Nike has chosen the 2022 Miss Aloha Hula Piʻikea Kekīhenelehuawewehiikekauʻōnohi Lopes to be the new face of its indigenous collection.
According to Hawaii News Now, Lopes will be featured on Nike’s Times Square billboard performing her award-winning hula kahiko. She is the first Native Hawaiian to be a part of the brand’s N7 Fall collection.
Lopes, 22, is a student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa studying for her master’s degree in education, Maui Now reports. She won the 2022 Miss Aloha Hula title in April at the Merrie Monarch Festival after impressing judges with her mastery of the Hawaiian language ōlelo Hawaiʻi.
“It’s how I was raised and how I went through life and how my parents taught hula, how my parents taught language and spoke language at home,” she told Maui Now.
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