The Truth Fits with Jennifer Sey
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Summary
In this episode of the Gains For Girls Podcast, join me as I interview the founder of Xxxy Athletics and author of "Unbuttoned" Jen Sayers shares her incredible story of growing up in a very abusive childhood and how she overcame it all to become a fearless advocate for women in sports.
Transcript
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welcome back to the gains for girls podcast uh you might have seen in the news recently
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that there is a new athletic wear brand i know i'm not talking about the likes of nike and adidas
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and lululemon that are totally woke and don't represent conservative values they don't represent
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women that's for sure uh but if you can tell by my shirt today that says woman tm because we have to
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trademark being a woman now uh this new athletic wear brand it does stand with women it stands for
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truth most importantly um it is called xxxy athletics it is head up by jen say she is the
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ceo and the founder of xxxy athletics uh she has been on the podcast before uh to share her story of
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being an athlete she was of course a national level gymnast she saw um all the effects that
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that came to light much after she experienced it with larry nasser and different things and
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and what was going on in her sport at that time and really the injustice that she and other of her
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teammates and competitors faced um her rise in levi's the denim brand which ultimately fell short
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because of her questioning um the process during covid and the pandemic but she is someone who has
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throughout her life been fearless and a wonderful advocate for again common sense values uh so this
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new athletic wear brand i'm an ambassador i'm a proud ambassador the quality is amazing the products
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are amazing i encourage everyone to go to the truthfits.com check them out sign up for emails make
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sure you're checking out social pages all the things uh but in the meantime check out my interview
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with ceo of xxxy athletics and author of levi's unbuttoned jennifer say well jen thank you so much
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for coming on the gains for girls podcast uh of course we've had you on before so i encourage everyone
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to go listen to your incredible and more in-depth story about your background as an athlete um of course
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you know experiencing the injustice in women's sports in a different way uh climbing your way to
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the top of levi's to ultimately be canceled for asking basic and sensible questions during the
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pandemic um but would you be willing to just share i mean a brief background on yeah how you were
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uniquely excuse me uniquely qualified to create xxxy athletics which is the only brand to stand up for
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women in sports now of course the shirts we're both wearing um what makes you qualified well the first
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thing is as you were as you alluded to i had a very unusual childhood i was an elite gymnast um i made my
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first national team at 10 years old so i was competing in the 70s and 80s i was 1986 national champion and i
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really started gymnastics not long after title nine was passed so you know i was the first generation
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really to enjoy the benefits of title nine which you know is at risk at this point um you know there's
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great risk at this point of protecting women's opportunities educational opportunities sports
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and spaces as is guaranteed by title nine so you and i both care a ton about that and i
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am so grateful that i came of age and i was able to experience the benefits of title nine so i was an elite
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athlete um gymnastics is a pretty brutal sport the training environment is abusive um i hope it's
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getting better um since it's been exposed uh but after 20 years having left the sport after 20 years
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i was still really struggling with issues of anxiety and self-esteem and all sorts of stuff from the
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abusive training culture and i ended up writing a book i just sort of sat down to make sense of how i was
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still feeling at 40 years old and it became a book and it was the first i was the first person to talk
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about the abusive training environment and this was in 2008 and i called out coaches who were known
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pedophiles and and rapists national team coaches very well respected coaches in the sport everyone knew
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but you were not supposed to talk about right he's respected you have to just keep this little secret so we
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can maintain the reputation of the sport and sponsorship dollars and so i was this was 2008
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so it was before me too you did not have to listen to women or respect women or any of that and i was
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dragged across the internet for the first time um for saying these very true things and standing up for
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girls and women competing in gymnastics and was not sort of redeemed until 10 years later when larry
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nasser went to prison for life at which point everybody pretended they'd always you know
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yeah they pretended but i remember but you know what we welcome new newbies to the fight i you know
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i try to be gracious about that even though i actually remember so um when i left gymnastics i
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went into the corporate world well first i went to college and then i went into the corporate world and
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i ended up at levi's in 1999 after a few jobs and i was so excited to work there i loved levi's i'd
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worn it my whole life growing up when i went to moscow in 1986 i brought 501s to trade with russian
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athletes that was like gold you know back in 1986 and so i was really thrilled it's a product i loved
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i'd always worn um i still wear i think it's a great product i still wear 501s it's my favorite jean
