YouSaid · the spoken record

Allison Felix

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80
first
2024-01-11
most recent
2024-01-11
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1
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Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “Thanks so much for listening to how I built this lab. Please do follow us on your podcast app so you always have the latest episode downloaded. If you want to follow us on Twitter, our account is at how I built this and mine is at GuyRaz. And on Instagram, I'm at guy.roz. If you want to contact the team, our email address is h-ib-t at id.wondery.com. This episode was produced by”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  2. “In footwear, then we don't want to stop there. We want to ask women what else is broken? What else are you realizing? Is it made for you? And we want to do our best to look for other things that aren't made for women. And then we want to show up and provide those products for women and make sure that they continue to feel seen and known by us.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  3. “Yeah, 10 years from now, I hope that Seich is a brand that women feel really gets them, a brand that they are really proud of, that they know sees them and works really hard to know them. We've talked a lot about how we celebrate women holistically. You know, we have a maternity returns policy where if you're a woman whose foot changes size while you're pregnant. I can't imagine like all of a sudden waking up and my foot's a different size and now I need to throw out every shoe I ever had. So, you know, for us, we feel like our contribution to you doing the most incredible thing on the face of this planet, we can send you another pair of shoes in your new size. So I hope that like we are a brand that can meet women exactly where they are for everything that they need from us. And if we can do that.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  4. “And Wes, when you think about, I mean, you know, just two years ago, you're like, let's make a shoe. And your sister was like, what? And then you've got a shoe. And now you've got a brand. So, I mean, tell me about the vision. I mean, obviously, this is so much of this is about women and creating products for women. When you think about what Seychelles will be in 10 years, how would you describe it?”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  5. “And that's what's most meaningful. Like, I want this to be so much bigger than myself. It is about women deserving better. And that's our mission. Like that's our purpose. And we are all so aligned by that. And it is. It should go so much further than just myself. And so now as I've transitioned from track and field, like right into this business that I love and believe in, I love that it's centered around that very core message.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  6. “You know, one of the smartest things that, I mean, in some ways it was the luckiest thing that happened to you that would happen with Nike because one of the smartest decisions you guys made from a business perspective was you depersonalized your business. Your business was built around Allison's ability to endorse and to win races. And now you've built a brand using Allison's expertise, Wes your expertise as runners, and a business that can live beyond the two of you that you've built.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  7. “Yeah, so our Seich one is lifestyle. You know, it's great for walking. It can do a workout really well. I mean, I participate in all the wear testing and I go in on them. So it is possible. But yeah, so excited, like the shoe that obviously has been, I don't know if I should call it my baby because I actually have a baby, so I probably shouldn't say that, but just, you know, really what I'm passionate about is this running shoe. Really giving women something that they haven't felt before, and not for the woman who is like trying to break the marathon world record because I just don't feel like that is every woman. But the woman who is doing all the things, I'm really excited to bring this into the world.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  8. “So you last year, I think you closed a Series A round, $8 million. Athleta was an investor. And you now have two lines, the Sage 1 and the Sage 2. You describe them as lifestyle shoes, so they're not designed necessarily for running, but you're designing a specific running shoe as well right now.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  9. “We worked with Mike Freton on this spike and Mike was one of Bill Bauerman's original proteges. You know, he was there in the shed with the waffle maker, like putting shoes together. He's this master pattern maker. And he said, oh, this is exactly why we started Nike at the very beginning. It's lost its way, but this is why we started it. And he was like, I would love nothing more than to be a part of it. So we were able to have the best in the world working on this shoe. And, you know, they did it and definitely delivered on an unbelievably iconic shoe for a woman. And the first shoe to win a gold medal by an athlete who owns the brand too.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  10. “Yeah, I think one of the things that we found where we had more friends at Nike than we realized. And when that op-ed came out, I think there were a lot of people who said, thank you so much because I've had a hard experience and maybe my voice wasn't as loud or maybe it didn't feel comfortable to speak out. There were a lot of people that really respected what we had done around the op-ed. And as we reached out to our developer, she was former Nike. She reached out to a designer who was also former Nike. Who then said, yeah, we're in. They said, you know, we built Michael Johnson spike in 1996, the most iconic spike ever made. We'd love to help. We believe in what you're doing, what you're standing for.