Alan Lebowitz

As an industrial designer at Wilson Sporting Goods, SA alum Alan Lebowitz has had the opportunity to work on products for the NBA, NFL, NCAA, and Roger Federer as well as other tennis racquets used by professionals and amateurs. Alan says that he is fortunate to get to work at a job that blends his interests of design and sports.

Pictured above: Alan with the Larry O’Brien Trophy at the NBA Headquarters in NYC; Alan and his wife, Angelica, who is also a designer and architect; a Louis Vuitton X Wilson collaboration basketball that Alan helped to design; The Wilson Shift tennis racquet, the newest Wilson tennis racquet that Alan helped to design; The Wilson basketball pump and backpack (with concept sketches) Alan designed for the initial partnership between Wilson and the NBA in collaboration with Kith.

Alan shares:

“When my family and I were moving to Salisbury before my seventh grade year, I was fortunate to be welcomed into the Salisbury Academy family. I have always loved to play sports, and I couldn’t have been luckier to land in the class at SA that I did within the supportive SA school community. My class was full of great athletes, and we loved to compete with each other and also play together on school teams. In the eighth grade I was a part of the first SA men’s basketball team, and we won the conference championship. I remember those games being some of the most fun parts of my middle school experience.”

“Additionally, I had always enjoyed art throughout school. When I was looking into majors, I learned about industrial design and quickly knew that I wanted to take a stab at getting into the program at the College of Design at NC State. Industrial design is like being an architect, but for the design of everyday consumer products. It is a blend of art, engineering, and marketing. When I arrived at design school at NC State, it was a difficult experience for me initially. That said, I knew from growing up playing sports that improvement is a slow process. It doesn’t happen in one day. I am very proud to have stuck with it, and I graduated from the College of Design Summa Cum Laude and received the Faculty Award of Achievement for my design work.”

“After college, I moved to Chicago to pursue career opportunities and take on the new adventures of living in a big city. After working as a designer at a few different companies, I was able to land my current job as an Industrial Designer at Wilson Sporting Goods. I have had the opportunity to travel all across the U.S. and Asia to test our products and visit our manufacturing facilities. My job consists of conducting research to identify new product opportunities, working on new product concept sketches and brainstorming with my teammates, creating 3-D CAD models of designs and specifications for manufacturing, communicating with manufacturers to get the products made correctly, reviewing samples, and testing the designs with athletes. My favorite part of my job is getting to share in excitement with athletes when they are enthusiastic about the new designs that my team and I have worked hard to make happen.”