Client • Saysh      — 2022
President & Founder: Allyson Felix
Creative Director: Bernise Wong, Harry Peacham 
Design Lead: Kayla Watson 
Associate Designer: Nisha Phongpetra
Photographer: Camila Falquez
 

Saysh Maternity Returns Policy: EQUALITY OVER ANTIQUITY

When women become pregnant, their shoe size often increases by half a size — or more. And the change tends to be permanent. From listening to our community, we heard that makes for an uncomfortable nine-month term.

Women shouldn’t have to shoulder the cost of that discomfort. Saysh was founded in response to inequality in the world of athletic sponsorship. But you don’t have to be a seven-time Olympic champion, like our founder Allyson Felix, to feel the inequality women deal with throughout their life.

That’s why, for every Saysh customer that becomes an expecting mother, we’ll send you a free, fresh pair of Saysh One sneakers in your new size. No strings attached. It’s our humble contribution to creating a more equitable future for women.

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This set is inspired by Renaissance paintings of the Virgin Mary, and Catholicism’s reverence of the Madonna. The tones are blues on blue, with splashes of contrast tones. The wardrobe is draping, layered, and opulent (as is Catholicism). The position is seated, and the light is still inspired by “chiaroscuro”, offering the viewer that sublime, divine glow.

We’re challenging culture here, as black women are absent from this period of European painting, and treating Allyson, as a mother, with the same reverence as Botticelli would treat the Madonna. That alone will be incredibly striking.

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This set is communicating Allyson as the Matriarch, as a counterbalance to the traditional patriarch. In this image the viewer should feel like they’re under Allyson’s protection.

Here we’re pushing an emotion, a tone, a stance that the brand is taking - to serve women better. Allyson is our flag bearer - evidenced in her activism with Nike, testifying at Congress over black maternal health, working with VP Kamala Harris for greater advocacy. Because of all Allyson has done, we have earned the right as a brand to treat her as a heroic matriarch.