The capsule collection is being released a year after Nike was accused of discriminating against pregnant athletes the company sponsors. Until 2019, while Nike was celebrating women in sports, it also was privately cutting sponsorship funding to women athletes in track and field (via Sports Illustrated). Last year, Olympic runner Alysia Montaño said that while Nike marketing was celebrating her participation in the 2014 United States Championships in public, she was fighting to keep her sponsorship pay check in private (via The New York Times). The situation was so bad that Phoebe Wright, who was sponsored by Nike between 2010 and 2016, said: "Getting pregnant is the kiss of death for a female athlete. There's no way I'd tell Nike if I were pregnant."
Nike subsequently admitted that sponsored athletes had their payments reduced when they got pregnant, but it also said they adopted new policies in 2018 so athletes wouldn't be "penalized." The Times article triggered a congressional inquiry, and resulted in a new maternity policy for all sponsored athletes, which guarantees an athlete pay and bonuses for 18 months around the pregnancy.
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