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um and i worked there 23 years and i am really really proud of the work i did there helped reinvigorate
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the brand helped them go public and in 2012 i climbed my way all the way up the ladder became chief
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marketing officer then brand president then i stood up for kids during covid that was a very
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unpopular position in san francisco where i lived and i was dragged across the internet for the
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second time by the citizens of san francisco and beyond and eventually i resigned so i could do my
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own thing and i've been making a movie called generation covid and i thought sorry this is longer
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than you asked for but i thought i would go back to work in the corporate world like i like working
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and i i had no issue like i love working in corporate america i like the support you have
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i'm good at it you know but for the last two years as i've been interviewing i just realized i couldn't
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go back to that like i needed to do it my way not just in terms of retaining my voice and all of that but
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i'm done with people telling me i'm doing it wrong i'm done with people telling me i don't know how
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to market to women or whatever thing i'm doing wrong today i'm 55 and i'm gonna do it my way so
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that's that's that's what we're doing here and i just looked around at all of these hypocritical
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athletic brands who pretend to stand up for women and not one from nike to lulu and everything in
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between has taken a stand to protect women's sports and spaces so here we are and you and i are doing it
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together thank you for being our ambassador our star are you kidding me i am proud to be an ambassador
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uh i think what's so unique about xx xy athletics is you know we've seen some very few brands you know
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try to become an alternative but the quality is not there or there's something that's missing but what
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you guys what you have created is amazing quality pieces while getting the message across which as
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you said is in total contrast with the likes of nike or adidas or lululemon um i just saw actually
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where you tweeted uh actually i saw it today on my on my home screen of my computer um i think it was
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from yahoo or someone that said um the headline was like controversial executive jennifer say
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launches new athletic wear line and i loved your tweet and response to this so can you just can
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you share what you tweeted i thought it was amazing if you remember i actually think it wasn't mine i
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think it was the brand which i'm not running the brand's handle on twitter um our amazing uh lead
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creative is running it brett craig he's amazing um it's i think that help help me remember i think what
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he wrote was given that truth is controversial these days we're honored to be called controversial or
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something like that we'll take it as a compliment because it's true truth is controversial saying
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which you have done and i have done that men and women are different is controversial even though
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ruth bader ginsburg said it a hero of the last she said the physical differences between men and women
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are enduring they are not fungible we can't say it now that is no longer true or acceptable so we'll take
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that insult or compliment or whatever you want to call it it's totally a compliment and yeah to your
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point you think of things like again these athletic wear brands uh these renowned athletic wear brands
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like nike like five six seven years ago these were brands that that proudly stated you know they supported
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women and now when women are really under attack in a different way like we we haven't necessarily
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seen before they've abandoned us or maybe they're still saying they are but their actions are not
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following their words same thing with the ncaa you know you mentioned title nine right title nine that
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national championships we competed at with of course thomas again male yeah uh with the women
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it was the 50th anniversary of title nine and so the ncaa was passing out these shirts that said
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title nine uh 50 years of creating opportunities for women uh as if that's what they were doing at this
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meet and the hypocrisy and the double standard and and really the emotional blackmail the propaganda
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behind that it blew my mind so you're exactly right about these brands yeah i mean the brands are all
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doing women's history month campaigns they pretend to champion women but i think outside of even
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this issue i think if you look at nike in particular um they treat women with absolute disregard internally
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there have been you know massive um scandalous reports in the new york times you know not like
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in these french publications about the way female executives have been treated and passed over and
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been made to kind of attend staff outings at strip clubs like really insane stuff uh famously allison
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felix you know the world's fastest woman at the time her contract wasn't renewed with maternity
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protections and mary kane a young runner who had been the best young runner in the world was abused
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in their in their running club so it's all a charade and i just want to say we're going to treat actual
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women with respect that work in the company it's female-led our head of design is a woman many of our
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leaders are women um and we're going to put our money where our mouth is we're going to you know
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work with women who speak up and and and and challenge these issues but others as well i mean
