Watch the latest episode of CanPL.ca’s Virtual Newsroom as Charlie, Marty, and John debate and discuss Canadian soccer’s most pressing topics, and hand-draw their favourite CPL home kit.
At last, all eight clubs have a home kit for the 2020 Canadian Premier League season, which means that all eight CPL fanbases are free to argue over which is the best.
With Atlético Ottawa’s inaugural kit unveiling last Thursday, the league’s newest club was granted access to that favourite debate of so many sports fans.
Although for some Canadian soccer fans, choosing between CPL kits can at times be like choosing between your own children, it’s always fun to have the debate (and we know that opinions are incredibly varied).
So, knowing full-well that there really is no “right” answer, we at CanPL.ca decided to offer our own opinions on the selection that Macron has created for this year.
The CanPL.ca trio of John Molinaro, Marty Thompson, and Charlie O’Connor-Clarke have, therefore, each picked out their favourite of the 2020 home kits.
RELATED READING: Atlético Ottawa reveals inaugural home kit for 2020 CPL season
O’CONNOR-CLARKE: Atlético Ottawa
I can hear the shouts of “recency bias” from here. Still, I’m a massive fan of Atlético Ottawa’s first look.
Obviously, it’s very hard to go wrong when you’re basing your design off of one of the most iconic looks in football, but they got it right here. Ottawa went for a simple striped design rather than the more complicated looks their parent club has had the past couple years, which is probably a good starting point for your first offering.
The collar is a fantastic touch, as it always is on a football shirt, and the blue accents definitely make this stand out — as does the Maple Leaf under the numbers on the back. Also, it’s a minor detail, but I really like how well the crest lines up with one stripe on the chest, rather than straddling two as it does on many other striped kits.
I’m sure that there will be plenty of opportunity for Ottawa to experiment with their design in coming years, but I think it was the right call to lay a solid foundation with this simple, but excellent, first jersey.
THOMPSON: Valour FC
Most clubs deviated from their Year 1 look, changing colours or making major design alterations. Valour FC rightly kept the general design but swapped sleeve colours, going for a lighter take on their 2019 inaugural home strip.
Few clubs on this continent have a sleeves-dominant design – an underrated uniform configuration in world football. As you can see, it creates a feeling of regalness (think of Arsenal’s kits from the 1970s and 1980s). Perhaps it makes the kit’s underrated golden accents pop even more?
Then there’s the infamous double collar. Yes, that second V-shaped, gold-and-white element on the clavicle is a second collar. Personally, I think it’s a genius, one-of-a-kind piece that completes this uniform. I’ve never seen anything like it, though I swear I’ve seen something like it before…
Oh, and we should mention The Golden Boy – a distinguished Manitoban symbol from the Manitoba Legislative Building – can be found on the lower back to celebrate the province’s 150th anniversary. A nice sublimated detail.
MOLINARO: HFX Wanderers FC
Two words: sound waves.
Maybe there’s another team somewhere in the world that has sound waves of a popular song on the front of its jersey. But it’s certainly unique in Canadian soccer, and who else but HFX Wanderers FC (the club that neutral CPL fans almost universally love) could do it with such style and panache
Stan Rogers was an iconic Canadian folk musician who, although born in Hamilton, spent a lot of time in Nova Scotia and whose music was influenced by the way of life in the Maritimes.
“Barrett’s Privateers” was one of his most famous songs, a sea shanty about a young fisherman aboard the ill-fated Antelope that mentions Halifax in its chorus. It is a piece of music that in so many ways captures the quintessential East Coast experience:
“We’d cruise the seas for American gold
We’d fire no guns, shed no tears
But I’m a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett’s Privateers”
Never one to forget where they come come, HFX Wanderers included a sound wave from “Barrett’s Privateers” on its 2020 home kit, in a touching acknowledgment by the CPL club of its local roots to its faithful supporters, the city of Halifax and the entire Maritimes.