Happy weekend, AK Fam! Tony and I just got to East Coast for a weekend at Firefly music festival AND a family wedding. I’m excited to hear some of my favorite artists this weekend. If you don’t follow me on Spotify yet, then be sure to. I make a new playlist almost every week and LOVE sharing my fav jams.

Before you head off on our weekend adventures I want to formally introduce our latest partnership with Able Apparel – a young, creative company that’s doing incredible things for the city of Chicago.

I first met Carson & Ellie of Able Apparel last summer when they were in the kickstarter phase of the company. I was immediately impressed about the work they were doing for our wonderful city, and was excited to somehow get involved.

What is Able?

If you don’t know much about Able, their mission is to support children in and around the city who are vulnerable to violence. I’m incredibly lucky to call Chicago a safe home for myself and most of the people I know here, but that’s simply not the case for many communities and children.

Able provides some great resources here for learning more about the current state of affairs here in the city – including statistics, helpful books to pick up, and articles that highlight some of the main sources of violence.

How do they help?

Able sells every day, high-quality apparel that gives back! 50% of the net profits from their stylish hats, tees and pins go to nonprofit organizations like the Juvenile Protective Association (JPA) and Cure Violence, who focus on “access to education, positive relationships, and creative opportunities” for youth here in Chicago.

Abra and I started wearing their hats, fell in love, and were so excited to part of their mission.

‘The Uptown’ hat

Able x AK got together and designed: The Uptown! These super cute hats are perfect for summer and come in two colors – Yellow and Colorado Blue. We included the message “We are Able” on the front to share the sense of community that we’re so proud of here in Chicago. We also wanted to involve all of YOU – so we added a little AK logo on the back to represent you guys and the wonderful community we’ve built here.

Our cause

When choosing a cause for the proceeds from The Uptown hats, we decided that we wanted to have a focus on empowering women. What better way to both support children and empower women than to help out young moms?

We’ll be donating 50% of proceeds to New Moms Chicago – an organization founded in 1983 that’s disrupting the generational cycle of poverty for low-income moms in the city. They do so by providing families with stable housing, job training, and family support, so that these young women can support both themselves and their families in ways that they may not have been supported as children.

Now it’s your turn! Grab one of our hats here for yourself and your bestie, rock these cute af hats all summer, and support Chicago mamas.

And lastly comment below: are you team BLUE or team YELLOW? Xo!