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we have other great ambassadors in the mix we have dr tabia lee who has also i think spoken inconvenient
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truths and have been very brave in that process and we have chloe cole um and some that are not not
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women and we're partnering with icons um which is a non-profit and they are leading the lawsuit against
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the ncaa that includes you and a portion of the proceeds from our collaborative t-shirt goes to
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them and we have some other exciting announcements coming about how we're going to actually put our
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money where our mouth is but i'm not gonna say it yet but i think the biggest thing we can do as a
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brand is normalize standing up for women and girls as showing that that is actually the compassionate
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point of view that is not mean-spirited that is compassionate to stand up and defend women and
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girls yeah and i think it's important what you mentioned about these brands like the alice and
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felix story i'd forgotten about that but you're right it shows how you know beyond just this issue
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this very common sense issue um it shows how they have continually and consistently failed
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mystery women um so that's important to mention i appreciate how you brought that up
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do you feel like i also think the governing bodies you mentioned the ncaa i just want to jump in and
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say the usoc and all the amateur sports governing bodies are also not standing up for women and this
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again does not surprise me usa gymnastics clearly did not stand for stand up for women and girls in the
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sport of gymnastics neither did usa swimming there was rampant abuse in both sports there continues to
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be but i think it's getting better and so it's not surprising to me that at this point those same
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governing bodies are not standing up for women and girls and even if you look even further than that
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and you think of someone like sharon davies or you know the 1960s 1970s olympics where we had the east
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germans doping um i mean essentially the same situation of course different but i mean you have
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someone who has an unfair advantage competing those same governing bodies failed even then so you're
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right we shouldn't be surprised by this honestly we should this is as expected um so it's up to us
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to really stand up and force their hand make them stand with women um that's right do you do you feel
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like this brand is almost like a culmination of everything you've ever done i i mean i feel like
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again given your background given how you have been someone who has freely expressed themselves
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previously i mean to me this just seems like a perfect culmination of you it does feel like that
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and i'm having so much fun i mean working with you and paula and everybody else that i named and my
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team which is tiny but like so hard working and so talented and so skilled and for me you know when
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you're when you're an executive in a large company you spend a lot of time in boardrooms
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doing powerpoint presentations and figuring out who's next to be laid off and you get very removed
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and i say this as someone who's been on the board of other companies like i'm not i'm not talking about
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levi's i'm not talking i it's just how it is you get very disconnected from the work that you love
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doing which is for me making amazing product that people will love to wear and making amazing
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marketing that's going to inspire them and engage them and you know you mentioned earlier the quality
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of the product i don't want to be in the parallel economy i want to be in the regular economy i don't
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want to be in the corner with the weird little brands that are you know narrowly targeted like this
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is for everybody it's just it's not political it's not right it's not left it's just true
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speaking of like the response you've received thus far and like in the public like
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how have sales been i want to hear what the feedback that you've gotten
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the sales have been amazing i think we've done like almost three weeks of sales in three days
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uh so that's pretty outstanding we're we're scrambling to get more product back in stock
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which is a really good problem to have certainly better than the opposite but i have actually been
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surprised at the the positive outpouring um i mean i knew that there was a hunger for something
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like this but there's been very little negative and i've heard from so many you know people that
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i competed with back in the day so many gymnasts very high level gymnasts coaches um a lot of lefties
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from san francisco just people who are like yeah right on this is common sense so again you know i i just
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80 percent of americans agree with us and they're a little bit afraid to come out of the closet and say so
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because you get called names but hopefully this can help normalize it you know and i like i said
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i've heard from people from all backgrounds most of the people that i've known in my life are lefties
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i spent my life as a lefty and that's a lot of the outpouring of support i've heard and there's just
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been very little negativity so it's been um amazing an amazing three days so far well that's wonderful
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um you mentioned some stuff on the horizon but i guess what you can share you know what can we expect
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from the brand moving forward i've seen some people saying you know like what about some more men's
