House Heroes: Making a Difference

Ed and Daniel are the tradies behind Trademutt, a bold new workwear brand by tradies for tradies, which aims to tackle men’s suicide in Australia head-on.

The statistics are heartbreaking. The number one cause of death for Australian men aged 15 to 44 is suicide.

In the three years from 2011 to 2014, 239 construction and mining labourers took their own lives.

When Dan lost one of his best mates to suicide two years ago, he and fellow tradie Ed set about brainstorming how they could best tackle the stigma of mental health and depression.

“Tradies look all the same – high vis, orange, yellow, khaki, there’s (usually) not too much flavour,” Dan explains.

“We felt by creating a vibrant range of tradie wear, that it’s a conversation starter. Guys aren’t great about talking about their feelings or emotions – the rate of male suicide in Australia is staggering and it’s something that needs to be spoken about more,” he says.

The boys hope that by making Aussie tradies look great and feel great, they’ll be part of a movement that will change the face of men’s mental health forever.

“You know if you’re rocking up to work wearing something that’s a bit loud and a bit different, it’s cheerful and it puts a smile on people’s faces as they walk onto the job site and that’s making a positive change already,” Ed says.

The creative pair want to lower the current rate of suicide in this country, so that families everywhere don’t have to suffer the needless loss of their sons, fathers and brothers.

“We wouldn’t care if we were swinging a hammer for the rest of our lives, if we saw our shirts on a few people’s backs, and they started having a conversation and we broke down the stigma, we would be very, very happy men,” Dan says.

They say Trademutt represents a progressive change in the attitudes and mind sets of men everywhere, and encourages the sentiment of being a ‘Good Bloke’.

Trademutt shirts will all wear the logo ‘This is a conversation starter’ across the back and a portion of all shirts sold will go towards the TIACS movement with emphasis on drawing attention to Mental Health Week in October.

“We’re aiming to get seven Australian comedians and seven Australian music artists to collaborate and pair up and to release a song for each day of that week,” Ed explains.

To read more about ‘This is a conversation starter’ see thisisaconversationstarter.spurprojects.org

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