For more than a century, Melburnians climbed the timber stairs at 86 Bourke Street in search of their next great read.
The building was home to the Hill of Content bookshop from 1922 until 2025, when the Melbourne institution relocated book by book in a human chain, moving approximately 120 metres along Bourke Street after 103 years at the address.
Today, those same stairs lead somewhere entirely different.
Instead of browsing books, they’re encountering humanoid robots, AI wearables, creator tools, smart home systems and consumer electronics that are still unfamiliar enough to benefit from being experienced in person.
That continuity is perhaps the most interesting part of SilkGear.
The building is once again a place where people wander from floor to floor, hoping to find something they didn’t know they were looking for.
SilkGear officially opened its flagship Melbourne showroom at 86 Bourke Street this week, attended by founder Yunfei Yang, City of Melbourne representatives and invited guests. Among the partner brands supporting the launch was Laifen, whose Australian range forms a key part of the showroom’s personal care offering.
SilkGear ribbon cutting ceremony at its flagship Melbourne showroom at 86 Bourke Street, attended by founder Yunfei Yang, City of Melbourne representatives and invited guests.
A vision for technology discovery
At the centre of that idea is Yunfei Yang, founder of SilkGear.
Still in his twenties, Yang has taken on one of Melbourne’s most recognisable retail addresses with a surprisingly simple philosophy: people shouldn’t have to buy technology based solely on specifications, marketing videos or online reviews. They should be able to experience it.
During his opening address, Yang reflected on becoming a father just a few weeks earlier, saying the experience had changed his perspective and reinforced his desire to build something that inspires the next generation rather than simply selling products.
SilkGear founder Yunfei Yang spoke about creating a showroom where people can experience emerging technology rather than relying solely on specifications and online reviews.
That belief is reflected throughout SilkGear, where every display encourages interaction rather than passive browsing.
Rather than competing with traditional electronics retailers on range or price, SilkGear is built around a smaller, curated selection, giving unfamiliar products enough space to be demonstrated and compared properly.
Yang deliberately chose the former Hill of Content building because it already represented discovery. Instead of stripping away its history, SilkGear has retained much of the building’s character, preserving its intimate spaces, timber floors and multi-level layout while giving it a distinctly modern purpose.
Speaking at the launch, Yang described today’s consumer electronics market as “extremely crowded”, arguing that while there is no shortage of products, there are too few places where people can experience them properly. He said Melbourne’s appreciation for design, innovation and retail culture made Melbourne the natural home for SilkGear’s first showroom.
City of Melbourne Councillors Gladys Liu and Rafael Camillo also attended the launch, welcoming SilkGear’s investment in the CBD.
A showroom that feels more like CES
Walking through SilkGear, it quickly became clear this wasn’t simply another electronics retailer.
From the moment you step inside, the showroom opens into a carefully curated collection of emerging consumer technology. It feels more like a compact technology exhibition than a conventional store, bringing together products that make far more sense once you’ve seen them move, worn them, sat in them or picked them up.
Laifen, which invited Digital Reviews Network to attend the launch, features prominently throughout the showroom. Best known for its range of affordable high-speed hair dryers, the company also showcased its thoughtfully designed T1 Pro and P3 Pro electric shaver — both of which DRN has previously reviewed — and its recently expanded Wave electric toothbrush range. Together, the products offer a familiar starting point before visitors explore the broader collection of emerging consumer technology.
One of the evening’s biggest crowd pleasers was AgiBot. Its full-sized humanoid robot greeted visitors, while a smaller companion delighted the crowd with an intricate dance routine.
AgiBot’s full-sized humanoid robot was one of the opening’s biggest attractions, greeting visitors throughout the launch.
Guests could try Oakley Meta smart glasses, explore DJI’s imaging ecosystem and experience AI-powered productivity tools.
One product I already knew well was Plaud. AI recording and transcription have developed rapidly over the past year, and Plaud remains one of the clearest examples of AI solving a genuine pain point rather than simply adding another buzzword to the box.
The broader range extended across Bambu Lab 3D printers, xTool laser engravers, robotic cleaning systems from Narwal, Roborock and MOVA, Navimow robotic lawn mowers, PETKIT smart pet products, Hyperice recovery devices, Ultrahuman smart rings, Lofree peripherals and Sharge charging accessories.
That breadth establishes what SilkGear is trying to do without every brand needing its own paragraph and a small ceremonial trumpet.
A smaller AgiBot companion demonstrated expressive movement during the launch, showing how rapidly consumer-facing robotics is evolving.
Standout moments
Then there was the LiberNovo chair.
Friends from the MOVA team warned me not to sit in it because I wouldn’t want to leave.
They weren’t wrong.
I spend most of my working day in a Herman Miller chair, so I approached it with a fair amount of scepticism. A few minutes later, I found myself wondering whether I’d actually swap the Herman Miller for one. For a brief showroom encounter, that’s about as strong a first impression as a chair can make.
Another standout was the Aurzen tri-fold projector. Its folding design neatly solves one of the persistent annoyances of portable projection by integrating the stand into the product itself. I’d want more time with it before judging image quality properly, but the industrial design immediately made sense.
Can physical retail make technology interesting again?
SilkGear’s broader argument is that physical technology retail still has something online shopping cannot replicate.
Almost every product in the showroom can be purchased with a few clicks.
What can’t be delivered in a cardboard box is the opportunity to compare unfamiliar products side by side, ask questions, discover something unexpected and realise that a gadget you’d dismissed online makes much more sense once it’s in your hands.
Whether that philosophy succeeds will depend on how well SilkGear continues to curate its range. A discovery-focused showroom can’t rely on opening-day excitement forever. It needs to keep finding products that surprise visitors and give them a reason to return.
EBO Max demonstrates how AI-powered companion robots are becoming part of the growing connected home ecosystem.
For now, though, the concept is compelling.
For generations, people came to 86 Bourke Street to discover authors, ideas and stories they hadn’t been searching for.
Now they’re coming to discover technology.
The building has spent more than a century rewarding curiosity.
Yunfei Yang is betting that the same impulse still has a place in retail—even when the books have been replaced by robots, projectors and a dangerously comfortable chair.
Judging by the opening, it’s a bet worth watching.
Disclosure: Digital Reviews Network attended the SilkGear Melbourne launch as a guest of Laifen. No editorial review or approval was requested or provided.
