HIBT Lab! Saysh: Wes and Allyson Felix

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Allyson Felix is the most decorated American track and field athlete of all time. She’s also a mother. Those two identities came into conflict in 2018 when negotiating a contract renewal with her shoe sponsor, Nike.

Ultimately, Allyson broke ties with Nike because the new contract presented a significant pay cut and lacked adequate maternal protections. After struggling to find a new shoe sponsor, Allyson and her brother/agent, Wes, decided to take matters into their own hands and start their own shoe company, Saysh.

This week on How I Built This Lab, Allyson and Wes talk with Guy about their journey to the top of the track and field world, the decision to leave Nike, and how they built the iconic shoe that Allyson wore during her gold medal performance at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Plus, why most name brand shoes aren’t designed for women’s feet, and how Saysh is working to change that.

This episode was produced by Chris Maccini, with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

Edited by John Isabella, with research help from Lauren Landau Einhorn.

Our audio engineer was Alex Drewenskus.

You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at [email protected].

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.2	What if the greatest tragedy of your life was just covered up?
0:12.5	I have never seen anything like that before or after.
0:15.7	This is the story of the worst marine-on-marine friendly fire in modern history.
0:20.0	A story kept from the public.
0:21.9	It's like, what did y'all have to hide?
0:24.6	Come to NPR's Embedded Podcast in its latest series, Taking Cover.
0:28.7	Hello and welcome to How I Built This Lab.
0:33.3	I'm Guy Raaz.
0:34.9	Allison Felix is one of the greatest athletes of all time.
0:38.5	In fact, she is the most decorated American track and field athlete in history.
0:44.1	And yet, once she ran in the Tokyo Olympics, she did so without a shoe sponsor.
0:49.9	It happened because her previous sponsor, Nike, offered Allison a contract that she felt
0:55.4	was a lowball.
0:56.8	And so, Allison decided to do something totally unconventional.
1:00.8	She made her own shoe and she became the first Olympic athlete to run in a shoe that
1:07.0	was her own brand.
1:08.7	The idea came from Allison's brother and business partner, West Felix.
1:12.8	And now, they turned that single idea into a shoe brand called Sage.
1:18.0	It's a lifestyle and running shoe brand that is designed specifically for women's feet.
1:23.6	And you might be wondering, wait, aren't all women's athletic shoes designed for women's
	...

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