With just a few weeks until Hamilton’s Canadian Premier League club plays the inaugural match, Forge FC showed fans what threads they will don on the pitch.
Custom-designed Macron playing kits were unveiled Thursday for the CPL’s seven founding clubs: Forge FC, HFX Wanderers FC, York9 FC, Valour FC, FC Edmonton, Cavalry FC, and Pacific FC.
“Collective in-depth research went into the creative process for each kit that features the symbolism and identity of each club within the design,” the Canadian Premier League said in an official statement.
“The wide range of vibrant and exciting colours, all enriched by design elements including pinstripes, tonal shading, mélange and camouflage effects, are sure to be crowd-pleasers on and off the pitch. Each jersey is inserted with a unique graphic symbol, image or letter that is representative of the club’s identity, paying homage to the cities where the clubs will play.”
The design choice for Forge FC’s kits was headed by Greg Dunnett, the club’s senior director of business operations. He was part of a group of CPL team officials that travelled to Macron’s headquarters in Bologna, Italy.
Forge FC has already confirmed that an alternate kit will be unveiled, honouring Hamilton’s sports history; a not-so-cryptic clue that fans will be able to get their hands on a black and gold version in the near future.
Official comment from Forge FC on the home kit:
Inspired by the Forge FC crest; steel and flame meet in spark orange to celebrate Hamilton’s industrious history and the energy of Hamiltonians. The city was built around the steel industry – inside the foundries and mills, with each strike of the hammer, the values that define Hamiltonians were forged: hard work, creativity and ambition. The back features the club’s secondary logo; a forge hammer that’s handle bares six strips of tape representing the six communities of Hamilton. The hammer is symbolic to the Hamilton story, the tool used to shape the city’s original industries, and also represents the ongoing shaping of new industries. The flame from the Forge logo is incorporated throughout the jersey in a tone-on-tone repeat pattern.
Official comment from Forge FC on the away kit:
A resilient community formed, creating a sense of pride in stating: “We’re from the Hammer.” Paying respect to Hamilton’s manufacturing heritage and the core values of Hamiltonians forged within the mills by introducing a fashionable mélange on a platinum steel jersey, inspired by the colour of the hammer. Today those same values are championing Hamilton’s ongoing renaissance.
“Designing the home and away kits was an incredible honour, and I’m confident we created and designed a jersey that reflects the city and will leave a legacy far beyond this first season,” Dunnett told CanPL.ca.
“But we had to design three kits where everyone else designed two – and on our home and away, we focused on the key components of our club, like our sparks and the hammer from our secondary logo, and expressed them on our kit.
“That third kit, though? We wanted to create a jersey that tied into the great sports community in Hamilton, with a history of Tiger-Cats and Steelers and the Bulldogs. Our third kit is an ode to our brother and sister clubs from our community. We’ll also tie it back into our tradition as an organization, that sporting history in Hamilton.”
Forge FC will host York9 FC at Tim Hortons Field in the Canadian Premier League’s inaugural match on Saturday, April 27 at 1 p.m.