- 5/24/2025
In this ESSENCE Black Women In Sports exclusive interview, track and field icon, Allyson Felix, shares the motivations behind her hit footwear brand, Saysh, and the importance of standing in the gap for women in sports through advocacy on and off the track.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00We thought we were creating shoes just for me to run in the Olympics and as we did a deep dive
00:05you know into the industry that's when we really had this this learning that shoes are not being
00:11made for women and what that means is a shoe is made off of mold of a foot and it's the mold of
00:16a man's foot to make women's sneakers and when we learned that it was like okay we are where
00:21we're supposed to be what's going on essence family it's your girl sheree nicole here again
00:30with another edition of essence black women in sports i've been fanning out for the last five
00:34minutes so let me calm myself and i will tell you why because i get the opportunity to chat with a
00:39world-class athlete the most decorated olympian in history with a record check this 20 world
00:46championship medals and 11 medals at the olympic games which includes seven gold medals but beyond
00:51that she's a super mom she's an entrepreneur and she's an advocate for women around the world in
00:57sports and beyond she has a ton of amazing things going on in the sports space and i'm so grateful
01:02to be joined by the track and field icon herself allison felix i can't believe i'm saying that
01:07allison thank you so so much for joining thank you so much for having me and thank you for the intro
01:13absolutely you you are more than deserving and um you know you'll be keeping up and you've had some
01:18great things happening you recently rang the the nasdaq bell for your sports management agency always
01:23alpha first of all i love the name secondly just for you to be able to experience that and all that's
01:27encompassed the success of always alpha you know what say you to how you guys are moving forward
01:31yeah we're so excited i mean women's sports is having such momentum right now and it's long overdue and
01:38at always alpha we get to represent female athletes and just show up for them and celebrate
01:44them holistically and so to be able to think about it for me and a legacy perspective i've learned so
01:51much and i really want to pass that on so speaking of passing things on and moving things forward and
01:56you're you're a newly elected member of the ioc athletes commission allison and for those who don't
02:00know guys this is going to give her direct say in olympic policies which includes how they support women
02:04in sports which is such a big obviously heart passion project for you allison so with that said
02:10with this level of of power essentially that you get and advocacy in the space you know what can
02:15people expect and what can you expect from yourself in this position well i think it's just so important
02:19to have a seat at the table you know i always want to be that representation for other athletes you
02:24know my goal is to make the road easier and not to have as many barriers and so i'm going to continue
02:30to listen to um what our athletes need and how i can fight for them and stand up for them and and just
02:36push um to make things a bit better yeah and you speak of that fight and before i kind of get into
02:42you know what what happened with nike and how that kind of shifted you into the space before that happened
02:48were you aware that there was a advocate in you for others was there a moment in your life when you
02:53realized that that was the case and the gift you had it took a long time for me to get there i'm i'm
02:58the person who i don't like to ruffle feathers you know as an athlete i just really had my head down
03:04you know and i really focused on what i felt like i was supposed to do you know try to win medals
03:09and run as fast as i could and it wasn't until real life circumstances really started to shake things
03:16up where i felt like okay even though i don't feel comfortable um i need to speak out and and it was
03:22definitely an evolution process to get there when we think about speaking out i know some people have
03:27different ways of doing it some people will go out and feet to the pavement and protest some people
03:32will post on social media some people will get out get a mic and go for it for you you know what's been
03:37and we'll get more into that as well but what's been your main vein when it comes to how you advocate
03:42for now i i use my voice but it took me time to find my voice that i think we all can do it in our
03:49own way exactly like you said and sometimes it is within our own circles it might be you know holding
03:54certain people accountable um you don't have to have this huge platform to to be an advocate but
04:00um i have understood that i am in a seat where you know i can stand up for other people and i've
04:06really been trying to exercise that muscle to speak out more and you know sometimes you have to
04:12call people out and sometimes it's it is an uncomfortable space but i always think about the
04:17purpose and i think about you know my own children and just trying to make things better for
04:22those who are coming behind me yeah heavy is the cape and the crown a lot of times for for people
04:27who do the work that you do so you know i know your mom there's a lot of other things going on
04:31you're an entrepreneur how do you kind of handle that load of of looking out for other people but
04:36also making sure that you're still giving things back to yourself and also to your family i mean it's
04:41hard i think it's hard for anyone who's juggling a lot of things and i have a great support system and so
