St. Louis CITY SC will sport a new look with this year’s edition of its secondary kit, honoring the legacy of global legend Tina Turner. Adorned in gold and outlined in CITY Red, the kit draws inspiration from Turner’s iconic style, highlighting the legacy of a music icon whose story is intrinsically tied to St. Louis.
The Queen of Rock ‘n Roll was a pioneer, a shooting star with credibility across genres, cultures, and color barriers, but most of all, her legacy is one of rebirth and perseverance. It’s that legacy that the club hopes to draw inspiration from as it sheds its expansion era reputation with eyes on the future.
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“There are a lot of people in St. Louis who don’t fully understand her story,” says CITY SC chief experience officer Matt Sebek. “Tina Turner is the perfect example of St. Louis as a city, focused on reinvention and rising again.”
The Background
Born in Brownsville, Tennessee, Anna Mae Bullock graduated from Sumner High School in 1958 and briefly worked as a nurse at Barnes-Jewish Hospital afterward. It was then that she met Ike Turner and performed with his band, the Kings of Rhythm, at East St. Louis’ Club Manhattan. She went through a few personas while providing backup vocals for the Kings of Rhythm. She eventually landed on the stage name Tina Turner after a chance opportunity to sing lead during a recording session for what would eventually become Ike and Tina’s 1960 single “A Fool in Love.”
Touring the country as the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, the group routinely appeared on R&B charts before achieving international success on Phil Spector’s Philles record label. Tina’s career reached new heights, breaking barriers as the first Black artist to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1967.
The list of accolades and accomplishments is a mile long. But it was after her split from Ike, following years of abuse and mistreatment, that Turner cemented herself as not only a pioneer of rock ‘n’ roll but an icon in the American cultural zeitgeist.
The Kit Collaboration
Turner’s first Grammy win came from the Ike and Tina Turner Revue’s performance of “Proud Mary,” after a 1970 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show propelled Tina Turner into the limelight. The gold dress that Turner wore on stage helped inspire CITY SC and Adidas in the design of the kit.
“We took a lot of inspiration from some iconic moments,” Sebek says. “We decided to lean into the gold of it with Tina Turner, her iconic dress, and the Grammys.”
The collaboration with Adidas marks the athletic brand’s first collaboration with a female music artist on a soccer kit. BMG, custodians of Turner’s music and image rights, also collaborated on the design.
The black-and-gold design mirrors the movement in some of Turner’s most iconic looks, while Turner’s signature accents the back of the kit. Her gold silhouette, outlined in the club’s primary CITY Red, appears on the kit’s authentication tag.
The Musical Collaboration
The kit is just one aspect of the club’s role in honoring Turner’s legacy this year. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and CITY SC present ‘Eternal: A Tribute to Tina Turner’ at the newly refurbished Powell Hall this Sunday, February 15. The concert, an “immersive symphonic tour” of Turner’s career, will be headlined by five-time Grammy winner Brittany Howard and arranged by guest conductor Anthony Parnther, who’s known for film scores such as Tenet and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Co-led by SLSO music director Stéphane Denève, the concert will feature myriad artists, including St. Louis native and The Voice finalist Kennedy Holmes.
Holmes is continuing a partnership with CITY that began when she performed the National Anthem ahead of the club’s inaugural home match. The vocalist has also become a frequent collaborator with SLSO, performing at Powell Howell during last year’s series of holiday concerts. The young performer is looking forward to paying homage to Turner, who blazed a trail with perseverance and reinvention.
“We’ve gone through a lot, we’ve had to try and be resilient, fight through a lot of things that are going around in this world, in our community right now,” Holmes says. “To be able to come together and honor Tina, someone who has opened a lot of doors for us, someone that, a little girl like me could look up to as inspiration for how to make our own way.”
Future Collaborations
The concert will be one of many ways that CITY SC hopes to honor Turner’s legacy. CITY SC x Tina Turner merchandise will be available at the club’s pop-up shop inside City Foundry through February 20. It will also display memorabilia from Turner’s estate, including a Grammy, one of her iconic dresses, and other artifacts from her career. The club will also host a Tina Turner night on August 22, when the club hosts the Houston Dynamo at Energizer Park.
Finally, CITY SC is collaborating with the Center of Creative Arts to fund a Tina Turner–focused music curriculum for kids and teens, with a portion of the proceeds from every Tina Turner kit sold.
“Not only did Tina Turner change music; she impacted culture over decades and continues to permeate it today,” says CEO Carolyn Kindle. “It is a profound honor to celebrate her influence and legacy. St. Louis has long been home to so many artists who have shaped music history, and Tina stands at the top of that list.”
