Nike's maternity ad is an opportunity to hold the brand accountable, track and field icon Allyson Felix says

• Nike released a new, minute-long commercial celebrating pregnant women and mothers as athletes.
• Allyson Felix - a top USA Track & Field sprinter - called the ad "brilliant" but "hard to watch."
• Felix was once sponsored by Nike and since battled the brand over athlete maternity protections.

Nike's new maternity ad celebrates pregnant women and new mothers as the premier athletes in our society.

But for Allyson Felix - who has long been the face of Track and Field in the United States and waged an ugly public battle with Nike over maternity protections - the minute-long video is "brilliant" but "hard to watch."

"I think you should watch this ad," Felix wrote on Twitter. "It reminds mothers that they are athletes. It celebrates mothers. It speaks truth. It's powerful. It's brilliant marketing. I agree with every word in this ad."

"I also think you should watch this ad so that you will hold Nike accountable for it," she added.

-Allyson Felix (@allysonfelix) March 15, 2021

Felix is one of the most decorated sprinters in history, and Nike capitalized on her dominance for most of the 2010s with a seven-year sponsorship. She was "one of Nike's most widely marketed athletes" in that span, a fact that was clearly established by the time she decided to start a family in 2018.

Coincidentally, Felix's Nike contract expired in December of 2017, leaving her in the midst of contract negotiations with the brand throughout her pregnancy. And in a bombshell op-ed she wrote for The New York Times back in May of 2019, Felix alleged that the company was far from supportive of her newfound status as both an athlete and a mother.

Nike offered her a 70% pay cut in her new deal. And when Felix asked the brand to "contractually guarantee that I wouldn't be punished if I didn't perform at my best in the months surrounding childbirth," Nike refused to do so.

"If I can't secure maternity protections, who can?" Felix wrote in her piece.

The six-time Olympic gold medalist and record 12-time gold medal recipient at the World Championships eventually signed a deal with GAP's Athleta brand. However, she still managed to exact change within her former sponsor's ranks and across the industry.

Her story in The Times sparked public outcry and prompted Nike to announce a new maternity policy for its sponsored athletes. The brand guaranteed compensation for the 18 months surrounding childbirth, and other companies followed suit.

Now, some two years later, Nike is spotlighting pregnancy and motherhood within athletics "but seems to ignore the struggle it took to get to this point," Felix wrote in a Twitter thread.

"My experience, along with many others, forced NIKE to support athlete's maternity," Felix continued. "And when I watch this ad, it doesn't seem to acknowledge that war."

-Allyson Felix (@allysonfelix) March 15, 2021