Meet the Team: R&D's Chloe Lee

How a D-1 tennis player became an Advanced Materials Engineer at Wilson LABS.

For Chloe Lee, things in life seem to come full circle. Born into a family of tennis players, it only seemed natural that Lee would find herself in the same position.

Born in New Mexico, Lee found herself falling in love with Rutgers University after only one visit. The day after her official visit in New Brunswick, Lee committed to Rutgers, canceled the rest of her official visits, and spent four years as a member of the Scarlet Knights’ tennis team.

It was at Rutgers that Lee found a passion for material science with a focus on nanomaterials. In a small program of roughly 30 people, Lee found that her professors and advisors allowed a much more flexible schedule with her athletics.

Although physically exhausting, her collegiate athletics career isn’t something Lee would exchange for the world.

“If you told me that I could go back and be a freshman again, I would do it in a heartbeat,” Lee said. “The environment, the whole concept of college athletics is so cool and so fun, and everyone should try to get involved if they can.”

But looking back, college athletics were no joke, especially being sore and tired all the time. Playing a sport for 15 years can lead to high expectations making it both physically and mentally exhausting. A pro career wasn’t in the cards, so Lee decided to enter the workforce.

ENTER WILSON:

Originally, she applied for a marketing internship and figured she would try to work her way into innovation and the R&D side. She knew that eventually, she would find a way to do something that relied on her degree; she just had to find her way in the door.

Instead of landing the marketing internship, the hiring manager for the position and HR took notice of Lee’s background and passed her resume on to someone in the innovation center. The LABS team saw potential in Chloe, and they reached out and asked her to apply to a different job that they had posted - one that would use the engineering skills she had learned throughout her four years as a material science major.

Just like that, her job search had come full circle.

Moving to a new place and no longer being a competitive athlete didn’t stop Lee from being around the game that she loves. Knowing some Northwestern players through their Big Ten connection, she reached out and would practice hitting with them occasionally.

“I started approaching tennis as a fun thing that I am good at instead of approaching it as a ‘this isn’t a fun thing I need to be better at,’” Lee reflected. She began to approach the game with a completely different mentality, and it’s just that - an approach. Not only does she love tennis, but she gets to work in it, too.

As an Advanced Materials Engineer at Wilson, Lee works primarily in tennis balls, golf balls, and pickle balls. A lot of her job includes testing materials, working with outside vendors, reaching out to get information for products, and working with outside companies to get feedback on Wilson products.

Her tennis experience has also been a huge help in developing and playtesting products. Rather than asking what a “dead ball” is when being tested, Lee knows what that means and what needs to be done to fix it. It’s also enabled her to be invested in tennis in an entirely different way.

“People are so into the tech story, and they want the next best thing. They want to geek out on it. That’s what I used to do. I used to geek out so badly on my equipment,” Lee said. “It’s so nice to be on that side of it, and now I still get the same excitement out of it, and I get to tell other people.”

She still gets the thrill of being in tennis. Being part of the Wilson team gives her a competitive attitude as she continues to be heavily involved, traveling for tournaments and rooting for Wilson Advisory Staff. “I’m still as invested as I was,” Lee said. “Just in a different way.”

The fast-moving environment at a place like Wilson has helped ease her transition from the crazy pace of college athletics. It was almost natural.

“I think college athletics could have prepared me for any job,” Lee said. “Wilson, obviously, was the perfect job.”