Alyssa Low is a multidisciplinary artist who—with a background in collegiate soccer and a well-established practice in murals and public art installations—has seen her work blanketing the Chicago skyline. She has teamed up with the Chicago Bulls, Chicago Blackhawks and the Chicago Fire FC to create collectibles that highlight her geometric designs and riotous colorways. Naturally, we thought it was high time she got into tennis so we asked her to create our first Lunar New Year collection. Usher in the Year of the Snake with our Racquet LNY drop: a tote, tee and poster series highlighting Alyssa’s striking and playful designs.
For Low, the connection between art and sport started early. “I grew up playing almost every sport—gymanstics, ice skating, field hockey. I was a gold medal junior Olympian in Tae Kwon Do. Soccer was the one thing I didn’t cry or throw a tantrum doing,” she says. “My mom was a graphic designer, and she owned her own business that ran out of our spare bedroom, so I was exposed to design and creativity and art at a young age.”
Her in-house art education began at home in Long Grove, IL – a suburb outside of Chicago, where creativity and design was encouraged, and her mother schooled her on art programs from a young age. The link between the two continued into her college experience, where she majored in visual communications and played DIII soccer, leading her squad to conference championships while nurturing an emerging artist sensibility.
“I found my people in college when being part of a team and a community happened concurrently, by parallel pathing my art and sports—I’ve always been multidisciplinary,” she says. “In the past few years I’ve embraced the two parts of my identity—within the design field I’m also split between being a designer and an artist, but in the last year I’ve felt like I can bring both of those sides of my practice.”
Her leap from design to painting happened during the pandemic, beginning with a mural during the 2020 elections; after that, commissions skyrocketed.
“I found that doing small drawings during that time helped me process what was happening in the world—and it translated into murals so that became my therapy,” she says. “It’s not a coincidence that my worlds of art and sports are colliding. I think it boils down to doing things that I love, which includes sports, and having sports organizations pay attention.”
Her relationship with the Chicago Bulls started at the end of 2022, when they hosted the first first Bulls Fest and Low worked with them to paint a live mural—work that led her to design one of the bespoke hats as in-game giveaways in 2024.
As her art career has exploded, she’s also been part of Chicago-area rec sports in big way—her Orange Slices soccer and Torta Lovers softball teams both go into 2025 as defending league champs, and she can also be found on the pitch repping women’s club That Dang Raccoon, Inter and Atlas FCs, as well as getting in some boxing on her off day. When asked if tennis would be joining her retinue of sports, she described herself as a fan first.
“My mom plays tennis and she’s tried to teach me, but I told her ‘I do things with my feet,’ so it’s still a sport I’m working on,” she says. “I picked it up again in the past few years and I work on my rallies and groundstrokes and serve, but mostly I follow it as a fan—I love certain athletes as a fan, especially the ones who disrupt the status quo.”
She cites Naomi Osaka and Nick Kyrgios as players she loves to watch—and of course Danielle Collins, another collegiate athlete, makes her first team.
Shop the Alyssa Low x Racquet LNY Drop
