Canada’s 2026 FIFA World Cup jerseys are here
And they’re giving bold and brash
For the first time, Canada’s men’s soccer team will play host to the FIFA World Cup, and its players have some new outfits for the occasion.
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The team unveiled two new jerseys yesterday, one red, one black. Manufactured by Nike, the jerseys are made from a material crafted from recycled textile waste. The red design is for home games and sports a subtle two-tone maple leaf design across the torso. Canada Soccer said the leaf is meant to point north “as a gesture of collective ambition and progress.” That’s fairly traditional, but there’s an Easter egg: a loonie decal hidden on the inside of the collar. Gold for good luck, perhaps?
More dramatic is the black jersey for away games. A “black ice” design meant to be “a darker, more disruptive expression,” it’s smattered with dusty white decals, like a salt-stained car mat, but cooler. Out of the “ice” come two black maple leaf silhouettes, each made to look like they were etched into the ice by a skate blade—a call back to another classic Canadian sport.
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The black version has apparently become the early favourite with players. Perhaps it’s a reminder of their win against Mexico in 2021 in Edmonton, which qualified the team for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The team played that game in a plain-black-T design, and in conditions so frigid the game became known as the iceteca. Black ice indeed.
Fans looking to get their own can buy each design online. But they aren’t cheap: adult-size replica jerseys in the black design start at $134.99, and some versions of the red design go for $264.99.
Anthony Milton is a freelance journalist based in Toronto specializing in long-form magazine writing. He previously worked as an assistant editor at Toronto Life, where he launched the Front Row newsletter. He regularly contributes all sorts of stories to the magazine, including deep dives on sports, business and housing as well as short-form commentary on our ever-changing city, from its obsession with cherry blossoms to its maddening NIMBYism. His work has also appeared in Maclean’s, Ricochet, TVO, the Trillium and more.