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  11. “So you guys are fully committed to building the spike shoe for Allison to compete in the Olympics, but it seems so complicated and challenging. I mean, you obviously found the designers, and they were willing to sort of work with you on this and I don't know the understanding that maybe they'd work with you on the project in a bigger way on this shoe brand.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  12. “You're burning through molds. And no one's asking you for a different shoe. Women aren't saying we're unhappy with our shoes, make one for me because they think they already have one for them. And they don't have anything to compare it to. They've never put on a shoe made for a woman.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  13. “Wait, what? You have it? And he was like, alas based on a woman's foot? I was like, yeah. And he's like, yeah, yeah. We've been studying feet for the last hundred years. Like, yeah, we have a last based on a woman's foot. And, you know, inside, I'm like, okay, well, how did we miss this? The whole thing is crumbling. Like this was a stupid idea. And I was like, well, who uses it? And he was like, nobody. And I was like, why would no one use it? And he was like, you know, probably money. And he's like, you'd be making two shoes instead of just one. And I was like, huh? And we had still never made a shoe yet. So that kind of made sense to me if I have a business where I make a hundred million pairs of shoes.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  14. “Yeah, we learned that as we talked with the last makers, as we went to go and build shoes. You know, we said, okay, we have this idea, you know, and what we're hearing is it's not out there, but we want to build a last based on women's feet. And the guy's like, yeah, you want the model AJ9, whatever.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  15. “The idea that all shoes are basically designed from men's feet is just weird to me, right? And so this idea of building a shoe around a woman's foot, it's almost shocking to imagine that that was revolutionary, right? I mean, both of you sound like you were shocked when you discovered that.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  16. “That was because then all of a sudden that feeling that we felt there mirrored exactly what Alison felt when she got that offer of 70% less. It was you have been so loyal to this company and they're totally taking advantage of you. They're taking you for granted. And we looked at that, thought of that wall and footlocker of women's shoes by the major footwear brands. And we said, if that's marketing, women are coming in buying those shoes, not knowing their men's shoes. They're buying those shoes because they believe they're women's. And it just helped us to see there was a much, much bigger problem. And the bigger problem was that women were being overlooked by the brands they're most loyal to.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  17. “Yeah, what does that really even mean? And I'm like, no, we've all been to Footlocker. What's that wall of shoes on that side, you know, the pinks and all of those ones? And she's like, no, like they're not made for women. She was made off of a lass, which is a mold of a foot and it's a man's foot that has been used to make women's footwear. And that just like, it took a while to sink in, and then it just kind of like blew us away. We're like, well, so what is that wall? Eventually, we understood like that wall was just marketing. There's nothing different about them. And then that changed our whole course of how we were going about all of this.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  18. “And I remember talking with a developer that we found and asking her, like, here's what we want to do. Do you think it's possible? And she's like, I mean, it's possible, but it's going to be really hard. And I was like, okay, but also like, how expensive is it going to be? Because, you know, during that whole fight, Allison didn't get paid for almost two years. So there was fear and stress around, is this the right thing to do? Is this a good use of money? Are we just doing this because we're frustrated? But we worked through the process and got an idea of how much it could potentially cost. But in that process, there was something that Tiffany Beers, the developer that we worked with, said to us that changed it all.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  19. “Yeah, we were able to self fund it and we said we knew that if we were going to launch this, it started with the shoe she runs in in the Olympics. And at that point, we were just thinking, if we make the shoe she can wear in the Olympics, we think other track kids, college kids, high school kids, they'll buy this.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  20. “All right, so let's start with the nuts and bolts here. You know you want to do this. First, Allison's got the Olympics to prepare for, and you want to design a shoe, and presumably you want this shoe ready in time so she can run in them in Tokyo. I mean, first of all, you guys had some sponsorship money, so did you have enough to at least finance a prototype?”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  21. “And I'm like, yeah, yeah, why don't we build our own shoe company? And she's just kind of quiet. And then she comes back and she's just like, well. Yeah, put together a plan. And I was like, okay, okay. And I put my Legos down and I... I actually started thinking about it. And again, it's the beauty of building something is you don't quite know what you're building. You just start with the first step. Something I tell myself a lot and try to share with people is, you know, it's not about 10 steps. There's just one step 10 times. And I just thought through like, what's the first step? And I went back to her and told her, like, I think this is the first step. And she was down to take it.