San Jose marked the 40th anniversary of soccer in the city with a nod to the past and a novel look to the future.
In honor of the occasion, the Earthquakes held a party downtown on Thursday night. More than 4,000 people celebrated and watched the club reveal its new logo and its revamped primary and secondary jerseys from 2014.
“This is a momentous day for the San Jose Earthquakes as we continue to shape the identity of this club to match its rich history and community ties,” Earthquakes president Dave Kaval said in a press release. “After consulting with fans, former players, staff and community stakeholders, we established three pillars for the club: Unity, Devotion, Heritage. Each of those pillars was integrated into the design of our new logo and will define the organization going forward.”
The biggest change: a splash of red on the club’s black and blue color palette. The selection serves as a nod to the old NASL Earthquakes, an allusion underscored by its use in the 1974 in the new logo.
The tribute assumes a more notable posture in the club’s new secondary kit. Red, not white, is the primary color in this new scheme.
San Jose changed its secondary kit color to red to honor its NASL predecessors.
Black and blue still serve as the principal colors in the primary kit. The changes here focus more on form - a diagonal effect to mirror the club’s new logo and a pattern designed to reflect the club’s nickname - than function. The red appears just inside the collar to unify the design elements across the board.
San Jose retained blue and black as the main colors in its primary kit and added some texture to mirror the crest.
