Allyson Felix felt invisible during pregnancy - now she wants to help women celebrate their victories

Allyson Felix felt invisible during pregnancy - now she wants to help women celebrate their victories

For many people, pregnancy is a time of anticipation and excitement about sharing the news with friends and family. But in the first months of pregnancy with her now three-year-old daughter, professional track and field athlete Allyson Felix only trained before sunrise to avoid being seen.

“I hid my pregnancy and training where no one could see me,” says the five-time Olympian. "I spent a lot of time at home. And that time that really should have been celebrated was really isolating and really lonely."

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Unfortunately, Felix's pregnancy experience was the norm among female athletes in their sport at the time. But today, she sees more mothers in athletics who deserve recognition — a change that's partly due to Felix's own commitment to speaking out against gender inequality.

“[Back then,] it was really the culture of athletics,” she tells Shape. "I had been a professional since I was a teenager and I had seen women hiding their pregnancies because they would not be supported by it [pregnancy]. Either their contracts would be paused or they would not be able to sign new contracts."

Fearful that she would suffer the same repercussions, Felix delayed disclosing her pregnancy—particularly as she negotiated a contract extension with her sponsor, Nike (which Felix wrote about in a pivotal op-ed for the New York Times in 2019). Later, as she held her newborn daughter, Camryn, in her nursery, Felix realized she shouldn't hide or downplay her work — as a mother or as an athlete.

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“I sat in her bedroom and thought about this world she would grow up in,” Felix remembers. "I felt like I had achieved so many goals - I had already been to four Olympics, I had all the medals, all these so-called achievements. But when I decided to start a family, I no longer thought the fight would be so hard."

Then Felix decided it was time to get loud.

“My a-ha moment was looking at [my daughter] and saying, ‘I have to speak my truth,’” she says. “I have to share this struggle that I went through so that she and her generation don’t have the same struggle.”

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This realization is part of the inspiration behind her latest footwear launch for Saysh, the footwear brand Felix co-founded with her brother. With a leather upper and silk laces, the Saysh Two is a premium shoe designed to grab attention, says Felix.

“To me, [the Saysh Two] really shows how I found my voice and the idea that a lot of women's work is invisible,” she explains. “We really want to celebrate and see women.”

The sibling-run company was built out of Felix’s own frustrations with shoes for female athletes. “I was at a point where I didn’t feel valued, and I felt like my worth wasn’t seen,” she says. “I was preparing for my fifth Olympics and didn’t have a shoe sponsor, so my brother and I decided to do it ourselves.”

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Remarkably, up to this point, brands have not designed athletic shoes specifically for women's feet. Instead, women's shoes were made from a mold of a man's foot. With Saysh, Felix and her brother wanted to take the industry to a higher level by highlighting – and celebrating – the achievements of women.

While she may be a role model for other women who feel invisible, being in the spotlight hasn't always been easy for Felix. “It was scary at first, just because it was so out of my comfort zone and didn’t come naturally to me,” she says. "But after I wrote the op-ed [for The New York Times] there was an outpouring [of support] from other women who had similar experiences. I realized that on the other side of all that fear was freedom, and it felt really liberating."

Allyson Felix, a professional track and field athlete, five-time Olympian and co-founder of Saysh, ON SPEAKING AGAINST GENDER INEQUALITY

I realized that on the other side of all this fear was freedom.

— Allyson Felix, a professional track and field athlete, five-time Olympian and co-founder of Saysh, ON TALKING AGAINST GENDER INEQUALITY

Today, Felix is ​​learning her worth instead of letting others give her a price for her work. And along the way, she's proud to share her wins, big and small.

“Last year I was able to really accept some of my achievements and not shy away from them,” says Felix. "I'm sharing these moments with my daughter and ... just trying to use my voice more, whether it's for child care or for mom athletes."

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Your hope? That other women will be inspired by Saysh Two and her fight against gender inequality to raise awareness of their own hard work.

“I would really encourage [other women] to start really celebrating their victories, even if it's just in a small way,” says Felix. "You don't have to shout it from the rooftops, but there's something about honoring the hard work that we do. It doesn't have to be invisible. We should be proud of it, and it's about really taking the time and space to do that in some way."

And speaking of one of her own recent victories, Felix explains why the launch of this second shoe is so significant.

“My brother and I started this company and we are from the heart of LA,” she shares. "We haven't really seen the representation of people who look like us doing things like this. For me it's massive - beyond my wildest dreams...There [are] still so many things we want to do, but we're definitely taking the moment to celebrate this."