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  22. “Yeah, guy, this moment is probably going to be, as I share this with you, what's going to keep me single forever. But it was the pandemic. I was sitting there. I was building Legos. And I just, I remember thinking like building stuff. It's like so cool. Like I wonder what other stuff we could build. And that's how I kind of thought of it, you know, was like, huh, I wonder if we could build a shoe. And it wasn't as serious thought. I wasn't thinking about a business or anything like that. But then when Allison called and she kind of, she speaks to that frustration. And at times that kind of gets me to like, you're just being negative. There's hope here somewhere. But in my own frustration, I said to her, well, why don't we just build our own? And, you know, she says back, like build our own shoe company and like older brother, I double down.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  23. “That so much, Wes, how did the idea come to you? I mean, it seems so plainly obvious, but also so insurmountable a shoe, right? But of course that made perfect sense. How did you land on that idea?”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  24. “So at this point, I'm still competing, so I'm wearing athleta. And I am actually wearing like Nike's shoes. And I would just like peel off the Nike sign. That's kind of what we were doing. And then I'm talking to Wes after like we're doing the search of like trying to find, you know, this potential company. And I just got to this place where I'm like, I'm tired. Like I am so exhausted of asking these companies and like begging them to see my worth and my value. And it's like, how am I in this place? You know, I'm trying to compete for my fifth Olympic Games and I am out here like hustling and grinding, like taking meetings and trying to sell myself to have like a shoe sponsor. And Wes, he's always been the like the one with the big ideas and, you know, the visionary, very like hopeful and optimistic. And I'm like very much so the opposite. And so we're having.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  25. “Yeah, it started kind of with first I got a new athletic apparel sponsor. With athletic, yeah. They actually had never sponsored an athlete before. They read the op-ed and they were just like, let's just have a conversation and see where it goes. But I would say that that relationship really changed my mindset because I felt like they empowered me. They wanted to celebrate me as an athlete, but also as a mother and support the advocacy work that I had started to do. And so it was like just this different experience. And so that set us off in the path of, okay, let's try to find this in a footwear company. Like I love how this feels. It makes me feel good.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  26. “Tell me how the two of you started to think about wait a minute, why don't we just make our own shoe? Why do we actually need Nike or Adidas on Allison's feet? Why not make it ourselves?”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  27. “Welcome back to How I Built This Lab. I'm talking with former Olympic track star Allison Felix and her brother and business partner Wes. All right, so you release this op-ed in the New York Times, which details your experience with Nike, and that was the moment that you probably didn't realize it quite yet, but that was a moment that would, of course, change the trajectory for both of you, right? Leading you from this business model that was about endorsements and sponsorships to a totally different model where you would do your own thing. You would actually make a product and that product would be shoes. At this point, Allison, you were planning to be in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, which of course happened in 2021. Obviously Nike was not going to be your sponsor.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  28. “Going to take another quick break, but when we come back more from Wes and Alice and Felix about how their experience with Nike inspired them to start their own footwear company, Seich, which makes shoes specifically designed for women's feet. Stay with us, you're listening to how I built this lab.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  29. “Through probably about 11 times, and I just didn't see it anywhere. And I was like, I have to be missing it. There's no way I just got the same contract. Why would they send it? What are the chances? And I called the editor back and I was like, I read through it 11 times. There's nothing any different. And she was like, well, how do you feel? And I was like, yeah, let's go. Like go ahead and publish it and put my phone away and drove away and remember thinking like what are we doing? But there was still this calm. I think I remember calling my dad and just telling him, you know, here's where it's at. And he just said like, you can be proud of this. This is the right thing and kind of held on to that. And yeah. And then we let it out to the world. And I remember seeing the New York Times news alert come through and just like that moment was.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  30. “It was no words, just a contract that they sent via DocuSign. And I called the New York Times editor and I said, wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. Did you already publish it? They just sent me a contract. And I think in that moment and, you know, how Allison remembers her moment of sitting in the nursery with Cameron, I remember for me pulling off to the side of the road, shaking as I'm holding my phone, going through and looking at the contract and saying like they had to have changed it. And I go through and I read through the first time, don't see any changes. I read through again, don't see any changes. I'm on my phone. I'm trying to figure out how do I search the document so I can just do like a keyword search to just search for pregnant pregnancy, baby, maternity. I'm just not seeing it.