Exclusive: Allyson Felix Launches Her Own Shoe Company Two Years After Breaking Up With Nike

After leaving Nike in a high-profile breakup in 2019, American track star Allyson Felix—the country’s most decorated female track and field Olympian—couldn’t reach a sponsorship deal with any other footwear brands. So when the pandemic delayed Felix’s quest to make a fifth Olympic team last spring, she did something nearly unheard of in the sports business: Felix decided to build a shoe company of her own.

Today Felix—who on Sunday night finished second in the 400m at the US Olympic Track and Field trials, clinching her spot in Tokyo—will announce she is launching Saysh, a new lifestyle brand for women. The company’s first product, the Saysh One sneaker, is available for pre-order on the company’s website; for $150, consumers can purchase the shoe and a lifetime membership to the “Saysh Collective,” a digital subscription product that will offer perks like workout videos, opportunities to network with other Saysh members and have conversations with Felix and other newsmakers. (On its own, a Collective membership costs $10 per month.) Over the past few months Felix, who serves as Saysh president, and her brother and business partner Wes, who is CEO, raised $3 million in seed money from a broad range of venture investors. (Allyson, Wes, and Darren Breedveld, a former health care entrepreneur, are co-founders). Felix has been running in a Saysh track spike at the Olympic Trials, and she will do the same in Tokyo at the Games.

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