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How a local artist is helping Nashville SC embrace fans with new '615' uniforms and patches
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- How a local artist is helping Nashville SC embrace fans with new '615' uniforms and patches
Cymone Wilder's career path is one that a large, ever-increasing chunk of Nashville residents are well acquainted with.
Wilder attended college in Illinois and moved to Franklin after graduating in 2015 with a degree in art and graphic design. She has lived in the Nashville area ever since, working in design while steadily making her way toward the heart of the city: first the Antioch/Brentwood area, then The Nations, and now East Nashville. She considers herself from Nashville "as much as someone can be from Nashville," at least enough to witness the city's continuous rapid growth with a wry chuckle.
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"Nashville, everybody is new here," Wilder said.
Nashville's population grew from 601,222, according to the 2010 U.S. census, to 689,447 in 2020, an increase of 14.7%. With new people come new institutions: restaurants, shops, sports teams. On Sunday, Nashville SC will kick off its seventh season, and fifth in Major League Soccer, against the New York Red Bulls . It will do so at Geodis Park, which opened its doors less than two years ago.
Nashville will debut new uniforms, dubbed the "615" kit. Some of the changes from the team's previous kit — the blue stripe across the jersey, the blue shorts — are easy to spot. But in addition, players will wear one of 35 different jersey patches designed by Wilder, each patch representing a neighborhood or suburb of Nashville.
Nashville-based artist Cymone Wilder designed 35 different jersey patches representing neighborhoods in and around Nashville. Nashville SC players will wear these patches for Sunday's season opener against the New York Red Bulls.
While players will wear the patches on their jerseys only for the home opener, the impact figures to be lasting. Later this year, Nashville will auction off Sunday's game-worn jerseys to benefit the club's community fund. Meanwhile, fans can purchase jerseys with the patch of their choice all season long.
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Nashville has established itself as a playoff fixture, with appearances in all four of its seasons in MLS. Forward Hany Mukhtar was the league's MVP in 2022. Geodis Park is the largest soccer-specific stadium in North America, and average attendance increased from 27,554 to 28,257 — the fourth-highest figure in MLS — last season. The club's days as a novelty are numbered, if not already over.
In that sense, the neighborhood patches are fitting; an encapsulation of a team representing a constantly changing city with plenty of new, and old, character.
"There's been a lot of growth," Wilder said. "I think Nashville SC kind of is representing that diversity and the taste that people are looking for in their sports, just kind of mixing it up. It's a lot of good excitement to the city."
Aside from some designs for Bridgestone Arena last year, this is Wilder's first foray into sports design. She went to her first Nashville SC game a couple of years ago and fell in love with the atmosphere. One of her friends had a few connections to the club and got Wilder in touch, and the project began.
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Wanting the patches to contrast with the yellow jerseys, Wilder leaned into Nashville's signature "Acoustic Blue," as well as a lighter hue not previously seen on Nashville's jerseys. That shade of blue also can be seen on the jersey's jock tag and "615"-emblazoned back collar, where it represents the Cumberland River. Most important, Wilder wanted each patch to be as unique as the community it represents.
"I was just trying to capture the people that are in the neighborhood, the shops, the energy," she said. "A lot of them have that small-town energy happening, some of them have a lot of excitement, pops of color and things like that, just depending on where it is and the types of people."
Nashville SC will debut the '615' kit in its MLS season opener Feb. 25 against the New York Red Bulls. The team will wear the jersey for the next two seasons.
Jacob Shaffelburg 's first taste of Nashville came before many of his teammates. The winger from Nova Scotia, Canada, played for the FC Nashville Heroes from 2012 to 2014, long before he joined Nashville SC on loan from Toronto FC in 2022.
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Still, Shaffelburg isn't exactly a lifer, and even after a permanent transfer from Toronto and a full season in Nashville, he still feels "new."
"At the same time, everybody makes you feel like you've been here for a while," Shaffelburg said. "Nobody wants you out. Everyone wants you here. Everyone has open arms to help you out at any time they can."
One of his first impressions of Nashville was how involved the city's soccer community already was, even with less than three years of MLS history and five years total. When he goes out in public, he says he gets recognized much more than he did in Toronto.
Shaffelburg said he'll soon move from Antioch, where Nashville's training facility is located, to East Nashville, and he'll be wearing both patches on his jersey on Sunday. It's a way of showing that in the same way Nashville has so quickly embraced him and his team, he has embraced the city back.
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"If I were growing up in Nashville, I'd think it was the coolest thing to have your patch of where you live on the back of your jersey," Shaffelburg said. "It gives you a bit more reason to wear it out every once in a while, to be proud of where you're from."
MORE: Names to know besides Hany Mukhtar, Walker Zimmerman for 2024 Nashville SC MLS roster
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Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: The story behind Nashville SC's new uniform and jersey patches
