Suzanne McKenzie was never supposed to be in the apparel business. She spent two decades in brand strategy and design, working for agencies like Arnold Worldwide and teaching at the School of Visual Arts. Then, in 2009, her husband collapsed during a pickup soccer game. Ucal McKenzie died of sudden cardiac arrest, leaving behind a grieving widow and a community that had lost one of its most beloved amateur players.
What McKenzie did next—launching a foundation to teach CPR and heart health to youth soccer players in Boston and Hartford—made intuitive sense. What came after that? Less obvious. She started a soccer-inspired clothing line.
Now that brand, Able Made, has raised $2 million in seed funding from a group of investors with deep ties to professional soccer, as reported in early July 2026. The round attracted backing from Oregon Sports Angels, a West Coast angel network focused on sports ventures, as well as Jeff Mostyn, the former chairman of Premier League side AFC Bournemouth. Sara Toussaint, a minority co-owner of the NWSL's North Carolina Courage, also participated, alongside Mark Hochgesang, a veteran of both Nike and Adidas.
For McKenzie, the funding represents validation of an unusual thesis: that soccer culture—a global phenomenon often relegated to niche status in American fashion—can anchor a mission-driven apparel brand with mainstream appeal.
Off-Pitch Appeal
Able Made describes its aesthetic as "Original Off Pitch Soccer Style," which is to say: athleisure that nods to the sport without demanding you actually play it. The New York–based company sells items like Breakaway Socks ($18 a pair) and other everyday pieces meant to telegraph an affinity for the beautiful game, perhaps without the grass stains.
The brand operates as a Public Benefit Corporation and is pursuing B Corp certification, commitments that translate into a supply chain built around certified organic cotton, cruelty-free wool, and accessories made from fruit fiber. Production partners must meet GOTS or Bluesign environmental standards, and a portion of manufacturing happens domestically—a rarity in an industry where overseas production dominates.
That supply chain doesn't come cheap, even if Able Made positions itself in the "accessible premium" tier rather than luxury. The company sells direct-to-consumer through its website, ablemadeshop.com, and has experimented with temporary retail. Earlier this year, it operated pop-up shops at 1 Hotels Brooklyn Bridge and 1 Hotel Central Park, testing whether its core customer—presumably urban, sustainability-conscious, and soccer-adjacent—would shop in person.
The brand has also struck partnerships with cultural institutions including The High Line, the Guggenheim, and nonprofits like Save The Music and Pencils of Promise. A standout collaboration came during the 2023 Women's World Cup, when Able Made teamed up with Burberry to repurpose deadstock fabrics into limited-edition pieces. It was the kind of high-profile alliance that signals ambition beyond niche status.
A Foundation Underneath
Still, Able Made's roots remain tethered to tragedy. Proceeds from the company support the Ucal McKenzie Breakaway Foundation, the 501(c)(3) public charity McKenzie established in her husband's memory. The foundation offers soccer programming, health education, and CPR training for young players in underserved communities—essentially addressing the very crisis that took Ucal's life.
It's an uncommon model: a for-profit apparel brand funding a charitable foundation that predates the business itself. The timeline, though, gets a little murky. LinkedIn lists the company as founded in 2009, the same year Ucal died. Dealroom cites a 2010 launch date. The company's own materials reference 2012. It's possible the foundation came first, and the brand followed later—or that McKenzie was developing both simultaneously. Either way, the overlapping narratives complicate a tidy origin story.
Employee counts vary too. LinkedIn lists the team at somewhere between two and 10 people. A profile on Gust, a platform for startups, pegs the number at 20, though such figures may be outdated or self-reported. Dealroom estimates Able Made's enterprise value between $8 million and $12 million, though such figures for early-stage, privately held companies are often more art than science.
Crossing the Atlantic
The fresh capital is earmarked for expansion into the UK, Able Made's first major push beyond North America. It's a logical move—soccer (or football, as the British would have it) commands cultural primacy there in ways the U.S. market is still working toward. Plus, UK consumers have shown sustained interest in sustainable fashion, even if mass adoption remains elusive.
Grand View Research, a market intelligence firm, projects the global athleisure sector will hit $459.8 billion in 2026, up from $422 billion the prior year. Sustainable athleisure, meanwhile, is claiming a growing slice of that pie, driven by younger consumers who say they'll pay more for environmentally responsible goods. Whether those stated preferences translate into actual purchasing behavior at scale is another question, one Able Made will now test in a new geography.
The investor roster suggests broader momentum at the intersection of sports, purpose-driven commerce, and women's soccer in particular. Toussaint's involvement comes on the heels of her team, the North Carolina Courage, securing backing from Avenue Sports Fund earlier in 2026. That deal was part of a larger trend: capital flowing into women's professional soccer and the ecosystem around it, from media rights to merchandise.
Oregon Sports Angels, which first invested in Able Made back in November 2025, clearly saw something worth doubling down on. The network appears focused on sports-adjacent ventures with cultural resonance—brands that can ride the rising tide of soccer's U.S. popularity while carving out a distinct identity.
What Comes Next
Able Made has also pursued distribution beyond its own website. The brand has retail presence at select professional stadiums, according to Dealroom, though specifics about brand-owned retail spaces remain limited. It's also forged product collaborations with women's soccer clubs, including Boston Legacy FC, though whether those deals generate meaningful revenue or primarily serve as brand-building exercises isn't entirely clear.
McKenzie's background in design and social entrepreneurship—she's taught both at SVA—positions her to navigate the increasingly crowded sustainable fashion landscape. But the sector is littered with brands that had compelling origin stories and struggled to scale. Able Made will need to prove it can move beyond founder-driven narrative and build a business that works at UK scale, and eventually, perhaps, beyond.
For now, the brand occupies an interesting niche: soccer-inspired, mission-funded, and sustainability-focused. Whether that's enough to break through in a market where Lululemon, Patagonia, and a dozen other established players dominate remains to be seen. But with $2 million in new capital and a founder who's already turned personal loss into public good, Able Made has at least bought itself time to find out.
