YouSaid · the spoken record

Allyson Felix

lines on the record: 28
first: 2023-03-16
most recent: 2023-03-16
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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

“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.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, 10 years from now, I hope that Seyche 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.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Bauerman's original proteges. 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 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.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“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. And, you know, we worked with Mike Freton on this spike. And Mike was one of.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“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, 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.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, we learned that, like, you know, 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, whatever. And I was like, 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,”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That was because then all of a sudden that feeling that we felt there it 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.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Totally. We were like, yeah, we're going to be able to sell like a thousand of these or maybe like even five thousand. Like we're going to be able to sell these shoes, you know, like, 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. You know, 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.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“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.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“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. Put together a plan. And I was like, okay, okay And I put my Legos down. Actually, I 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.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“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 a 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, you're 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.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“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. 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 Here was going to be Allison 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.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, you're already offering her 70% less. We were able to get it from 70% less to 60% less. So clearly you can see how great my negotiating skills were. So we get it to 60% less. 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.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“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 you can potentially get a top athlete for a whole lot less. It wasn't that they didn't think she deserved more money or that they didn't have more money to give her. It was on their end a smart business decision. They looked at her age and said, you know, even if she goes and she can win more medals, she's got four more years left is another company going to spend this kind of money and then also try to rebrand her. No, we don't think so. And there was an angle of this where we started to really fight for maternal protection. And it was because we said to them.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Work really hard. Allison has to win on the track. I have to go find the sponsors and then make sure that there's a cohesive story. And if we do that, then, you know, everything else comes into focus and it all takes care of itself.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was really focused on endorsements and partnerships. I think that like everything that we had seen was this constant reminder that the individual athlete, it's not really about that. It's about the big brand that you can help sell their product. And the goal is have the best brands. And if you have the best brands. Then you'll have the best brand too. And so I remember us really focusing on the blue chip sponsors. You know, make sure you have visa, Procter& Gamble, Nike, Gatorade. Like these are the ones that if you partner with those companies, they have a similar type of storytelling. And that's what allows you to become Mia Ham, Serena Williams, Michael Jordan. It's the sponsors that do it. You know, and so it was this idea that like our job is.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Then it was, I've got to get it together. The numbers have to be right. It has to be fair. And so the issue wasn't, could we get the deal or not? We could get the deal. We just couldn't get the deal for the right money. And Jill made sure the money was right.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That, what you don't know is how much other people are getting for that same opportunity. And when she said that, it fully clicked, and my trust for her grew even more. And people would come to me and they're like, you've got the biggest athlete in the sport. Why do you have this talent agency? Why are you doing that? You know, like the deals are going to come to you. Why would you split the commission there And it was because somebody can come with a 10 cent offer, but it's really a dollar deal. And that's what Jill helped me with. And I learned really quick. They saw Allison's brother, and that was an opportunity to take advantage of us. And as soon as I brought Jill in.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, totally. And I would say what Jill taught me right away was first humility. And she said, you know, there's going to be days you might be on a private plane with the CEO of some big company and there will be days you're going to go and you're going to run and you're going to grab your client water. You need to be exceptional at both of them because the job is both. And she was like, you are never that important to not go and run and get the water. And I was like, okay. And that was easy with my sister, right? Because, like, if she was thirsty, I wanted her to have water. But the other thing she taught me was how important information was. And she was like, a lot of people are going to come to you with opportunities. That's great. She's like, you don't need me.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I was like, well, who helps Serena do what Serena does and looked it up and found Jill's name and got her phone number and called the office and got to her assistant and tried to set a meeting and couldn't get a meeting, couldn't get a meeting, couldn't get a meeting. And finally, I was like, I'm just going to try on Facebook. And I had no idea if she would be on Facebook. And sure enough, she was sent her a message. She wrote me right back. She said, what are you doing? Why didn't you call my office instead of meeting like a normal person? And I was like, I've been trying to get to your office. It's not working. And she was like, all right, come in tomorrow. So I came in tomorrow and she's like, so what are we talking about? And I just pitched her what I thought Allison could be. And she said, I really like you. And I really like this idea. And I think Allison's incredible. Let's do it.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, completely. I thought there is a whole lot that I don't know. But I also knew that kind of this dream or vision that I had from my little sister was bigger than just what I had seen in track and field. And I thought, okay, if we could build any sort of business around a female athlete, who would I want her to be? And I was like, well, Serena.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I remember I wrote her a letter, and this was after our conversation, and we should look for this one day because it was probably so ridiculously formal trying to be professional at 25 years old and send it over to her and said, you know, basically, dear Miss Allison Felix, I think we can partner up and I think we can change the world a little bit. And yeah, she was sweet enough to say, yeah, I think we can”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Do deals for athletes. And what if we work together? Like, what would that be like? And we started this conversation of Just exploring it, you know, and what would that even mean? What would it look like? And I remember that, you know, Alison had like her contract with Adidas and it was this really great deal, really, really incredible opportunity for her, a really big deal in the sport. But I looked at what she was making off the track. I was looking at, you know, those sponsorships that she had outside of Adidas. And we kind of looked at each other and I was like, I think I can do that. I can go scrape up that much money. And I was like, in worst case, you know, then it doesn't work and you go back to, you know, a more traditional agent in the sport. But what if it does work and we get to do it together?”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I knew that I was really interested in business. And so I called one of my friends and I was like, hey, I think I'm going to start like a fake business. Like I just want to practice, like to just see, what are the steps? How do I build it? Like, what do we do? And he was like, yeah, that doesn't sound like a good idea. Like, why don't you just actually start something? And I was like, yeah, I have no idea how to do that. And he was like, well, I think you could figure it out. And so I had this idea that was a online women's fitness email newsletter. And I learned how to code and, you know, like took this idea and built this website and built out an email newsletter subscription service. But along the way, you know, I also was talking with Allison and was just like, yeah, I don't know. I'm like kind of, I'm getting into this thing, like building this thing. But I've always wanted to.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And probably a good six months of just in and out of the hospital constantly taking tests, liver biopsies, but ultimately we got to a point where the doctor just said, you know, we know that there's something wrong with your liver. We know that there is at least a minimum a virus attacking your liver. We think that you need to stop competing. And so stopped competing. And yeah, and I think in a lot of ways it was like it was really hard, but it was probably the best gift I could have gotten.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, totally. I had a liver virus. I just was in practice and just felt really tired, couldn't hit times, you know. And my coach was kind of like, what's going on? And I was like, I'm not sure. And he's like, are you getting your vest? Are you doing all the things? And I'm like, I'm doing all the things. Like, nothing's changed. And went to the doctor. And so we start the test. And they run through and see like, yep, your liver, enzyme levels, liver function levels are like off the charts something here is wrong”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, definitely. I never thought about it as a career. I knew I wanted to work in sports and entertainment, wanted to do deals and didn't have this like full master plan of what that would look like. But at the time, it was just, let me run fast and work hard. And it was what was paying for college. I was running well winning felt good. And my dad said, you know, if there's an opportunity to continue running, why would you not take that? You know, like school's going to be there. Your mind's going to be there. But this opportunity to run professionally, to go and sign a sponsorship deal, that's only there for a little bit.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did, yeah, yeah. I went to SC on a track scholarship, and Allison and I always kind of joke that like it went from when we were younger, people would come up to her and be like, oh, you're Wes's sister, right? And, you know, and then real quick, it like switched and it was like, you're Allison's brother. So it was something Allison and I really were able to share together this love for the sport, this, um, Know this kind of passion to try to excel in it. She just, you know, a whole lot better.”
2023-03-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT