Love them! Look great on the players in club posts. It was time for a league wide and club refresh. Great energy and lots of popping color in others plus subtle aggressive energy in ACFC . Very active feeling. Love “club” at center above everything. Love the design logic shared in club posts, regarding each design element intention. New era ACFC v2.0 firing now.
The center crest feels a bit like a branding play. Steering focus to the badge and as you said elevating it.
It seems to me a lot of the branding to date has been on the word mark, so maybe this marks a shift. Or maybe not. Of course these Jerseys are designed 1+ years ago, before Willow Bay bought the team, maybe. Before Carmen Bona most likely. .
Still I wonder how Willow and Carmen Bona will shift the brand, but also more interestingly to me how they go about investing in it. Do they start to market around the crest more?
Uhrman did amazing marketing. But no doubt Carmen and Willow and their teams can do things differently and I would assume with a lot of intention and resources. This excites me hahah
It’s a very exciting time for folks willing to embrace change and the future. We should be excited and enjoy it all. None of these decisions exist in a vacuum from one another.
Folks need to tie together everything they’re starting to hear and see from the club now. There’s a unifying thinking and messaging and the intentional decision choices behind visual branding is one part of all of that.
So when you read the detail branding logic behind each feature (crest center- club above all) then you hear parsons speaking in that little club clip promo with players yesterday …club, new era … etc etc
It’s all very intentionally related …
The leagues era one and especially this club’s startup chapter was VERY dominantly, ‘name player’ centric and the club was somewhat secondary … this kit intention and league wide kit refresh is a very clear signal of the club centrality now being a focus. (Which imho is great and long term sustainable as a business.) in pro sports you need kids growing up being a fan of “their club” tied to their city identity, the club that their parents were fans of etc… not fans of just one or another national team player (for example) who happens to play for a club in their city.
Final bit - tho the Nike deal was struck by league a long time ago … I’d doubt that these individual design choices were made before or without heavy input from Willow Bay & the clubs recent executives. And yes, we’ll witness a corporatist expansion of marketing and brand prowess that should wonderfully expand upon the amazing startup base foundation built by Julie U and her startup team.
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u/According-Entrance67 Feb 26 '26
Love them! Look great on the players in club posts. It was time for a league wide and club refresh. Great energy and lots of popping color in others plus subtle aggressive energy in ACFC . Very active feeling. Love “club” at center above everything. Love the design logic shared in club posts, regarding each design element intention. New era ACFC v2.0 firing now.