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Dubbed “Grid City,” Real Salt Lake’s new secondary “away” kits feature a blocky blue and white checkered design with small details of red accents. Overall, it makes for a beautiful look that uniquely represents Salt Lake.
While Salt Lake City isn’t the first city in the world to use the grid system for its roads, it certainly has become a part of its identity. The system allows for every address to be made up of two coordinates – one that tells Utahns how far the location is east or west from a central point in the city and another that says how far the location is north or south.
According to MappingSLC, the grid system has long been part of Salt Lake’s identity, coming about just three days after the first pioneers arrived in Utah.
Tyler Gibbons, RSL’s vice president of marketing and game production, oversees jersey designs for the Utah-based team. He told the Royal Riot Podcast that his goal is to take traditional looks in soccer and give them a “hyper-localized” Utah look.
“The inspiration kind of comes from what we’ve done before, how can I make it different and how can I connect it to our community and have it be a storytelling aspect,” said Gibbons. ‘I’m not just doing these boxes just to do it. There is a storytelling aspect of it and everything that you’ll see in the next coming years (will have that).”
Gibbons said the patterned checkered may have raised some eyebrows with Adidas, the jersey maker for teams across Major League Soccer, but he said that’s why he wanted to do it. He described the new look as unique and different that won’t match what anyone else in MLS is doing.
According to Gibbons, the new “Grid City” design has already been a resounding success, saying it’s been ranked in the Top 3 of those within Adidas and Major League Soccer.
And Real Salt Lake and soccer fans alike can expect more kits like the Grid City design that breaks the mold in MLS.
“The secondary jersey, that’s where I’m going to have fun,” Gibbons said. “We’re going to take some leaps and try to do some things that are going to be unique because ultimately they are not going to be what we wear all the time.”
Gibbons gave a sneak peek into the coming years, saying that he had designs planned out for Real Salt Lake as far out as 2031. He confirmed with Royal Riot that next year’s new primary kit will be different from what RSL has done in the past, but will keep the primary claret and cobalt and will still feature Utah’s Wasatch Front in some way.
Gibbons also hinted that Real Salt Lake will be getting a third kit in addition to a new primary jersey during the 2026 MLS season.
To hear the full interview with Tyler Gibbons, visit the Royal Riot Podcast page on ABC4.com.
Royal Riot Podcast contributed to this report.
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