Allyson Felix takes a dig at Nike years after the pay-war with brand - "They are this huge company, they should be leaders in supporting moms"

Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix recently took a dig at her former sponsor, NIKE, over the remuneration issues that arose between the two parties after the end of their contract in 2017.

Following the end of the deal between Felix and the brand in 2017, NIKE pressured the track and field athlete to take a huge pay cut from her contract as she was expecting to be a mother then which Felix rejected leading to a fallout between the two parties.

Speaking in a recent interview regarding this several years later, Allyson Felix stated that the brand NIKE is huge in magnitude and stature owing to which it should be an icon in showcasing the support to the mothers in the track circuit.

Besides, Felix also mentioned that even though the brand has been driving its initiatives in that sphere recently, the motive of the brand is not genuine. She said (via Glamour):

"I mean, it was such a fight. You want them to change and embrace it. They’re this huge company. They should be leaders in supporting moms. But it feels like women’s sports is having a moment and now they’re showing up. It just seems like, if it was authentic, it would have been done a long time ago."

Following the fallout between Allyson Felix and NIKE, the Los Angeles native ran under the sponsorship of Athleta. Later in 2020, she founded the shoewear brand Saysh along with her older brother and two-time World Athletics Junior Championships medalist Paul Wesley Felix.

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Allyson Felix opens up about her motivation to launch her brand Saysh in 2020

Felix during the 4x400m relay finals at the 2020 Tokyo Olymppics (Image via: Getty Images)

Allyson Felix recently opened up about the motivation behind the idea of curating her own shoe brand Saysh in 2020. Felix also used the shoes of her brand at the last quadrennial event of her career in Tokyo where she clinched two medals.

In an interview with Media Brief, Felix stated after the launch of The Saysh One (the first shoe chain under her brand) that she launched this brand to help mother athletes in the track circuit so that no other athlete has to hide their pregnancy from their sponsors.

She said:

"I started this brand for you, so no one has to wake up at 4:30 am just to hide their pregnancy from sponsors."

Allyson Felix has been a strong advocate for the proper support of mothers in the track circuit and her inputs as an IOC member were also on display at the 2024 Paris Olympic Village where a Pampers Nursery was set up for the small children in the Village.