After one season being outfitted by Kappa, Major League Rugby has partnered with Italian sportswear company Macron to produce new kits for all 11 teams competing in the league’s 2025 season, which kicks off in February.
MLR launched home and away kits for all their teams on Tuesday, December 3, saying in a press release that Macron had produced “creative, fresh designs to bear for the clubs and new gear sure to engage fans in the most exciting season yet.”
The 2025 MLR season sees Anthem Rugby Carolina, based in Charlotte, join as an expansion team, while the Dallas Jackals ceased operations in September. Anthem RC will serve as a development squad for players eligible to play for the United States in international rugby competitions.
Here’s a closer look at each team’s home and away jerseys, along with what Macron had to say about each in their press release:
ANTHEM RC
Stars are the most striking feature of the kits designed for Anthem RC, the club from Charlotte in North Carolina. The new Home shirt has a V-neck and is blue with dark grey sleeve cuffs and gold-coloured logos. Tone-on-tone graphics on the sleeves and body, front and back, feature a repeating star motif. The Away version adopts the same graphics but is white with blue sleeve cuffs and a V-neck.
CHICAGO HOUNDS
The Chicago Hounds will take the pitch in a green Home shirt with large white horizontal stripes across the front. The shirt’s polo neck is also white and has a two-button closure. The Away shirt is dark green with a white neck. This shirt features geometric, tone-on-tone graphics consisting of overlapping broken lines representing the waters of the Chicago River, the canal system that runs through the capital city of Illinois.
(Author’s note: Chicago isn’t the state capital of Illinois; that would be Springfield. And the Chicago River doesn’t flow through Springfield.)
HOUSTON SABERCATS
For their Home kit, the Houston SaberCats have chosen a black shirt with a crew neck and sleeve cuffs in yellow. Tone-on-tone graphics on the body and sleeves feature repeated images of the sabre-toothed tiger that appears in the club logo. The Away kit has a similar graphic layout, but the shirt is white with yellow and black details on the crew neck and sleeve cuffs.
MIAMI SHARKS
The Miami Sharks’ new kits are particularly striking and colourful. The Home shirt presents a fusion of colours. Starting from the right, light blue fades first into purple-blue in the middle and then into bright pink on the left. The same combination of colours is repeated on the shorts. The Away kit is just as striking and comes in a particularly bright pink, over which a shark fin motif in various sizes is dye-subprinted in black.
NEW ENGLAND FREE JACKS
The red, white, and blue of the American flag are the colours chosen for the new kits of the current champions, the New England Free Jacks. The Home version features narrow, alternating, horizontal stripes. The dominant colour of the Away shirt is red, with two large blue bands on the shoulders and in the centre of the body and a white stripe at chest level.
NEW ORLEANS GOLD
New Orleans Gold keep faith with their name and present a Home shirt in gold and white with oblique lines dividing the garment into four quarters. Perforated-look graphics appear on the gold parts. The design refers to the city’s coat of arms when Louisiana was a Spanish colony, from 1762 to 1803. This image still appears on New Orleans’ famous street signs, highlighting the city’s roots in the period of Spanish domination. The Away shirt is based on the colours of Mardi Gras, the famous New Orleans carnival. The polo neck, the stitching and a band across the chest are in gold; the shoulder and upper part of the shirt are in white; the band around the middle of the shirt from the sleeves down is in green; the remainder of the shirt, down to the bottom hem is in purple.
OLD GLORY DC
Old Glory DC is the club representing the US capital, Washington D.C. The Home shirt is blue with a polo neck, sleeves, and bottom in red and white. On the white Away version, the same details are in red and blue. Both shirts feature tone-on-tone dye-sub graphics that repeat a star motif. The game kit is inspired by the official apparel worn by US athletes at the recent Paris Olympics.
RFC LOS ANGELES
The nighttime illuminations that have earned Los Angeles the nickname ‘City of Lights’ also inspire the new Home shirt of RFC Los Angeles. Sky blue is the shirt’s dominant colour, boasting a graphic design featuring white dots. The polo neck and sleeve cuffs are yellow, and two blue stripes run down the sides. The Away kit is mainly white, with blue and yellow dots that gradually fade towards the bottom. The stripes down the sides are sky blue, and the details on the neck and sleeve cuffs are once again yellow.
SAN DIEGO LEGION
The San Diego Legion Home shirt has an all-black design with a white polo neck and sleeve cuffs and tone-on-tone geometric graphics covering the entire garment. The Away kit adopts the same graphic layout with tone-on-tone geometric figures, but the background colour, in this case, is red, with the polo neck and sleeve cuffs in white.
SEATTLE SEAWOLVES
The Seattle Seawolves will wear a navy blue Home shirt with green stitching, sleeve cuffs and bottom. In the middle of the shirt, front and back, a tone-on-tone pattern of wavy lines representing the sea alternates with a motif inspired by the mountain peaks and forests surrounding the city. Water is the principal theme of the Away shirt, represented by light blue and white dye-sub graphics. The V-neck and sleeve cuffs of this shirt are navy blue.
UTAH WARRIORS
The Utah Warriors will play in a black Home shirt with a red V-neck and sleeve cuffs. At the front, the shirt features a motif representing the mountain chains characteristic of this US state. The four words ‘Tradition – Respect – Community – Family’ are printed on the sleeve cuffs. A band of four vertical red stripes starts on the left shoulder and extends down to chest height. The club’s badge is applied here. The Away shirt repeats the same layout as the Home version, with the mountain graphics in white and with red wording on white sleeve cuffs.
The 2025 MLR regular season gets started on Saturday, February 15, with three games:
- Miami Sharks vs. Old Glory DC
- NOLA Gold vs. Anthem RC
- Houston Sabercats vs. Chicago Hounds
Two more matches take place a day later, including the two-time defending MLR champion New England Free Jacks paying a visit to RFC Los Angeles and a clash between the San Diego Legion and the Seattle Seawolves.
