Stacey and Dave Stout, owners of Male Instinct and Female Instinct. male & female instincts
~ by Boris Ladwig photo by Boris Ladwig
Downtown Nashville features a long-running shop defined by its split personality: On one side, customers can browse leather jackets and cologne. On the other, racks of cheeky T-shirts and shelves of humorous gifts make people laugh out loud.
A few weeks ago, the store, Male Instinct, got a women-centered counterpart, only steps away. It features a similarly split personality, or, as the owners call it, a classy and a sassy side.
Together, the shops form something like a matching set built on the same idea: Shopping should be enjoyable— for the shoppers and the people behind the counter.
Just two years after leaving corporate careers and buying a single storefront in Brown County’ s busy tourist district, the husband-and-wife team behind the stores, Dave and Stacey Stout, opened their second shop in response to steady customer requests. Together, the stores reflect both the rhythms of a tourist town and a business philosophy shaped less by retail tradition than by instinct, experimentation, and a simple goal: give people a reason to enjoy themselves.
“ Everybody’ s here with a smile on their face, so that puts a smile on our face,” said Stacey Stout.
“ If they don’ t come in with a smile, they usually leave smiling,” her husband added.
They might smile about a poster that depicts a
26 Our Brown County July / August 2026