A new Real Salt Lake jersey is inspired by Salt Lake City’s “grid system”

Salt Lake City, Utah – The grid system in Salt Lake City served as the inspiration for Real Salt Lake’s new appearance for the 2025 and 2026 Major League Soccer seasons.

Real Salt Lake’s new secondary “away” uniforms, dubbed “Grid City,” have a blocky checkered blue and white pattern with subtle red elements. All in all, it creates a stunning appearance that perfectly captures Salt Lake.

Despite not being the first city in the world to employ the grid system for its roads, Salt Lake City has undoubtedly incorporated it into its character. The system enables each address to consist of two coordinates: one that indicates the location’s east or west distance from a city center, and another that indicates the location’s north or south distance.

The grid system, which was installed roughly three days after the first pioneers landed in Utah, has long been a part of Salt Lake’s identity, according to MappingSLC.

The Utah-based team’s uniform designs are managed by Tyler Gibbons, vice president of marketing and game production at RSL. His objective is to give conventional soccer styles a “hyper-localized” Utah aesthetic, he stated on the Royal Riot Podcast.

The motivation, according to Gibbons, “sort of comes from what we’ve done before, how can I make it different, how can I connect it to our community, and have it be a storytelling aspect.” “I’m not just filling out these boxes for the sake of doing it.” It has a narrative component, and everything you see in the upcoming years will have that.

Adidas, which makes the jerseys for teams in Major League Soccer, may have objected to the patterned checkered design, but Gibbons said that was the reason he wanted to do it. According to him, the new style is distinct and different from what other MLS players are doing.

Gibbons claims that the new “Grid City” design has already been a huge success, ranking in the top three designs in both Major League Soccer and Adidas.

Soccer supporters and Real Salt Lake supporters should anticipate more uniforms like the Grid City style, which defies the MLS convention.

“I’m going to enjoy myself on the secondary jersey,” Gibbons remarked. In the end, these won’t be what we wear every day, so we’re going to take some chances and attempt to do some things that will be different.

By revealing that he had plans for Real Salt Lake as far ahead as 2031, Gibbons provided a preview of the years to come. He told Royal Riot that the new primary kit for the following season would not be like RSL’s previous designs, but it will still include Utah’s Wasatch Front in some form and retain the primary colors of claret and cobalt.

Gibbons also alluded to Real Salt Lake receiving a third uniform during the 2026 Major League Soccer season, in addition to a new primary jersey.