Meet The Happy Couple

So how did this all happen? Where do we begin?

Please Founders, Mira and Greg’s love story began in Johannesburg, their hometown, although they both happened to live in Cape Town at the time.

‘It was New Years, and we were both at Afropunk, a music festival in Joburg. There was a lot of hand holding but no New Years kiss, that would be a couple months later - well worth the wait. Long story short, what started out as a ‘friendship platter’ at Make (the sushi spot in Seapoint) slowly became much much more. 

About 1 year into dating, while having dinner with some friends, what would later on become ‘Please’ came up in conversation.

Mira had had this idea for a few years already, this dream to open a sex shop but had always felt that it’s best to do rather than talk. So it remained an unspoken dream for a while.

“So there we were, with my best friend Josh, the only other person I shared my crazy idea with, and now this dream was out there with one other person, the love of my life and soon to be business partner, Greg.”

Fast forward a few years to 2022, Mira had just made the decision to leave her role as Fashion Editor at Conde Nast (GQ and Glamour Magazine) and Greg found himself leaving his role as Financial Manager at uCook, “the timing just felt right to consider this entrepreneurial venture, as it has always been something I wanted do. I spent some months assessing my next steps with a business coach and all indicators lead to starting something of our own.”

“We started researching to see if what we wanted to create was needed, and what we thought was only needed in a physical space turned out to be a gap online as well.”

Aiming to create a safe, inclusive and curated space when it comes to sexual wellness and shopping for intimate products felt very necessary here in South Africa. 

When we looked a bit deeper, what we found was that many of the sex stores in South Africa, whether digital or physical, felt outdated, confusing and uninviting. So the idea was validated; to create a fresh, accessible and overall satisfying experience when it comes to shopping for these intimate and exciting products.

2022 would be the year we decided to merge our individual skills and experiences to create a business built on inclusivity, community & quality, the year Please would be born.

Hand picking only the best products and simplifying the shopping experience is a key selling point with Please. Each brand that Please bring on board is held to the highest standard when it comes to values in relation to their customer’s sexual well being.

“We want to ensure people have a space to embrace their sexuality and desires openly”

While our ultimate goal is to create a community for anyone from anywhere to feel safe and excited while shopping for their most intimate products, because we all know how shopping for a sex toy or any intimate products can be overwhelming. Please makes it easy, with a carefully considered and curated space.

When it comes to growing the business and building this community, Please founders plan on hosting more IRL events, whether it’s partnering with events or collabing with brands.

“We have attended a few in person events and plan on hosting and retailing at more of these in the future. We held an event at Duck Duck Goose on Bree Street for valentines day, the launch of our T-Shirt and served some of our Pienaar & Son Aperitif. Retreat Yourself was a really fun one for us, as we got to engage with so many like minded people and also expanded people's minds who were not introduced to a sex shop prior. We are going to have a stand at our first ever Sexpo and are really looking forward to it. “

Since launching we have widened their Please range to include intimate body wipes, aphrodisiac chocolate, socks & we are soon to be launching our very own leather BDSM gear. 

“We would like to open our own retail space one day, to bring our unique aesthetic online store into a physical space. Ideally we would also like to put South Africa on the map globally in the sex industry and we are pushing to get our Please range stocked in stores globally, so people can see what South Africans are capable of.“

We would like to share some of our favourite toys and intimates from our site, if that helps our customers. We both are in love with each other and our lube! It feels so damn good and also knowing that we created it makes it that much smoother. 

Their favourite toy is the SVR ring from Tenga as it is a perfect couples toy where we can both get benefits of vibrations at the same time, the Tenga flex is a strong second. 

Having been together for 5 years now, and engaged for since the end of 2021, 2023 is a big year of planning a wedding and growing Please.

“Ultimately, we thrive in giving our customers a space to feel good.”

- Mira x Greg