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  31. “No, I was really supportive. And now I say it in a really calm way. Like, I was, you know, there were definitely racing thoughts. But I remember I called up the editor at the New York Times and where I live, you lose cell service from the house until you get like down the hill. And I remember I called her at the house and I said, all right, let's go. And then got in the car. I drove down the hill. When I got down the hill, maybe three minutes, I had an email from Nike.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  32. “Wes, when Allison told you she wanted to do this. On the biggest athletic company in the world. How did you respond? Were you immediately supportive or was a part of you nervous?”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  33. “I had been through, you know, and then the birth experience and I'm fighting my way back to get in shape and just like all of these things. And I knew he was working on the story. And I was just like, okay, I need to be a part of this story. And we have to do this. We have to put our names to this. And I looked at my daughter. Like that was the reason why because I wasn't going to let Cameron in her generation deal with the same thing. And at that point, it was kind of like, if I lose everything, then that will just be what it is because this has to come out.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  34. “Yeah, so what originally happened was I had two teammates who were working on this story with the New York Times. And Wes was actually involved in it because he had done all these negotiations. And so he was working kind of like anonymously with them. And we were kind of sharing different things. And the idea was just that that's going to be, you know, it was never going to attach a name to it. It was just that. And then the Women's World Cup was coming up. And I remember like this very vividly, I was sitting in Cameron's nursery and I got a call from Wes and he has, he's like, don't shoot the messenger. But Nike wants to know if they can use your image in this campaign. I think it was in a commercial, you know, for the Women's World Cup. And literally, that was the moment that just changed everything because I was just like, what? You know, like everything.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  35. “May 22nd, 2019, you kind of dropped a bomb on the world. You decided to write an op-ed in the New York Times about this experience of being pregnant while negotiating a contract with Nike. And I guess it came out of stories of other women athletes who were also dropped by Nike and essentially made the point that Nike talks about women's empowerment and markets to girls, but when it comes time for the rubber to meet the road here, they're not supporting female athletes who become moms.”

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  36. “But then what we had to address next was the way that these contracts are set up, you get a bonus if you win a medal, you get a reduction if you don't win a medal. So here was going to be Allison, you know, 10 months after giving birth and she would need to go to the world championships. She would need to win a medal. And if she didn't, she'd get hit another 25%. And for us, that's where it was just like, no, that doesn't work. Like that's the line in the sand where that's not okay. And that's not okay for Allison, but that's not okay for any woman. She's having a baby.”

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  37. “And then we go through this process of disclosing the pregnancy to them. And for us, it was really important that we had the offer on paper. We wanted that in writing, but we were never for us just morally, we felt like it wasn't right to sign that contract without telling them that she was pregnant. And if they decide they don't want you because you're pregnant after they already offered you a contract, then they can deal with whatever the consequences of that are. But we'll give them the out. We'll tell them. We're not going to sign it and then tell them after the fact. So we told them she was pregnant, but we had the offer in writing. If they wanted to pull out, they could have pulled out.”

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  38. “They weren't moving. And I think that one of the things that I would always try to do is let me put myself in their position. How would I look at this if I had their job instead of mine? And it was, you know, you can do what feels right and fair or”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  39. “Are still in negotiations with Nike in 2019. Wes, you are very much involved with these conversations with Nike. Guess they're not budging. They're not going anywhere, right? Wes, what do you remember about Nike just wouldn't move on there?”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  40. “Brutal renegotiations and then this like real life event happens where it's like, does any of this even matter? You know, I just want my daughter to survive. I want to be able to leave the hospital. And it was just, it just felt like too much. And in my mind, I had this like plan before any of this happened. I was like, okay, I'm going to have this baby. I'm going to come back in four weeks. I am going to train like this is what I know how to do. I'm just going to get it done. And then everything went out of the window. It took much longer than I could have ever imagined. And I remember my first workout back. My coach, he gave me a treadmill workout that was a 30 minute walk. And by the end, I am just crying because I just, I can't fathom, how am I going to compete with the world?”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  41. “Yeah, I mean, it was crazy. And being an athlete, I think I took my health for granted. I just never imagined I would be in that scenario. And there was points where when I called my family, they weren't sure if what they were coming for, you know, were they coming because I wasn't going to make it? Were they coming, you know, to meet granddaughter niece? Like it just, it was very scary. And then I think it just made everything feel so heavy because we were going through still this just.”

