A woman from Guelph, Ont. is going to great lengths to help her daughter.
Dianne Finnigan, CEO of the Dirty Seahorse, is creating comfortable and safe workwear for her daughter, Chantel, along with other women in the skilled trades industry.
Finnigan said it initially started after being unsuccessful in locating clothing for her daughter, who’s in masonry.
It prompted her to start her own business.
“I started looking around and then I realized it wasn’t just one store, it was all of them,” Finnigan said.
After talking with other tradeswomen, she was told that this was a common problem.
Finnigan put in nearly a year of market research, working with women in trades and female designers from George Brown College in Toronto.
“They basically told us what they wanted and needed and then we translated it into the design, and then I hired (women) from George Brown with a team of female designers because then they understood the problem from a woman’s perspective.”
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She said she gained a whole lot of insight into how to correct the problem, calling the women in the industry “a cornerstone of the company” before hiring the female designers. Working with everyone gave Finnigan a good understanding of women in trade and how the clothes are designed.
(Above) Chantel, Finnigan’s daughter, wears the Dirty Seahorse’s first created design.
Dianne Finnigan/Submitted
She said their main goal is to help women, build a community and try to solve the problem for multiple trade industries.
And not only is it creating safe and comfortable clothing for women, but Finnigan said it’s also breaking barriers.
She said the company has been given six different awards this year alone due to its advocacy for women.
“I also advocated to the federal and provincial government too regarding trying to get a rebate for women because the cost of this workwear is so much higher for women than it is for men,” she said.
There are over 100 different skilled trades in the industry and the company currently serves 12 sectors.
Her daughter works as a mason and in that particular field of trade, Finnigan said women wear pants, overalls, hoodies and a canvas jacket.
She said the garments can be used in multiple sectors, too, including plumbing and carpentry.
Finnigan also credits her son for coming up with the name of the company.
“The reason why he named it the Dirty Seahorse because the women also like to get dirty, but in the seahorse world, the roles are reversed. The males take care of the babies,” she said.
She said they’re searching for female models that work in the trade industry as they try to sell new products.
To learn more and find clothing, go to its website.
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