Written By Mauricio Segura // Photo: Golden Bay Times Graphics Dept.
OCT 2, 2025
In late September 2025, Oakland Roots SC delivered more than a fresh jersey. They dropped a living piece of Bay Area identity. Their 2025 third kit, created in partnership with CHARLY and Oakland artist Muzae Sesay, blends art, water, and soccer into a singular visual statement. The jersey’s debut is as much cultural declaration as it is athletic wear.
Unveiled on September 30, 2025, the kit draws direct inspiration from Sesay’s painting “The Sun Has Reached The Same Point As The Moon Above The Ocean.” With vibrant, undulating forms and deep rhythmic colors, the design evokes the ebb and flow of the Bay’s tides, weaving natural motion into fabric.
The mantra “It’s in the water,” printed on the inner collar, acts as a poetic nod to that connection between club, community, and the maritime spirit of the region. Rooting the artistic symbolism in place, the Roots badge appears in black and gold on the chest, while CHARLY and sponsor logos also adopt gold tones. The shirt features black side panels and a collar accented with black, dark red, and dark green stripes.
For Sesay, this was more than a commission. It was personal. He has worked at SFMOMA, collected jerseys, and long admired Roots SC. As he put it, fusing his artistic practice with his fandom was “a dream.” He hopes the collaboration becomes a bridge between sports and visual art, a suggestion that diverse cultural spheres need not exist in isolation.
The club embraced that ambition. In past months, Roots SC and SFMOMA released limited capsule collections of T-shirts, sweatshirts, and tote bags featuring Sesay’s work, produced via local label Oaklandish. This third kit launch is the next step, making the art wearable, stadium-ready, and part of the matchday narrative.
The jersey will see its first game action on October 7, 2025, when the Roots host Hartford Athletic at the Oakland Coliseum. Ahead of that, fans can pick up the kit at a special event on October 2 at the SFMOMA Museum Store and at the Dimes Gallery section of the Coliseum during game day, where Sesay’s art will be displayed live alongside the kit.
To sweeten the launch, kits sold at those events include a digital collectible tied to Sesay’s art, accessible via QR code. There’s an open edition for all kits and a limited edition reserved for launch-day buyers.
What makes this collaboration exciting is how seamlessly it blends the symbolic and the practical. The jersey is built for performance, lightweight with mesh panelling, yet conceived with aesthetic care. It’s equally suited to the pitch, the gallery, or the streets of Oakland.
Moreover, the project signals the identity the Roots have long touted as a club of values, embracing more than wins. By partnering with local art institutions and artists, they’re staking their claim not just in the sporting world but in the cultural life of the region. In doing so, they invite fans to see support not just as allegiance, but as participation in a visual and civic ecosystem.
It’s a bold move, a soccer club elevating the matchday sweater to the gallery wall. In Oakland, where art, activism, and expression always circulate side by side, this third kit feels not like marketing hype but a natural extension of place. When fans pull it on, they’re wearing more than club colors. They’re wearing the Bay itself, shimmering in wave and pigment.
