Last month, Allyson Felix launched her brand Saysh as a lifestyle brand for women by women. The track star and Nike had a public separation of which was Felix was applauded for being transparent about the treatment she received during her pregnancy including a 70% pay cut in a new contract with the sports giant. This run-in with Nike opened Felix’s eyes to the bigger issue surrounding the lack of support for female athletes and their pregnancies. Indeed, pregnancy is often regarded as “career killer” to most women involved in sports as others doubt women can balance the two lifestyles of being a mother and sports figure. The situation with Nike, plus the fact Felix received zero sponsors for racing spikes for this year’s Olympics, led her to create her own signature racing spikes under her new female-focused brand Saysh.
On August 6th, the Olympian won a bronze medal in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics for the women’s 400m race, coming one minute behind Marileidy Paulino and Shaunae Miller-Uibo. During the race, Allyson Felix wore her signature bespoke shoe, the Saysh 0.07 Spike. The very next day, she and her teammates walked away with the gold medal in the team relay race, making this Felix’s 11th medal earned over the course of her career. In addition to being the first athlete to run in their very own racing shoes during the race, she also became the most decorated US track athlete in history, surpassing sprinter Carl Lewis.
To commemorate such a historical moment, Felix plans to auction off her worn racing spikes plus a NFT digital art piece of the liquid blue sneaker. All proceeds from the sale will go toward The Power of She Fund: Child Care Grant, a women’s organization operated by the Women’s Sports Foundation that advocates for young women in sports.
Saysh encourages interested users to sign up for email updates on their site to be notified about the sale of the Saysh 0.07 Spikes and art piece.