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.
Dan met his business partner Ed Ross on a Brisbane building site in 2014 when Ed became Dan’s apprentice, and the pair became best mates. Dan lost a close friend to suicide in 2015, and he realised the trades industry in Australia had two issues: first, talking about mental health was way too serious. Second, ordinary Aussies don’t know where to go to seek support.
In 2018 the boys launched TradeMutt — a social impact work brand for tradies by tradies. TradeMutt’s funky workwear takes a fun, light-hearted, and colourful approach to normalising daily mental health conversations.
In June 2020, the boys launched TIACS — a free, early-intervention mental health support service for blue-collar workers. In its first two years alone, TIACS has supported over 12,000 Aussies by providing free professional counselling services at a market value of $2m.
Daniel Allen
TEDx Speaker
Dr Tradie, Social Entrepreneur & Mental Health Advocate