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  42. “You also had preclampsia, which I'm very familiar with because my wife also had it with our first child. And so you gave birth 32 weeks to Cameron, to your daughter.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  43. “Yes, it was the worst timing ever. And I told Wes, I was like, I've been the best client up until now. Now I'm making life really hard for you. And so even where we started off those negotiations, we didn't have anything on paper yet. The fear really was that even that 70% less would be taken away once they found out that I was pregnant. So that's when I started to say like, okay, I'm just going to do what everybody else has done until I'm ready to see something on paper and disclose my pregnancy. And so I trained four o'clock in the morning when it was dark. I went on for a time period where I was competing and I was pregnant and nobody knew. I wore baggy clothes. I rarely left the house. Like this whole time period that like I had dreamed about and that I was so excited.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  44. “Yeah, so this was like something that had happened in track and field. And I was naive to it, you know, when I was younger, you know, I'd been in the sports since I was a teenager and I kind of heard whispers and saw different things. And then as I got older, I really understood what it was. Women really struggled through pregnancy and motherhood in track and field. And so what they would do is if they were like in between contracts like I was, they would hide their pregnancies, they would sign new deals, and then they would carry on or contracts would be paused, athletes would be reduced. And so there was just like all of this struggle that would happen. And so I was just, I had so much fear around.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  45. “So you ran unsponsored because you were in these negotiations with Nike that would last about a year and a half. But meantime, you became, you were married and became pregnant with your first child. And you were worried about anyone finding out that you were pregnant while you were training so you would train in the dark to hide your baby bump.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  46. “Yeah. And I think that's like, At that age where it's up and it's, you know, it doesn't matter that my performance hasn't gone down. It's just like this is what happens at this time period and it's business. And I, okay. But then at the same time, I had been putting off like my real life stuff that I wanted to do because I was like, well, you know, my job is to win medals. I have to be focused on this. And so that's when all of that shifted. And I was like, okay, well, if they're offering me this, they think I'm done. I've been waiting to like, you know, I want to have a family, like do all these things. I just, why am I waiting any longer?”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  47. “Yeah. And at that point, as you mentioned, you were the winningest track and field athlete in the world. You'd won more medals at world events, which is amazing. But this is the thing. It doesn't matter how often you go to the meetings and how often you show up at headquarters and how many times you say yes, and all the people there who love you and work with you, like at the end of the day, like. Comes down to a renegotiation, and none of that seems to matter, and it's crazy, but it's like how big corporations work.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  48. “Yeah, so it was like this moment of a high. Like we were celebrating, like, this is great. Like for me, I had been happy at Nike. And I was just like, okay, cool. I'm going to sign, this will be my last deal. I'm going to end here. Like I didn't think. Anything more. So then when it came back, it was just like, oh my gosh, they don't believe in me anymore. And for me, like that is just huge. Like I tried to be a good partner, you know, go above and beyond whenever there was calls, you know, I remember getting a call like my 30th birthday that I had like planned for like a year and I got a call like, well, can you be here like somewhere across the world? And I'm like.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  49. “I remember when Wes called me and he told me what it was. And the number was 70% less than what I had been making. And I remember just feeling like somebody had just punched me. And at this point, that world championships that we just came off of, I think Wes, correct me if I'm wrong. I think I had become the most decorated athlete at World Championship history.”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  50. “Going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we'll hear more about Allison's Olympic triumphs and the contract renewal offer from Nike that changed everything. That's ahead in just a moment. I'm Guy Ros, and you're listening to how I built this lab. Welcome back to How I Build This Lab. My guests are Wes and Alice and Felix. Alright, so the two of you are building Allison's track career around sponsorships with big brands. And I guess this was sort of the typical playbook for an Olympic athlete. And Alison, you would go on in the Rio Olympics in 2016, I think, to win a silver medal and two gold medals that year. And then the next year, 2017, you are up for renegotiation with Nike to renew your contract. And I guess they came back with a surprisingly lowball offer. What do you remember about that?”

    2024-01-11 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Designing shoes for women's feet with Wes and Allyson Felix of Saysh (2023) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT