“Reinventing the rules, making healthy lifestyle accessible to all, artistic anything, conquering that hill on a good run, pink grapefruit with honey on top” is how ablemadeshop.com describes what keeps its Founder, CEO, and Creative Director Suzanne McKenzie moving.

McKenzie is an award-winning creative director who has worked with the Museum of Modern Art, ESPN, FEED, Maria Sharapova, and Tom Ford, and was selected for President Obama’s 2015 Global Emerging Social Entrepreneurship initiative at the White House. She is also the Founder of Ucal McKenzie Breakaway Foundation.

McKenzie launched Able Made after losing her husband in 2009 and “recognizing the impact design can make in the world, and leveraging my design background in a fashion setting to help build and grow the foundation.”

We caught up with McKenzie to discuss Able Made, philanthropy and her generous support for Fashion Targets Breast Cancer.

Tell us about the ethos behind Able Made.

Able Made is an active lifestyle brand that inspires healthy living. We design accessories that are crafted in the USA, made with high-quality, sustainable yarns and materials, and give back the empowering city youth with all purchases. This has been our mission since we launched the brand in 2012. We celebrate that anything is possible and living boldly.

What inspired you to start Able Made?

In 2009, I lost my husband, Ucal, to sudden cardiac arrest when he was playing his passion game, soccer. Ucal was a very talented high school guidance counselor and completed impactful and important work with Boston city youth through soccer. This loss was devastating for me, and to channel my energy into something positive, I started the Ucal McKenzie Breakaway Foundation (UMBF) in his honor. UMBF is now 10 years old, and supports city youth health through soccer and health clinics and events in partnership with Puma, Whole Foods, Children’s Hospital, JUST Water, iheartradio and more great brands and organizations. Able Made was born out of recognizing the impact design can make in the world, and leveraging my design background in a fashion setting to help build and grow the foundation.

You have been a supporter of Fashion Targets Breast Cancer —how did you select the cause and why is it important to you?

Both of my grandmothers had breast cancer, so it’s a health issue close to my heart. This disease impacts so many individuals and families — about 1 in 8 U.S. women (nearly 12 percent) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime, and about 2,670 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in men in 2019. I admire Fashion Targets Breast Cancer and its initiatives to help to provide access to reliable health information and quality health care for breast cancer patients and their families – locally and abroad. Their focus of supporting breast cancer screening, treatment and survival is so important. I’m proud to support FTBC in its 25th year anniversary!

How many years did you support the program and how much have you raised in total?

Able Made has supported FTBC with two limited-edition products. The first was a custom FTBC Targets Sock in 2015. The second was this year on October 1st to kick off the 25th anniversary of FTBC–a special two-day flash retail experience on Good Morning America. Sales of our Able Made Community Sock helped raise funds for the cause and got national exposure through an on-air feature and our Able Made x GMA microsite. To date, we have raised nearly $15k for the cause with these limited-edition drops, and I look forward to helping develop ideas to raise more again soon.

Where do you hope to take Able Made next?

I’m thankful I took the time to build my business one step at a time. We now know our customer, and have a really good handle on what works – and what doesn’t. We’re looking forward to developing more retail experiences in 2020, my new wellness podcast “On Purpose” on iheartradio, and more designer and brand collaborations to build off of our collections/collabs with PUMA, 1 hotel, Pamela Love, Guggenheim, Frida Kahlo, and Georgia O’Keeffe. And we’re going to get even more focused in the socks category and innovations in sustainability. It’s go time.