ABLE

ABLE is a lifestyle brand focused on ending generational poverty by providing economic opportunity for women.

Founded in 2010, ABLE is committed to protecting and empowering women in the workplace. We actively hire from marginalized communities, working with women who have often overcome extraordinary circumstances, because we know that when women thrive, so do the economies and communities around them.

ABLE has grown from producing a single collection of hand-woven scarves to a one-stop shop for ethical fashion, offering leather goods, handmade jewelry, denim, clothing, and footwear. Whether we produce in Ethiopia, Mexico, Peru, or at our headquarters in Nashville, TN, each item has one thing in common: because it is made by women, it is leading all of us a step closer to the end of generational poverty. We are working each day to give opportunities to women in a safe and healthy environment and encouraging our peers to do the same.ic, it could be said the best way to break cycles of poverty in families is by paying women. We believe the fashion industry is a female-oriented industry where we can have an immediate impact.

Our goals have evolved, deepened, and increased in ambition. This growth has lead to the development of ACCOUNTABLE, a radical and disruptive reporting system that provides unparalleled transparency into the social impact of our employment and manufacturing practices, particularly the impact on women.

We want our customers to know the true impact of their purchase, and that can only happen with radical and disruptive transparency. That’s why we decided to be the first company that we know of to publish our wages—the lowest wages of our workers, not the average. We believe in protecting and investing in women because we believe women will heal the world, and we want to empower consumers to have a quick and easy choice to demand change. Only 2% of fashion workers make a wage that meets their basic needs, but if brands absorbed the cost of bringing workers to a living wage, it would likely only cost between 1-3% of the cost of the garment. When you put it that way, it doesn’t feel so insurmountable, and we believe that a radical shift can happen in the fashion industry if consumer demand pushes for it.

We want to build a better world for the next generation— one with less poverty and more equality, where fewer people are sick, and where more children go to school. The good news? We know how to get there: investing in women. ABLE chooses to work with women because we know that when women thrive, so do the economies in which they operate.

Across the world, women are concentrated in the lowest-paid and least secure jobs, making them—and their children—more vulnerable to poverty. Last year, 82% of all wealth created went to the top 1%, while the bottom 50% saw no increase at all. And women bear the brunt of this growing inequality. We also know that when we invest in women, economies and communities thrive. Women invest twice as much of their income into their families than men (80% vs. 30-40%), and when women are paid wages that meet their basic needs, it leads to greater personal safety and better overall health and education for each generation.

We believe that fashion—the largest industrial employer of women worldwide—should lead the way.

Fashion employs 45 million women worldwide, and most of them cannot meet their basic needs. They are also particularly susceptible to low wages, excessive hours, and exclusion from the formal economy. At ABLE, we work with women who have often overcome extraordinary circumstances. We manufacture directly in the communities we wish to impact, both locally and globally, creating jobs and ending the cycle of charity dependency.

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