What’s the inspiration behind Atlanta United’s insanely cool new scarf?

When Decatur-based artist Sanithna Phansavanh was asked to design an Atlanta United scarf to honor Asian American Heritage Month this year, he knew exactly where to look for inspiration: his mom’s closet.

Sanithna told 285 South he debated between making it more “encompassing of all Asian people” – or something more personal to him and his parent’s Lao heritage. He went with personal. “I went into [mom’s] closet, looked at her skirts and her sashes, which are garments that are worn by a lot of Lao people for different ceremonies. And so I actually ended up using some of the patterning from her fabrics into the front of the design.”

The scarf is currently being sold at games in the Stadium, and will be available at the Atlanta United team store when the new location opens at Atlantic Station on May 16.  

Sanithna, who grew up all around the Atlanta area (Clarkston, Buford Highway), also asked his mom for help directly – though he’s not sure she understood what, exactly, she was working on: “I don’t think she totally under[stood] the impact of it, or the meaning of it. I think she just [saw] her son just doing something for fun.”

Regardless, they got to work, sitting down together and talking through how to represent their native Laos. “I came with her with a bunch of ideas, and I was like, do you think this would fly? And she’d say, No. Do you think this would fly? She’d be like, okay.” They decided to include the words Atlanta United, in Lao script (which his mother translated), and an image of a phoenix, a mythological bird, representing rebirth and renewal – since many of the tattoos, called sank yat tattoos, of monks and warriors in Laos featured animals and symbolized protection. It’s not surprising he chose the phoenix. “My mom escaped Laos, she crossed the Mekong River to escape Laos under armed guards,” he said, referring to the civil war in the small Southeast Asian country, that had become a front for the U.S. and Russia during the Cold War. When she got to the U.S., Sanithna said, she had to start over. “My mom is a resilient woman, and so I’m completely proud of everything that’s come before me.” 

Sanithna has been involved in Atlanta’s creative community for a decade, working on everything from animation to mural art to graphic design. He admits his mom especially, was unlike a lot of Asian parents – she never pushed him into more traditional careers. “She was surprisingly supportive…she never talked down to what I wanted to do… which I give all kinds of credit to her.” Though, at one point she did suggest he should consider a more stable government job, like at the postal office, “something with benefits and things like that,” said Sanithna, laughing. 

The final design for the scarf was true to Sanithna’s original vision. The front side is red and gold (colors that are prevalent in Laos, he said, “I love that it aligns with United’s color palette”), enhanced with traditional Lao patterns that were inspired by his mother’s traditional clothes. The reverse shows the sank yat tattoo-inspired design – the stunning red phoenix on a field of gold. 

“When the tattoos are given, chanting is done to bind the blessing to the skin,” Sanithna explained. “Atlanta” and “United” are translated into Lao and written below the phoenix illustrations. I wanted to parallel the blessings of sak yant chants to matchday chants.”

Sanithna himself has sank yat tattoos inked on each arm, a gift given to him from his uncle, who was inspired by Sanithna’s grandfather, who was a shaman. “He would go into caves in the woods for months on end to learn with the masters out in the forest and things like that. So there’s a lineage.” 

Sanithna didn’t actually see the scarf wrapped around the necks of fans until last Saturday at the Atlanta United game, when it made its official game day debut. He described the experience as “surreal.” 

“Just going into the stadium and seeing tons of people holding the scarf, as a creative person, it’s, I don’t know if I have the right adjective for it, but it’s, it’s really uplifting to see.” The Atlanta United team, he said, “went above and beyond to make me feel appreciated.” 

One moment in particular has stuck with him from that night. It was at the stadium store – where he was recognized and fans started asking him to sign their scarves, which turned into an “impromptu signing session.”

“There was a woman there who, the next day, was going to go to have surgery for brain cancer. She was telling me that on that sign by the kiosk – there’s a little blurb about how the phoenix represents renewal and rebirth – that she wanted to have the scarf with her after her surgery, for that reason.”

He was struck. “We were sort of sitting there and having this really human moment and connecting over a scarf.”

His mom, for her part, hasn’t actually seen the scarf yet.

“I’m going to see her this weekend for Mother’s Day…I want to sit down and explain to her everything that happened, and so I’m going to see her this weekend, and I’ll see how she feels about it.”

Postscript 5/26/2025

After Mother’s Day, Sanithna shared a photo of his mother, who wore the scarf for the first time.