Workwear with a conscience

What began as a conversation starter in the trades about mental health, workwear brand TradeMutt is now starting more discussions in agriculture. It is being embraced by saleyards, charities, cattle companies and seed businesses.

The founders of TradeMutt, former carpenters Dan Allen and Ed Ross, told

Queensland Country Life that they've seen a "massive" uptake of the clothing in regional communities. Mr Allen explains:

There's such a massive need for mental health support services in regional communities and we feel like we're contributing in providing that solution.

We've had individuals who will buy a shirt and wear it in their community and everyone gets onboard. I think pretty much every person in the Goondiwindi Region owns at least one TradeMutt shirt, so we owe Goondi a couple of beers.

More recently, TradeMutt signed on major saleyard operator AAMIG, whose facilities include Central Queensland Livestock Exchange. Mr Allen

AAM Investment Group is not only decking their staff out with shirts, but they're also a top-tier alliance partner for TIACS for the next 12 months, so they're funding over 1400 hours of care, which is amazing.

TIACS (This Is A Conversation Starter), which Mr Allen and Mr Ross started in 2020, provides a free text, chat and call back service direct to mental health clinicians.

They recently collaborated with a not-for-profit foundation Dolly's Dream, designing a kaleidoscope work shirt aimed at shining a light on the effects of bullying and the importance of being a mate. Proceeds of these sales go towards supporting Dolly's Dream and TIACS.

TradeMutt has also teamed up with major cattle operation Consolidated Pastoral Company, as well as seed and chemical company Corteva Agriscience Australia. Corteva Agriscience communications leader ANZ Karen Deane said its journey with the clothing company started in 2019. She told Queensland Country Life:

Up until then, TradeMutt's workwear had mostly been taken up by the building, construction and mining industries, but we could see a lot of similarities in the rural communities where Corteva works with resellers and farmers.

Ms Deane said they had distributed more than 500 unique Corteva TradeMutt shirts to agricultural suppliers, staff and customers, and the impact the shirts had on Corteva staff and company culture could not be overstated.

The shirts have created so much more awareness of the importance of reaching out, asking if someone is okay and starting conversations on a regular basis.

Beyond our own office walls, out on the road for our sales managers, it is amazing to hear how customers are opening up to a conversation based simply on the TradeMutt shirt.

We're hearing how farmers are sharing worries of their own that we would never have known about otherwise. Mother nature has a huge impact on farming in positive and negative ways, which is particularly challenging, so as a company we feel humbled that this relationship with TradeMutt have allowed us to play a part in supporting our farmers in a new way.

Background

Mr Allen and Mr Ross founded TradeMutt in 2016 when a young friend committed suicide and they realised something had to be done to improve mental health in the construction sector.

TradeMutt's story was recently featured on Channel 9's "My Way" program. Mr Allen told The Courier-Mail:

Ed and I met on a building site, and even though we came from different backgrounds we became best mates. I am from western Sydney and Ed is from Longreach, but we shared a lot of the same interests. We were always spit-balling various ideas for businesses and gaps in the market, and we came up with the idea of workwear.

Now their work shirts are worn by (male and female) tradies working for Rio Tinto, Hutchinson, BHP, Brisbane City Council and Bretts in Queensland among others.

Growth for the social enterprise seems inevitable as the pair look to forestry and garden workers, especially with Mr Ross' strong ties to the bush, coming from Longreach.

Both Mr Allen and Mr Ross also travel to schools, rural and remote areas, construction sites, and events across the country to spread awareness and educate communities about the importance of mental health. Mr Allen said:

Mental health remains a major problem in the building trade. It is a very macho environment, and if you show any emotion, you are a 'pussy'.

Most blokes don't even know they have mental health issues. The idea was to change that.

Related: Tradies can buy workwear that shows their support for mental health initiatives.

Workwear with a social conscience - HI News 4.3, May 2018

Sources: Queensland Country Life and The Courier-Mail