There’s nothing quite like it in all of Halifax.

By the virtue of HFX Wanderers FC being the first professional sport in the city, the team’s newly-revealed home-and-away kits have instantly become something bigger than just a soccer shirt.

They’ve become a part of Halifax’s sporting history.

For club owner Derek Martin, that’s the end result of a touch of pressure, coupled with, as he described it, “a lot of responsibility to the people and to the City of Halifax.”

Martin has had a hand in creating a new icon for Halifax sports. And, as he tells CanPL.ca, he hopes Haligonians embrace it as their own, both on and off the field.

“We’re developing these iconic images for a club that we hope will exist in that format for a hundred years or more,” Martin recalled, when asked about his visit to Macron in Italy.

“You take that seriously and put the time, care and effort into it that it deserves. We put that same care and time in the kits. We had that attitude throughout the entire process.”

Between a citadel-inspired badge and an oceanic kit, the Wanderers have certainly drawn on Halifax for inspiration in its public-facing offerings. But, as Martin explained, he and his staff carry their responsibility in such a way that it “moves its way through everything” they do.

“Those two big pieces (the logo and the kit) are what everyone sees, but there’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes, too,” Martin said. “We know we have an opportunity here to be the first, and we want to do it as well as we possibly can. It puts a lot on you in terms of wanting to do everything the right way, but it’s still so thrilling.”

Martin admitted freely that the entire process was rather exciting, too. There’s no harm in having a bit of fun, right? That same mentality will likely define the festive crowd at Wanderers Grounds, after all. So, let’s gush a little bit about the designs, shall we?

“One of the things I really like about the dark blue home kit is the colour-on-colour logo,” Martin enthusiastically offered. “The light-blue version of our crest on the dark blue kit is so cool. I was excited to see that in person. It popped the way I hoped it would.

Sometimes things can look different on a computer screen than they do in real life, so it was great to see that the real version came out the way I hoped it would. The quality was fantastic.”