Our Story
How It Started
Dan Allen and Ed Ross are Co-founders and Director’s of both TradeMutt and TIACS.
TradeMutt is a social impact workwear company. They’re known around Australia for their loud, vibrant work shirts which were designed to start conversations about mental health, making an invisible issue impossible to ignore.
Taking a more light-hearted and approachable angle to the conversation, they exist to drive the much needed social and cultural shift in attitude towards mental health among tradies, truckies, farmers, rural and blue-collar workers.
In the past 5 years they’ve grown into a well-recognised and established social impact workwear brand. After launching their conversation starting workwear, they saw how the funky workwear was helping to start important conversations about mental health.
How TIACS was Born
What they soon came to learn is that starting the conversation sometimes means that you need to continue that conversation with a professional. A professional that you can trust and relate to; is not going to charge you through the nose; wait months until you can connect with them or have to hoop jump for a referral and if you manage to get through all that to be told there’s actually no one available in your location.
TIACS was born through the realisation that there were way too many barriers to free mental health support for the blue-collar community. Operating now for 3 years TIACS provides a free text and call service with qualified counsellors. Open Monday to Friday between 8.0am – 10.00pm AEST
TEDxBrisbane | Daniel Allen
How funky workwear breaks down mental health barriers to save lives
When carpenter Daniel Allen lost one of his best mates to suicide, he and his apprentice decided to take action. Their outside-the-box solution was to enter the world of tradie fashion and use funky, high-visibility workwear to start conversations about mental health and take a proactive approach to suicide prevention by providing early intervention support. It’s an inspiring story that reminds us that there is no one way to make a difference in the world and that great loss can, at times, inspire great good. Daniel Allen is a carpenter by trade and the cofounder of the social impact workwear brand TradeMutt and counselling service TIACS.
