Paying homage to the club’s earlier days, Philadelphia Union unveil their new primary jersey for the 2022 season, known as ‘For U’. The design sees the return of a prominent vertical stripe, reminiscent of the club’s inaugural jersey.
Philadelphia Union absolutely smashed it out of the park with their ‘BY|U’ secondary kit last year, which was designed start-to-finish by a group of fans, the Union Creators’ Collective. The UCC was established in 2019 and is made up of season ticket holders, Sons of Ben members, Union super fans, members of the media, and Union employees, and considering their success with last year's jersey it makes sense that the same process has taken place for the club’s new primary jersey, which sees the return of a vertical stripe for the first time since 2016, although it comes with difference.
Once directly down the centre of the jersey, the stripe now sits on the left side, over the heart, and is now “Signal Blue” with gold trim rather than the solid gold stripe that ran down the centre of the inaugural kit from 2010 and the following kits up to 2018. This change reflects the flags of the region and the colours of the club’s supporters group, the Sons of Ben. It also features a gold lightning bolt on the back of the neck, alluding to Ben Franklin's key and kite experiment – the main inspiration behind the ‘BY|U’ jersey.
As the club's most popular piece of iconography, the Union's snake has appeared in some shape or form on every primary kit since the inaugural kit in 2010, and this year it lives near the base of the kit on the jock tag.
“We started designing this kit before last year’s BY|U kit was released. We hoped the 2021 shirt would be successful, but had no idea how well received it would be,” said Chris Gibbons, Union Creators’ Collective member for both the 2021 and 2022 kits. “Following that with a primary kit, one where the identity of the team had to be front and centre, was a challenge. We almost unanimously wanted to bring back original elements like the vertical stripe, but in an updated way. In the end, we came up with something that will be immediately recognisable as a Union shirt, in person and on TV, a quality we listed a high priority.”
Pick up the Philadelphia Union 2022 Primary Jersey at mlsstore.com
