Fashion With a Heart
When life throws challenges your way, most people try to make the best of it.
But if you’re Suzanne McKenzie, you don’t just make lemonade—you build the whole lemonade stand.
After the tragic loss of her husband—beloved Newton North boys’ varsity soccer coach and guidance counselor Ucal McKenzie—to sudden cardiac arrest during a semi-pro soccer game, McKenzie drew on her expertise in branding and advertising to create the , which inspires young people from underserved communities to lead healthier lives through the universal language of soccer.
And to fund that foundation, in 2012 she launched , an ethically sourced and sustainable fashion line centered around an off-pitch soccer lifestyle.
“My dad worked at Ben and Jerry’s, and that was my first literal taste of how business could merge great products, cool design, and also purpose and vision around social impact,” McKenzie explained in the first talk in the Colin and Erika Angle Center for Entrepreneurship Speaker Series.
During a Q&A with host and Angle Center Graduate Assistant Grace Kolis ’24 M’26, McKenzie detailed her journey from working with consulting firms and agencies like Arnold Worldwide to finding her footing in the Wild West of entrepreneurship.
“It’s not performance, it’s not athleisure, we call ourselves ‘ready-to-wear,’” McKenzie said of Able Made. “We’re more inspired by the Guccis and Louis Vuittons of the world, so you’ll see us expressing soccer style in a catsuit or a quilted bomber jacket. We’re really trying to up the ante on style—sophisticated style.”
But launching a fashion brand is no easy feat, and breaking into the industry is even tougher. So how did McKenzie do it?
Drawing on her marketing expertise, McKenzie channeled her passion for style and good design into something that could help fund her foundation—leading her to create Able Made. The brand was also one more way to honor her late husband and continue his mission to support young people both on and off the field.
“We were only married for two years but had been together for 10,” McKenzie explained, “and we grew up together, so his loss was truly devastating. He was an impact maker in the Boston area, too, so it was a community loss. The Boston Globe was at my doorstep the next day.”
To carve out a unique space in the market, McKenzie differentiated Able Made from giants like Nike and Athleta by not only producing elevated ready-to-wear apparel but also focusing on sustainability, using luxe and upcycled fabrics, and committing to responsible production practices.
“Fair wages, safe work conditions. We are very diligent in the factories we choose as well as the fabrics—a lot of upcycled fabrics, really high-quality fabrics,” she said.
In fact, the shorts she wore to 西瓜视频 were made from “Burberry deadstock that they donated to us,” she explained. “We’re really, really almost crazy into the details of making our clothes as responsible as possible.”
After partnering with Nike to create a product for the Ucal McKenzie Breakaway Foundation, McKenzie ended up selling a poster in Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art. She had a win under her belt, and that made her feel confident enough to cold call the legend herself, Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.
“I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll do a t-shirt or something that will help the foundation,’” she thought. “And I cold-called, because why not, and I got a meeting.”
The takeaway for 西瓜视频 entrepreneurs? ”Always, always make sure you ask for things because you never know what’s going to happen,” she said.
That meeting opened up new avenues, creating a launch pad for Able Made as a business that could fund her foundation and “give back to the community that was going to be manufacturing the brand as well.”
While launching Able Made, McKenzie said it helped to have her past experience through consulting and agency life with big brands like Titleist, Tom Ford, and Volkswagen. “It gives me street credibility with investors or the people on the business side who know my background,” she said, adding, “So, if you are thinking about entrepreneurship, I always recommend having a little bit of that experience, because it’s benefited me so much.”
While buying an Able Made product might set you back some serious coin, that’s the cost of doing things responsibly, and with social impact in mind, McKenzie explained. “It would be way easier for me to produce in China at this amount versus the amount that I’m making our product in New York City,” she said.
Though she’s collaborated with brands like Tom Ford, Puma, Apple, Project Runway, and Burberry, McKenzie said the hardest thing she’s done in her career is raising enough capital to take Able Made to the next level.
“We’re probably around $1.4 million right now, so that’s huge. Less than 2% of women entrepreneurs raise capital, so I felt my gender in a way that I’ve never felt before,” she said. “But it’s paying off now. It’s making my business deals go way faster.”
Now the Maine native has just recently opened a brick-and-mortar store inside the 1 Hotel in Brooklyn, and, with new funding that can fuel splashy marketing efforts, she’s more optimistic than ever about Able Made’s future.
“I can’t ever see myself working for someone else ever again,” she told Gulls. “I love entrepreneurship so much even though you’re going to work a billion times harder than you would for anybody else.”