NWSL kits are designed years prematurely, however you wouldn’t suspect that primarily based on the package the Utah Royals unveiled Thursday.
The brand new package is an ideal match for the workforce’s first full season underneath new homeowners, .
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“The Swarm” package encompasses a swarm of bees surrounding the Royals’ lioness brand, a nod to the Beehive State.
The black package’s design was already within the works earlier than the Miller household, which additionally owns the Salt Lake Bees, bought the workforce.
“It was so nice with the ability to bounce into it. So, we received to leap in and see what they already created,” Miller Sports activities + Leisure president Michelle Smith informed the Deseret Information Thursday on the Royals’ package launch celebration.
In actual fact, the Millers instantly jumped into the design course of for the 2028 package, based on Smith.
“We have been already beginning to try this and needed to get that achieved, gosh, just a few months in the past as a result of we simply did the ultimate proof. I can’t give every thing away, nevertheless it’s tremendous cool,” she stated.
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Response to ‘The Swarm’
When the Millers first purchased the groups, Royals and Actual advertising and marketing director Tyler Gibbons went to Michelle Smith and confirmed her the upcoming kits.
“I’ve to provide him a lot credit score for the work he did on this package,” Smith stated of Gibbons.
When Smith first noticed “The Swarm” package, she thought, “That’s legit.”
Smith cherished the all-black design and stated she thought it could “join with so many extra ladies.”
“I feel it was additionally actually enjoyable for the workforce to have the ability to have the ability of this black uniform,” she stated. “Then as we began trying shut, and I noticed the creation of these bees forming as a swarm into the lioness, that’s so highly effective.”
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The gamers love the brand new package, too, for each its look and its which means.
“It has a robust assertion, which is absolutely cool, and I feel it means quite a bit that clearly there’s which means behind it. But in addition as like an intimidation issue, I feel it’s a very cool jersey to have,” captain Paige Monaghan stated Thursday.
From left to proper, Brecken Mozingo, Jimmy Coenraets, Paige Monaghan, Kelly Cousins and Michelle Smith sit on a panel on the Utah Royals launch occasion for its “Swarm” package at America First Discipline in Sandy on Thursday, on Feb. 26, 2026. | Utah Royals
Defender Kate Del Fava, who was drafted by the primary iteration of the Utah Royals, added her reward for the all-black look, saying “on the pitch it’s going to look unimaginable.”
Telling a narrative via the package
NWSL groups launch a brand new package yearly.
Whereas necessary, a brand new package’s design is about greater than creating a classy piece of vogue on and off the pitch. For the Royals and Actual Salt Lake, it’s a possibility to inform a narrative, workforce president John Kimball informed media Thursday.
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“Our intention is to at all times attempt to inform one thing about our group or tie it again to one thing that has to do with our state, and so the beehive was a easy one,” he stated.
The workforce gave the beehive thought to Nike and by working collectively, “simply got here out with this wonderful package,” Kimball stated.
The workforce’s 2025 package was a tribute to the Nice Salt Lake, aiming to lift consciousness of preservation efforts to save lots of the lake.
“I feel it’s a very cool concept that we actually haven’t ever actually tapped into. However we’re the Beehive State, so it makes complete sense. And I feel it matches very well with the remainder of the branding across the workforce,” Del Fava stated.
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The Royals will put on “The Swarm” package via 2028, and like Smith stated, the package to switch it in 2029 has already been proofed.
“We’ve received a bunch of actually cool kits coming, so I’m actually enthusiastic about this launch as a result of — I imply, that is one thing I’m going to put on on a constant foundation as a result of I simply assume it’s depraved cool. I don’t know if there’s one other jersey within the league that even compares to it at this level,” Kimball stated.
The which means behind ‘The Swarm’
The thought of “The Swarm” goes past incorporating the state’s nickname. It’s a illustration of the Utah spirit of unity and laborious work and the concept that, because the membership stated, “no single bee defines the hive.”
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Smith wished the swarm to be greater than a component on the package.
Michelle Smith, the president of Miller Sports activities + Leisure, speaks on the workforce’s 2026 “The Swarm” package launch occasion at America First Discipline in Sandy on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. | Utah Royals
“We have to make this a name to motion. This generally is a marketing campaign. That is what we will speak about and proceed to construct with the fandom, and the workforce simply took it and ran and have created all of the storylines and the way in which to attach and we’re excited,” she stated.
The workforce began constructing its swarm fandom Thursday, one thing Smith stated has been “an enormous precedence” because the Millers purchased the workforce.
Each visitor in attendance on the package launch left with a stack of fifty ticket vouchers, to not maintain for themselves, however to provide out in the neighborhood.
“The swarm isn’t only a one-and-done. We are going to maintain sporting this package via 2028,” Smith stated. “So yearly, we will maintain introducing methods to have interaction with the swarm, to be part of the swarm, and so we’re actually enthusiastic about what that gives us in the long run.”
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For Monaghan, “The Swarm” represents the sense of belonging she’s felt since coming to Utah three years in the past.
“After I received right here, I felt at house, which was so necessary to me,” she stated. “I imply, I feel the final time I had an identical feeling of that was once I determined the place I used to be going to go to school.”
That feeling has lasted three years later.
“I really feel like I may say Utah is my house now, which is so snug and so nice, and that’s the place you’ll be able to thrive and flourish.”