When CITY SC plays on the road this season, players will take pieces of St. Louis with them.
In unveiling its away uniform on Friday morning during an invitation-only reveal at CITY Pavilion, the club illustrated the ways its secondary jersey pays homage to the region—and the people—it represents. Because it’s the uniform that will be worn primarily, if not exclusively, during road matches this season, the club and league outfitter Adidas collaborated to incorporate details that are distinctly and recognizably St. Louis, including nods to CITYPARK and the Gateway Arch.
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“We are a club that prides itself on the details,” says Matt Sebek, CITY’s chief experience officer. “Every single inch of that kit has been thought about, as far as what we wanted to signify, and the type of pride we want our players to feel when they go on the road. So we thought, certainly in our first season, it was important to tie it back to home and our stadium, even though we’re going to wear it on the road. That provided a really nice anchor.”
Dubbed the “Spirit Kit,” the gray jersey borrows its color from the Arch, while the pinstripes represent the steel beams that shape the team’s stadium. More than 5,000 tons of steel were used in CITYPARK’s construction, and the club used Friday’s announcement to thank its fans for their help in building the team, the facility, and so much of the culture from scratch. There’s also a patch on the back of the neckline that’s shaped like the Gateway Arch’s keystone. On it, the words “CITY Founder” serve as an additional thank you to the fans who supported the push to bring Major League Soccer to the region years ago.
“We set new records for ticket deposits for an expansion club here in St. Louis, and we call those people that have been here with us since the beginning our CITY Founders,” Sebek says. “They’ve helped us really lay the foundation for what we’re doing.”
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CITY closed 2022 with merchandise sales that ranked among the top five clubs in MLS, a feather-in-the-cap achievement for a franchise that’s still eight days away from playing an official game. Because MLS teams receive one new uniform every year, the road uniform unveiled Friday could become a collector’s item in short order. It will be worn only during the 2023 season before CITY rotates in a new away jersey for 2024.
“It’s a one-year kit, which I think put even more pressure on us to get it right,” Sebek says. “We really wanted to have it be the inaugural away kit. It’ll only be here for one year.
Accordingly, a “2023 Inaugural Season” patch on the bottom front of the jersey notes its significance. And like the home uniform, which was unveiled in November, the road jersey features prominent advertisements for Purina, BJC Healthcare, and Apple TV. Just as the first jersey reveal this past fall represented a major milestone for the expansion club, Friday’s unveiling symbolized exactly how close the club is to finally kicking off its long-awaited first season.
“It’s been three years of milestones, but it occurred to me this morning that this one means more,” Sebek says. “That’s because we now have everything we need to go start playing. We’ve got the uniforms and we’re ready to go.”