04:46i know that i i don't do any of this alone and um that really you know that really is helpful to me
04:53and then i know that i have to fill my own cup you know i i won't be helpful to anybody if i don't do
04:59that and sometimes it looks like actually scheduling something on my calendar or you know sitting in the
05:04car for a few minutes before i head into the house or you know whatever it might look look like
05:09at that you know stage of life but it is so important to make that time i'm a car sitter as well
05:15allison i have to tell you i get a good 20 30 minutes in okay depending on how my day goes
05:21yeah and you know i i i still work out a lot i'm a former athlete and for me i don't feel right
05:29if i'm not working out at least four to five times a week and i know sometimes it's hard to kind of
05:34turn that switch off and it's like okay you're not performing at this level anymore you obviously
05:38want to stay well but you have to have some boundaries around how you work out how you how you
05:43move forward in your wellness for you have you found that balance um are you still out there like
05:48yeah i'm going for the gold again what does that look like for you it's definitely been a transition
05:53for sure i've had to like figure out what works for me i was doing a workout um it was probably a
05:59year ago and i was like really taking myself down on the track and i kind of looked around and i was
06:03like oh my gosh like i don't have to be doing this like right so since that moment i was like i started
06:11to do new things i started to play tennis and just you know find ways to push my bodies my body in
06:17other ways that are different that are fun and so i i still love you know a great challenging workout
06:23but i try to um expand you know the way that i i do them now yeah speaking of expansion let's talk
06:30about sage so you know for those who don't know uh allison you know she had a little run in with
06:35nike wasn't her fault she just got pregnant here we go but uh she called them out for cutting her pay
06:39uh during her pregnancy and rightfully so and so uh with that sage was kind of birthed as well
06:45and um i love how you channeled that that disappointment that dismissal and even arguably
06:50in certain respects that disrespect to then steer your entrepreneurial efforts in this regard so
06:55when when sage kind of came about like were you sitting in a seat of okay i need to do something
07:00right now was this something you had kind of been thinking about prior to and then this this issue
07:04with nike happened and then you moved into it like how did the birth of sage kind of happen
07:08i felt like i always had the spirit of entrepreneurship um but i wasn't sure how that
07:13was going to manifest and when i went through this situation it was really just out of necessity you
07:19know it was in conversation with my brother who is also my business partner my manager and we were
07:24just talking like you know okay what what's the next step and we really looked for another sponsor
07:30and couldn't find it out there and you know he had this idea of doing it ourselves and at first
07:35i was like that feels very big i it just resonated with me like we have the ones uh with the power
07:42to create change instead of asking asking these massive companies to do so when i think about
07:48black women and sometimes how our tone could be misconstrued but also how the responsibilities of
07:54looking out for others kind of just sits on us just innately did you did you kind of war inside with
08:00how to approach people with sage the the even in your advocacy the tone of your voice or what you
08:06wrote down like did you ever kind of tussle with that and if so how did you kind of find that happy
08:11medium yeah absolutely you know i i think for black women that has been the case for so long um that we
08:18can be put into a box and so for me it was about turning this negative situation into something positive
08:25and that it was so much bigger than me and what i went through it was saying that no i see all women
08:31and i'm going to support them and i think that you know all women should have products specifically
08:36something specifically made for our bodies but also it's much larger than that it's standing with women
08:41and so i it's an honor to be able to do that and i just come back to my purpose and you know keep
08:47pushing forward um in the in the face of a lot of adversity yeah speaking of purpose what is one thing
08:53that you've learned about yourself that you didn't realize as you moved through with sage and built
08:58this brand i think just the ability to to pivot you know and the ability to to do something really
09:06scary you know i have you know i'm from the heart of la from the crenshaw district like i didn't grow up
09:13you know seeing the people around me um you know start businesses and and do these different things and
09:19so i i felt like i really struggled with imposter syndrome of you know how can i how can i do this
09:25but i think getting over that hurdle and having great mentors and seeing that okay the the people
09:31who are doing this you know i'm capable as well um and that has been probably the the biggest um
09:38surprise and encouragement and thing to get through love it so i want to move to always alpha for a bit
09:44i i just i'm so pro i'm so pro girl power i'm so pro black women in in particular but you know
09:51again as you mentioned it's about all women and you make sure that you know your advocacy ties in
09:55it connects us all which i absolutely love and i love out always alpha as well so when we think about
10:00sports management and sometimes again how females are underrepresented how they're not represented
10:06um how you know athletes of your caliber may struggle with even aligning themselves with the
