LUMBERTON — Lumbee gymnast Ashton Locklear will be in Lumberton on Saturday to meet and greet fans in celebration of the release of the new Nike N7 summer clothing line.
The 19-year-old Hamlet native and member of the Lumbee tribe will be at Hibbett Sports, located at 5045 Fayetteville Road in Lumberton, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday.
In February, Locklear inked a deal to become the newest Nike N7 brand ambassador. Nike N7 launched its summer line on Wednesday.
Locklear was an alternate to the U.S. women’s gymnastic team at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. She was a member of the U.S. gold medal winning team at the 2014 World artistic gymnastics championships and won gold on the uneven bars at the 2014 and 2016 U.S. national championships.
After the summer Olympics in Rio, Locklear participated in the 36-city Kellogg’s Tour of Gymnastics Champions from September through November with the USA gymnastics Final Five gold medal team from the 2016 Rio summer Olympics. She also attended the Dream Catcher Fund Gala in Ontario, Canada where she was a guest of honor.
Sam McCracken started the idea of Nike N7 in 2000, with the idea to sell Nike products directly to Native American tribes to support health promotion and disease prevention programs. Seven years after Nike’s Native American division began, the Nike design team collaborated with various community experts and tribal leaders to create footwear specifically for the Native American community, called Nike Air Native N7.
All proceeds from the Air Native N7, which is sold through Native American community centers and tribes, are given back to youth sports and physical activity programs in Native communities across North America through the N7 Fund, according to the the N7 website.