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stuff and i've seen some corresponding there so what can we expect um as xxy athletics continues to grow
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and flourish yeah well you can expect that we'll be back in stock on anything we're out of stock and
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very quickly we've got a second drop coming and that's real performance product so that's leggings
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and bike shorts and performance fabrics and in tanks and and and tees and lots more men's product as
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well men's cotton product as well as performance products so there's a lot i will say we're also
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tracking all the responses and there's a lot of women who have said i love the tees but i want something
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that's a little longer i don't feel as good about my tummy as it used to so we heard you and we're
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coming with that we'll have another drop in october that's holiday oriented so a little more lush
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fabrics a little shine a little sparkle you know to make it fun for the holiday season the other thing
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i wanted to add is the other little bit of feedback or questions that we've gotten around ethical
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sourcing um oh you probably this is from haters you know you probably make everything in china
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we do not none of our apparel is manufactured in china this first drop is manufactured in peru
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all of our factories believe in ethical sourcing and they are uh third party certified by an
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organization called wrapped which is worldwide responsible accredited production so you know this
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is not fast fashion we are making product as you indicated of the highest quality and uh we're making
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it with partners that believe in ethical sourcing so you should feel good about buying it that it's aligned
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with your you know beliefs and it's really really great product and it's made ethically amazing um well
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that's all wonderful stuff how can we uh as everyday people you know support you xxy athletics and in turn
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support women's sports and like you said the sanctity of truth itself yeah that's the thing and we'll start
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messaging about other truthy related truth related things not just the protection of women sports and
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spaces but uh sex being binary is such a fundamental truth we thought we'd start there right so if you go
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to the truthfits.com that's our website and you can buy product um there is a save women sports tea
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which is out of stock right now but the proceeds from that will go to support icons so you can support
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icons and riley in the lawsuit against the ncaa if you purchase that product uh follow us on socials
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that is at xx underscore xy athletics across every social and sign up for email so you know when new
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product drops because there's going to be a lot of new product flows everyone needs to do those things
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uh follow on social go to the truthfits.com signing up for emails is huge i'm sure there will be
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different promos and deals and of course product drops so um make sure you're you're signed on to
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these things because again uh it's important to put your money where your values are um i think for too
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long we haven't had that alternative so we've kind of gone along to get along type thing but now it's
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here um it is right in front of our faces and to ignore it is to continue contributing to the problem
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ultimately so um jennifer you're amazing you're the best you have just uh really blown me away with
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of course your grit and your resiliency and determination and willingness to say what so
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many people think um but now on a broader scale even and you're wearing it on your shirt i'm wearing
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it on my shirt um so riley's shirt is awesome if you if you can't see it it says woman tm because
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apparently you have to trademark being a woman these days well you're incredible and i think
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everyone should get this shirt again the quality is amazing i am a proud ambassador of xxxy athletics
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along with chloe cole along with paul scanlon you've mentioned some of the ambassadors now um so some
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really awesome people who are on board we've seen an outpouring of support from people like sage
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sheil and megan kelly um there's been some awesome write-ups written about the brand i encourage
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everyone to look it up um and support this brand it's um it's amazing so thank you jen you're the
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best and we are so grateful for you and what you continue to fight for um it's so needed so thank you
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thank you riley you've made this uh this issue you've brought it to the forefront and you talk about
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it in the simple terms that it deserves which is why i think it really resonates this is not
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complicated sex is binary men and women are different it's not hard boom so i'm glad to be
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in this fight with you if you want to support women uh if you want to support truth if you want to
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support common sense uh make sure you check out the truthfits.com again the product is awesome the
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ambassadors are incredible all wonderful people jennifer say is amazing uh make sure you're
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signing up for emails checking them out on social uh it's important like i like i mentioned in the
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interview it's important to put your money where your values are that is how we fight back that is
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how we shift the culture is with our dollars because that is what drives everything is money
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um so put your money where it matters uh but in the meantime we thank you for joining the podcast
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make sure you like and subscribe anywhere where you get your podcasts apple spotify check us out
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at outkick.com and we will see you again next week