10:11right representation simply because they're women and kind of don't know where to go
10:14you know when it comes to always alpha what are you guys kind of providing in that vein that are
10:19that's helpful to women who may be wanting to be out at the next allison felix or who may already be
10:24out there on the track or otherwise competing and just don't necessarily have the representation they
10:28need absolutely i think it's really about a deep listening to our athletes and to what they want
10:34to accomplish you know in the field of play but off of it as well i think traditionally you know
10:39a lot of these large um sports agencies it's kind of like a cookie cutter model and i i really love
10:46the boutique approach where it's different for every single person and we all have passions and
10:52interests and you know right now um we can build our brands you know create our own content really
10:59celebrate uh individuals holistically and that's really what we look to do and to bring new sponsors
11:05in that haven't been in the space of women's sports and just really build out um strategic plans for
11:11each person that we work with yeah what's one thing uh kind of a main topic that continues to kind
11:17of resurface and ruminate um that you guys have kind of heard the through always alpha from women that
11:23you want more people to kind of grab onto and understand is there one thing in particular
11:28i would say probably the biggest thing is not going down the traditional path you know um we're
11:35seeing now more than ever that we're doing things differently you know we are not staying in the mold
11:40i look at myself and even you know competing in a brand that i owned that is there's going to be so much
11:46more of that and i'm so excited you know to help and assist athletes to be able to to do that and um
11:53i i think we're seeing that women in sports have such rich personalities like there's there's so
12:00much there you know away from the field of play as well um and so i think that's it it's just breaking
12:06out of this mold and saying okay let's do things differently let's have more equity um and and let's
12:11be you know let's celebrate and be unapologetically who we are yeah i want to shift gears a bit and i was
12:18watching it was i think it was an espn feature a couple days ago and there's a professional soccer
12:24player she recently retired she was like i think late 30s or whatever or perhaps and she wanted to
12:29be a mom and ultimately she had to go through a very you know um stressful we know ivf can be
12:35stressful but she had to go through ivf and and she was saying that she assumed because she was a high
12:39level athlete that motherhood would just happen for her when she was ready so her plan was play
12:44high level play retire boom baby and it didn't happen for her that way and as i was watching her
12:50tell her story you know i think about as an athlete sometimes we get so sold into the fact that our
12:56bodies haven't failed us in our particular sport that they may not have challenges later on so with
13:02that being said what say you two women who are who are competing at a high level in sports right now
13:07who may want to be mothers who may not necessarily be doing some of the checks that they need to the
13:11fertility checks or checking in with their doctor just to kind of get a real understanding of their
13:15numbers and who are assuming oh it could just happen for me i'm an athlete i'll be good what say
13:19you to them yeah i mean i think there we need to really i think we're doing a disservice to our
13:25female athletes you know these are conversations that we have to have so early on and i think it's
13:30all about choice you know if you choose to be a mother if you have that desire or if you don't but i think
13:36the resources we need to offer whether it's egg retrievals thinking about these things early on
13:42so that we can have the options because it's heartbreaking to give yourself to your sport for
13:48so many number of years and then when it's time where you really want to lean into family and
13:53and exploring that um not to have as many opportunities i went through an ivf journey myself
13:59and i know how challenging that can be and so i really think that we have to offer more opportunities
14:04and also have the conversations much earlier yeah when we talk about opening up that door
14:10of opportunity when we think about advocacy and even the work that you that you do even i mean this
14:15is advocacy what you're saying right now um how important for it is how important is it for you
14:19to continue to kind of help stand and stand in the gap or spread that awareness when it comes to
14:24to women advocating for themselves for their health especially if they're mothers expected
14:29mothers or want to be mothers it's huge i mean what i have seen is that
14:34they're the systems in place are not made for women athletes to continue through motherhood
14:40um it's just it's just not how it was built and so to have a voice as you know as we're trying to
14:47change some of these things and someone to really stand up and say i've actually lived this and this is
14:52what's helpful and you know this is what you know athletes need i think it's really crucial we were able to
14:57bring a nursery to the paris games and it was a huge win you know to be able to say and it was
15:04also mind-blowing that like how did this not happen until you know 2024 um but i think that's a great
15:11example of saying okay i'm gonna raise my hand and say like i think that this is something that
15:16needs to be taking place yeah for sure another thing that needs to continue to take place is is
15:21the success that we're seeing black women in particular have on on the track i was just
