NFL
By Keith Richards
Every year, MLS clubs release their new community kits. For the Colorado Rapids, it was the One Flag kit last season. The season before that was the New Day kit. Today, the Colorado Rapids released its 2025 Community Kit: Headwaters. Like the One Flag and New Day Kits, Headwaters releases a new announcement about a new community partnership. This year, the Rapids are partnering with Colorado Water Trust.
What’s the purpose of this new partnership between the Rapids and Colorado Water Trust? The purpose of this community partnership is simple: Just add water. Colorado Water Trust aims to restore water to Colorado’s rivers. In partnering with the Colorado Rapids, Colorado Water Trust hopes that Headwaters will continue to drive awareness of the need to restore water to Colorado.
The partnership states, “Colorado Water Trust believes that protecting water in rivers benefits the environment and local communities—and that healthy rivers are essential to our ecosystems, economies, and ways of life.” Anyone who is from Colorado or who has spent any time here knows just how much its citizens value the outdoors and the environment.
The partnership also states, “Colorado is deeply connected to its rivers. They sustain us and all the life that surrounds us. Our rivers are where we spend time making memories with our friends and family. They’re where we take breaks to reflect while listening to the sounds of nature. We are bound to their health and when they flow strong, our ecosystems flourish and our economies thrive. When they run dry, it impacts us all.”
However, who is Colorado Water Trust? Colorado Water Trust was founded in 2001 as the state was heading into its worst drought. Colorado Water Trust states, “Our founders saw that the solution for restoring water to rivers already existed within Colorado’s current water law system – someone just needed to prove that it could work.”
In addition, they continue, “They envisioned a nonprofit entity that would provide market-based solutions to secure water for environmental purposes. By reversing traditional water laws, they could take the tools and systems that were created to withdraw water from rivers and instead use them to do the opposite – restore water to rivers.”
In addition, in partnering with the Rapids, Colorado Water Trust hopes that Headwaters will help it continue as “a homegrown nonprofit dedicated to restoring water to rivers and streams across the state.” They do this well. Since 2001, the nonprofit has restored 26.7 billion gallons of water to over 814 miles of rivers in Colorado. It’s a number that continues to go up, too! Colorado Water Trust has 27 projects restoring water to streams and rivers across the state.
Okay. We know the question you’re all asking now. “But what about the jersey?!” Why is the name Headwaters? As the campaign states, “The rivers that begin high in the Rocky Mountains are critical to life across the American West. Millions rely on these Headwaters each and every day.” It is from these Headwaters that the Rapids flow.
While I am more partial to the New Day Kit, that is not to say the Headwaters Kit is lacking. The kit is Colorado, through and through. From top to bottom, the design exudes roaring rapids. The primary color of the Headwaters kit, as stated by Jordan Rothrock, is mint and Artic night Onyx. Jordan is the Senior Director of Creative & Brand with the Colorado Rapids. This 2025 Community Kit uses the secondary Colorado Rapids logo for the first time. However, if you’re missing the primary crest, have no fear. You must look a little harder.
The Headwaters kit contains an easter egg. Amid the roaring Rapids, you can also see the primary crest in faint Burgundy. If you’re not looking for it, it’s easy to miss. Also, at the bottom of the kit, you see two crossing oars. Rothrock states that this is a shoutout to the connection between the club and its fans.
Every home match, Centennial 38, the Colorado Rapids’ supporters’ group, delivers a unique oar to the Man of the Match. When I say unique, I mean unique. No two oars are the same. Each oar is hand-painted, and there is never a reissue. It’s an experience that is special to C38 and Colorado Rapids players.
In this 2025 season, the Colorado Rapids look to continue to reach new heights. In conclusion, the Headwaters kit can help the Colorado Rapids and Colorado Water Trust reach their goals. As the campaign says, “Because as Coloradans, we’re always up for a challenge. We know it takes all of us. Reaching toward a big goal. Every season, year after year.”
