Aside from the great coffee and the chill that hit us when we got off the plane, being a Victorian at heart I was excited to see what Melbourne had to offer at the Bunnings Trade Expo.
However I wasn't expecting such a difference to Brisbane which I attended last week.
Potentially it was because TradeMutt’s home is in Brisbane so we had a lot of people attending who already knew the brand and wanted to check us out in person, meet Ed and Dan, check out our collections, or just pop in for a chat in person, rather than hearing about us for the first time.
We loved connecting with our already existing community in Brisbane, who are doing an amazing job of supporting TradeMutt and seeing them show up in force with a wide range of our prints was fabulous.
We found Melbourne hit us with some impactful stories, hard hitting conversations and a level of vulnerability that just seemed different.
As a team on the day we put it down to TradeMutt being a newish brand to a lot of the people attending the Expo.
We met people who had never heard of us but when they found out about us instantly scanned our QR code to text or call TIACS for free mental health support. If they sent that text we don't actually know, but the look of relief when they found out what it was, was incredible.
We met some people with heartbreaking stories of loss due to mental health struggles in our blue collar community, from the loss of loved ones, to work colleagues, and friends in the industry. Each one of these stories reminded our team that the reason we are standing here talking to these people is to hopefully help them get through the tough times they are facing, letting them know about TIACS but also ensure less people in the future need to go through these experiences.
If they do, hopefully they'll know they'll never walk alone.
We definitely met people who have heard of us before, even wearing TradeMutt on the day, including an original MFG that had been very well loved. We loved hearing from these guys about the importance of wearing the brand to them and all the different times they have had conversations from wearing a TradeMutt shirt.
We also met a few people who had actually used TIACS in moments of need after seeing our shirts and had some in depth conversations with them about their experiences.
We would like to thank every person that stopped into our stall in Melbourne, whether it was to just grab a card, talk to us, look at the shirts, find out more about us or show some support.
We are very much looking forward to our next Bunnings Trade Expo in Adelaide on July 11th and seeing the variety of people we will meet there as well!