15:25enamored by the paris games and in in the track and field and in the representation and it just
15:31really made my heart glad and when you think about your own career and then where we're seeing track
15:36and field kind of go with black women uh female athletes in particular what say you to the growth but
15:41also the challenges that you know they face outside of motherhood that you'd like to see curved a bit and
15:47help them get some assistance with yeah i mean i i share that excitement um as you do you know we
15:53have such a a rich history you know in track and field and it's um it's incredible to see that on
15:59full display and to see these black women be celebrated um and and then to know that it's still
16:05there's still a lot of struggle and whether that is equal pay or opportunity outside of the olympic
16:11space um it's very competitive and um just being able to assist you know as we navigate
16:18this these challenging times i guess i would say um and so continuing to push the elevation of these
16:26athletes outside of just track and field and and really show the world you know um what great
16:32personalities um what great uh ambassadors these athletes are yeah and and a lot of times that that
16:39personality and that ambassadorship kind of ties into financial footing and or at least financial
16:44opportunities i was uh recently attended the grand slam track miami and i got a chance to talk to
16:49michael johnson just about what grand slam track is doing to assist these athletes and getting the
16:53exposure and hopefully some of them the brand opportunities so as someone like yourself who does
16:57an incredible job of building her own brand who's continued to align yourself um in a way that brings
17:03you a level of finance on and off the track what say you to the brand building side of the
17:09sport we know there's challenges but are there some areas where you get where you're encouraged and you
17:15hope athletes are encouraged as well yeah i'm definitely encouraged by um our track athletes what
17:22they're doing beyond the the field of play and so i think we're seeing a lot of them really showing
17:27their personalities creating their own content um building brands and stepping outside of this hat of
17:34only being an athlete and we're really learning about them and i think that that can be the
17:38challenging thing about the olympics is that for a lot of viewers they have this two-week window where
17:43they they watch you but if we can expand that and i think grand slam track and other leagues that are
17:49popping up are are great examples of that because it really takes us outside of the olympic cycle and
17:55says these are the same athletes and this is what they do you know in between the olympic years and
17:59we're getting a glimpse inside of their life and we really need to lean on that and i think it is
18:04a huge upside that that is starting to happen yeah you're such an anchor allison and you take it on
18:11the chin you're so humble um for those who don't know before we before we got going with this interview
18:16we were fangirling out one of our amazing editors answered that myself for fangirling uh before we got
18:21started and you were just so so gracious and humble and and and with that said you know i think
18:27sometimes we're so we're so great we don't necessarily sit in it enough to realize how important
18:32we are to to that next generation you are vital um to this this up-and-coming generation of athletes
18:38not just track and field um do you feel that that sense of vitality and also what's the importance for
18:44you and making sure that you continue to build bridges uh not only with where you are presently
18:48but with those that are coming behind you well i appreciate that i received that um i i guess for me
18:55it's there have been people who have paved the way and poured into my life jackie joyner-kersey has been
19:01a mentor a friend to me um since my very beginning and i think she really just taught me what mentorship
19:08looks like and and what a true role model is and so um i do my best to be available to all the current
19:15athletes um that they can reach out and if i can assist in any way and then i i i do my best to fight
19:21for them you know behind the scenes as well and so the legacy is so important to me and i i just want
19:26to make sure that they have a great path and um don't hit some of the barriers that a lot of us
19:32have have faced before them we talk about we talk about legacy it's almost like you you led me to
19:37to my closing question um with that said you know when people when people mention alison felix the the
19:44track star um you know we obviously understand you know how iconic you are just just from a metal
19:50and performance standpoint but is there one word that you you'd love to hear when it comes to
19:55just what you've been able to do on the track and also one word that that speaks to what you've been
20:00able to do off of it i think on the track you know i hope you know i'm remembered as being fierce
20:07a fierce competitor um and and off of the track you know i hope that people see that i've really tried
20:13to advocate advocate for for other women mothers um and and just try to leave things better than i found
20:20them yeah we see you for sure i want to make sure people can um lock arms with you if they want to
20:27connect with you um and with all the great work that you're doing how can they do that yes um you
20:32can follow me everywhere at alison felix and um at seish.com and always alpha.com alison felix it
20:41happened i still can't believe it but i appreciate it nonetheless enjoy your spring slash summer and thank
20:48you so much for the conversation thank you for having me
20:51you
Recommended
5:39
|
Up next
1:03
10:15
0:30
2:07
9:45
1:20
1:04