The Legacy Kit: Initial Reactions

One of the telltale signs that the start of the Major League Soccer season is upon us is the annual tradition of teams releasing their newest kits to fanfare and sometimes even dismay. It’s the time of year when fans from around the league critique the home or away jersey that their players will don for the upcoming season.

Thanks to an accidental leak from video game EA FC 24 that made public kits from various squads around MLS, savvy fans of Orlando City have had some low-resolution ideas of what the team’s new away kit could look like for several weeks now. It should come as no shock to anyone that planning, designing, and marketing a new kit is a gigantic undertaking, and I was a little saddened to see the leak hit the news. I had hoped that it wouldn’t ruin the magic or undermine all the hard work that the club had put into the debut.

Tucked away online in forums and chats, fans speculated and dissected everything from “spoil-gate” regarding the new potential kit. From the color combinations, to the design, and even to the crest logo, not an inch of the eventual jersey was left undiscussed. I would like to think that the potential kit created so much of a stir online prior to its release date because not only was its predecessor, “The Sunshine Kit,” an absolute banger, but also because this year’s new jersey will help usher in the 10th season in MLS for Orlando City.

Whatever the design of the kit was, it would bear the responsibility of uniting so many amazing moments throughout club history. The gravitas of the unveiling moment was certainly not lost on anyone associated directly with the club or the fans in attendance in downtown Orlando when the club debuted the Legacy Kit along with a walk down memory lane of all the jerseys that had come before.

I have spent some time with the authentic version of the Legacy Kit in my possession and my reaction to it has not wavered. The creative and marketing teams absolutely smashed this one out of the park. My biggest fear after viewing some of the low resolution leak images from a video game was that the base color would be plain white.

Up close, the light lavender of the jersey stands out immediately and makes a bold statement for an away kit. It ties in the purple, red, and gold perfectly. The colors give way to the amazing throwback crest, harking back to the initial birth of the club in a perfect synergy of past and present. I could not be higher on this jersey right now, and my wife didn’t even bat an eye when we got home from the reveal event only for me to put it on straight away.

If there are any doubters out there still at this point, I will simply add these two cents: you must see it in person, even the formal press release images do not do it enough justice.

“Honor thy history” is the inscription on the inside of the collar and I could not think of a better way for the club to do just that with this new Legacy Kit. Let us know in the comments below if you have already picked one up, are planning to, or may still be on the fence about it, and as always, vamos Orlando!