Six-time Olympic medalist Aly Raisman traded the gymnastics floor for a fashion runway this week, walking in New York Fashion Week's Best in Show event alongside adoptable shelter dogs. The gymnast turned broadcaster and advocate has spent the past several years pushing animal welfare causes, and her latest turn under the lights doubled as a pitch for shelter dogs looking for homes.
Raisman's participation was covered by PIX11, whose report on the runway event ties her presence directly to BISSELL, the cleaning products company that named her its first-ever official brand ambassador in March. According to a company release distributed by PR Newswire, the partnership was built around a shared commitment to pets, with Raisman raising awareness for rescue adoption while also promoting BISSELL's pet-focused product lines. PIX11's report notes that Raisman has pursued broadcasting, fashion, and advocacy work in the years since her gymnastics career, and that her own rescue dog reshaped how she thinks about animal welfare.
A Personal Story Behind the Advocacy
Raisman adopted her dog Mylo in October 2020, and the pup became something of a minor celebrity himself the following year. In July 2021, Mylo ran off after being spooked by Fourth of July fireworks in Boston, an ordeal that made national news, as reported by Bustle. He was found safe about a week later by two women after Raisman mobilized an extensive community search on social media, per the same outlet's account.
That scare fits into a broader seasonal pattern shelters see every summer. Per Kveller, U.S. animal shelters experience a 30% national surge in lost pet intakes between July 4 and July 6 annually, as loud fireworks displays frequently startle pets into panicking and escaping fenced yards or leashes. It's the kind of detail that helps explain why Mylo's story stuck with Raisman long after he made it home safely.
Fashion Meets a Nationwide Shelter Crunch
The Best in Show runway format itself is a relatively new invention. Fashion designers Rachel Antonoff and Susan Korn created the concept in September 2024 as a New York Fashion Week event pairing high fashion with adoptable shelter pets, according to Fashionista. Earlier iterations of the show partnered with New York rescue shelter Animal Haven, which supplied adoptable dogs walked by celebrities including Dylan O'Brien, Edie Falco, and Christina Hendricks, with sponsor Milk-Bone covering adoption fees, the outlet reported.
BISSELL Pet Foundation, the nonprofit arm tied to Raisman's brand partnership, has built a national footprint since Cathy Bissell established it in 2011. The foundation has impacted more than 1.2 million pet lives through adoption drives, spay and neuter clinics, and emergency disaster relief, and it also runs the fee-waiving Empty the Shelters program. Hoodline previously reported on a related effort when a multi-state puppy mill rescue brought 27 dogs into Nashville Humane with the foundation's direct support, and covered a St. Patrick's Day fee cut at a San Antonio shelter tied to the same Empty the Shelters campaign.
The Case for Spay and Neuter Access
The foundation's Fix the Future initiative focuses specifically on spay and neuter efforts and has supported more than 200,000 surgeries. In 2025 alone, the program completed 195,360 surgeries nationwide.
That kind of preventative work matters because shelters nationwide remain under real strain despite some recent progress. U.S. shelters recorded 5.8 million dog and cat community intakes in 2025, a 2% decline from 2024, while total adoptions rose slightly to 4.2 million animals, according to the ASPCA. Shelter euthanasia is also part of the national shelter picture, though conditions vary by region.
For Raisman, the runway appearance is one more high-visibility platform for a cause she has framed as personal rather than promotional, rooted in Mylo's brief disappearance and safe return years ago. As BISSELL Pet Foundation continues expanding programs meant to keep pets out of shelters in the first place, events like Best in Show offer a rare pairing of high fashion and real-time adoption visibility, giving shelter dogs a shot at being noticed by an audience that might not otherwise be looking.
