G'day legend.
I’m Dan (left) and that’s Ed on the right. We’re the co-founders of two businesses. The first is TradeMutt, a social enterprise workwear brand. The second is TIACS, a free text and call counselling service for blue collar workers.
Ed and I were chippies when we met on a job site in Brisbane in 2014.
In 2015, I tragically lost one of my best mates to suicide. That was a call I’ll never forget. Ed was the bloke that helped me process my grief, but our conversations that followed made us realise one key thing: although mental health is a serious topic why would anyone want to talk about something seemingly so dark and scary? We needed to find a way to brighten up the conversation.
On the 15th of March 2018, TradeMutt was born. We created funky workwear designed to start conversations about mental health and make the invisible impossible to ignore. We made it onto the 6pm news and overnight we had shirts starting conversations across the country. The shirts worked! But what if someone starts a conversation and needs further professional support?
That’s why we created TIACS, a free and professional text and call counselling service for Australia’s tradies, truckies, farmers, and blue collar workers or anyone that cares about them. Since taking our first call in 2020, TIACS has helped over 19,000 individuals from the blue collar community which is only possible thanks to your support of TradeMutt and TIACS.
What you’ve got in your hands is not just a shirt. It’s a powerful tool to help open up genuine and honest conversations on site, at home, among mates or with complete strangers, but most importantly, it should serve as a reminder that You’ll Never Walk Alone.
Enjoy legend.
