novelty retailer that wants to dress its shelves in irony while quietly selling you a massage pillow.

Much like its pun-laden name (spoiler: it rhymes with "mankind"), MenKind aims to appeal to a very specific slice of online shoppers: mostly male, mostly nostalgic, and mostly unbothered by the boundary between "man cave" and "child’s playroom."

If the company is Hogwarts for grown-up toy collectors, as one enthusiastic write-up claims, then let’s say most of its magic lies in aggressive merchandising and a fondness for kitsch.

From Gags to Gadgets

MenKind launched in the early 2000s and has grown into a chain of physical stores across the UK, with an equally busy online presence. The premise is simple: if it makes you smirk, and it fits in a gift box, they’ll probably sell it. That can mean anything from novelty socks to dartboard-shaped cork coasters, to a remote-controlled tank that shoots foam darts.

Their categories read like the inner monologue of someone half-scrolling through YouTube, half-waiting for their next Amazon parcel: gadgets, games, snacks, fashion, and highly specific joke gifts labelled "Dad stuff" or "Gifts for Him".

"This isn’t about utility," says Thomas Hargreaves, a retail analyst who tracks novelty and giftable consumer products. "MenKind thrives on impulse, not purpose. Their audience isn’t looking to upgrade their lifestyle. They’re buying dopamine hits in the form of gadgets designed to break - or bore - within the year."

Back-to-School, Without the School

Even the company’s pitch for a "Back to School" lineup comes coated in irony. You won’t get scholastic essentials or practical tools on MenKind. Instead, expect lunchboxes shaped like video game consoles, and pencil cases embossed with brand logos from long-dead cartoons. The marketing here taps into the now well-worn formula of memetic nostalgia, otherwise known as: sell grown men stuff from their 8-year-old selves.

It's a strategy that’s worked well for heritage brands like Nintendo, LEGO, and Marvel. For MenKind, however, it’s backed less by quality or brand loyalty and more by novelty-driven turnover.

The Problem With "Fun"

When every product in a store is designed to amuse, it’s hard to take any of them seriously for more than five minutes. A beer-making kit might seem amusing in the ad copy, but the real-world version often involves questionable ingredients and a brewing outcome that rarely lives up to its packaging bravado.

Take their signature "motion-controlled drones" as another example - review sites are filled with accounts of spotty battery life and flyaway functionality that ends when the toy crash-lands five minutes into your test flight.

Price is also a factor. Although heavily pushed discounts (sometimes "up to 50% off") suggest you’re getting a bargain, the original margins on novelty goods are notoriously high. "This sort of pricing rarely reflects scarcity or value," retail economist Sarah Meers notes. "It’s psychologically framed purchasing - more about the suggestion of the deal than any objective worth."

Manufactured Exclusivity

MenKind leans heavily into the notion of "exclusivity" - pushing limited-time offers and hard-to-find products to drive return traffic. But the word "exclusive" quickly loses meaning when you realise that many products, like their LED drinkware or bacon-scented soap, are widely available on supplier marketplaces like Alibaba.

"Most of these so-called exclusives are just white-labeled imports with branded packaging," says Hargreaves. "The product underneath is often mass-produced and easy to replicate."

It’s a retail playbook that counts on impulse, not brand durability - made to be gifted, briefly enjoyed, and quietly forgotten.

Is MenKind Selling Joy - or Just More Plastic?

This kind of platform raises the unavoidable question: are we being sold happiness, or just more landfill-friendly distraction? A store focused this tightly on novelty walks a delicate line between fun and waste. And in an era when online retailers are being increasingly scrutinised for sustainability and transparency, MenKind’s endless conveyor belt of toys, tchotchkes, and joke gifts starts to feel less like delight - and more like detritus.

What’s for sale is less a product, and more a punchline. Once the joke wears off, the only thing you’re left with is a mini indoor basketball hoop, retailing for £14.99, and a gnawing sense you probably didn’t need it.

Still, the site does what it says on the tin. It’s not pretending to be minimalist or meaningful. It exists to delight and distract, however briefly.

Maybe that's enough. Or maybe it’s exactly the problem.

Past & Current Coupon Codes

There are currently two discount codes available: MKPPS10 and MK5DRA6KN4. The expiration dates for these codes are unknown.

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