Meet Khalia Ervin: Founder & Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Khalia Ervin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Khalia, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My thought process for starting Sankofa Athletics, LLC was to create an athleisure apparel brand that allows for athletes an non-athletes to feel represented. While simultaneously allowing me as the owner to give back to my community domestically and internationally.What should our readers know about your business?
Sankofa Athletic, LLC is a unity focused brand, founded in 2019 in Los Angeles, CA by Khalia Ervin. The brand’s name Sankofa is a word that originates from the Akan people of Ghana. The logo is an interpretation of an Adinkra symbol known as Sankofa. The symbol is designed with the bird’s head facing backwards signifying the importance of looking to the past. The egg represents useful knowledge. Therefore, the bird is looking to the past in order to retrieve useful knowledge to bring forth to the present. This signifies the brand’s motto “Future Movement” and “Look Back Give Back.” Our initiative sets us apart from other athleisure clothing brands. Our brand provides original designs, quality athleisure wear, and we are also focused on investing in our communities that are in need of assistance domestically and internationally. Our “Look Back Give Back” Initiative is dedicated towards assisting our communities, and the name of our initiative is a shortened definition of our company’s name and logo, “Sankofa!” Announcing our partnership with multiple non-profit organizations such as Maasai Water Project in 2020, and Lost N Found Youth in 2021. Also, my latest accomplish which was being apart of my very first Fashion Week (Bovtiqve Fashion Week). Has been two of the many proud moments, I have experienced. We believe that investing in your business means investing in other communities. That is why we have partnered with reliable non-profit organization that use their resources to assist others in need of basic necessities such as having access to clean drinking water shelter, and more.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would take my best friend to eat at some good Black Owned vegan restaurants, and vegan friendly restaurants. Atlanta has some really good vegan restaurants that most do not know about, but one popular one is Slutty Vegan. We would attend a list of museums especially the African American Museum. The night life in Atlanta is fun, so we would check out Piedmont Park at night and go bar hoping. Piedmont Park is also fun during the day, so we would go for a scooter ride during the day.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would love to shoutout my Alluvione Family they have been supportive in so many ways. I would like to also shoutout my former partner Brianna Releford she was my support system during the beginning stages of building Sankofa Athletics. Lastly, to all of the Sankofa Tribe who have patronized Sankofa Athletics, and continues to support Sankofa. I am thankful.

Website: https://sankofaathletics.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sankofa_athletics/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SankofaApparel

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SankofaAthletics/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVf64lpKFj1kCS_oB25AB2g?view_as=subscriber

Image Credits:
Daniel M.