Real Salt Lake’s new jerseys have a ‘localized twist’

Real Salt Lake is making some changes to its jerseys.

RSL’s jerseys will feature a “Select Health” logo on the front, the club announced Wednesday. Select Health is one of Intermountain Health’s most popular health plans. Intermountain itself will be featured on the sleeves of both team’s jerseys.

The partnership is reportedly for eight years and worth about $75 million, per Sportico.

On Thursday, the club also unveiled its new “Peak Utah” kit, which features a blue mountain silhouette across the chest, with alternating vertical stripes down the front.

“In our previous 20 years as a club, we’ve never done anything that shows how symbolic our mountains are for the entire state of Utah,” Tyler Gibbons, RSL Vice President of Marketing and Game Presentation, said in a release. “When we were designing this a few years ago, our thoughts centered on creating a traditional RSL primary kit with a modern, localized twist. We couldn’t be happier with the final product and can’t wait to see it our fans and players wear it.”

As for the club’s new jersey front sponsor, RSL leaders say it’s an agreement with meaning beyond money.

About 10 years ago, Real Salt Lake stars Nick Rimando, Kyle Beckerman and others from the franchise visited a young woman named Mia Brickey at Primary Children’s Hospital. She wasn’t able to talk at the time due to recently undergoing an emergency heart transplant.

But, as RSL president John Kimball recalled, when Brickey saw Rimando and Beckerman, “her eyes just absolutely lit up.” It’s still one of the RSL executive’s fondest memories of giving back to the community.

Those kinds of stories are why the organization is singing the praises of a new partnership with Intermountain Health that, among other things, will feature the name the company and one of its health plans on the front and sleeves of jerseys for RSL, the Utah Royals and Real Monarchs starting in the 2024 season.

“With this partnership, we are really looking forward to working together to create awareness in just health in general, but specifically in children’s health,” Kimball said Wednesday at a news conference unveiling the partnership. “Specifically in family health and mental health.”

Kimball alluded to RSL’s season-opening road matchup with Inter Miami FC, where global superstar Lionel Messi plays. He playfully referred to Messi as “a special guy that plays for one of those teams” without using his name, prompting chuckles from the crowd.

“Quite honestly, the world will be watching that game,” Kimball said. “And as the world watches that game, that is the introduction to this relationship and this partnership and how we’re going to move forward.”

Rimando was in attendance at the event, as were RSL alumni Brian Dunseth, Jason Kreis and Tony Beltran. Several of the Royals attended as well, and walked into the event with a few children.

As part of the new partnership, Intermountain Healthcare becomes the official health provider of RSL and the Royals. The logos of both Intermountain and Select Health will also be featured throughout America First Stadium.