Denver NWSL are Officially Denver Summit FC

Denver, CO – Burgundy Wave can confirm the Denver NWSL expansion team is named Denver Summit FC. The club website is now denversummitfc.com and can be found on social media @denversummit_fc. The name was the overwhelming favorite (75% of the vote per the Post) in the Name The Club fan vote in which more than 15,000 votes and write-in suggestions were received. Summit beat out Denver Peak FC, Colorado 14ers FC, Denver Elevate FC, among others. During the vote, it was Colorado Summit on the ballot, not Denver Summit.

The club crest colors are green, white, yellow, and red, as designed by Matthew Wolff, who has designed branding and crests for numerous MLS, NWSL, and USL clubs.

“It was vital for us to name our club in collaboration with our community. Our crest, colors, and brand are representative of Denver and all of Colorado. It embraces our aspirational goals and pioneering spirit to build the best soccer club in the world,” said President Jen Millet.

“Coloradans are passionate about the outdoors, so it was always our vision that the crest should depict our natural surroundings. Our elevation offers us a distinct home field advantage, and our goal is to build a club that is always pursuing excellence on and off the field. Much like the picturesque Rocky Mountains, our charge is to stand apart while always reaching for new heights,” said Controlling Owner Rob Cohen.

Soccer fans love knowing about the symbolism behind a crest, so lets’ talk about that:

The club chose a relatively traditional shield shape to honor the history of football crests all over the world. For similar reasons they went with Football Club instead of Soccer Club. We were expecting green and white to be the primary colors from the initial expansion bid launch. It officially is a reference to the Centennial State’s traditional license plate. The green might also be a nice nod to Colorado Soccer history, albeit mostly on the men’s side with the Rapids and Foxes.

The warm red sky mimics the classic Colorado sunset. It is a sandstone color is similar to the red rock formations. It’s close to the Burgundy of the Colorado Rapids but different enough. It’s brighter than the Burgundy and makes the crest a nice color palette, contrasting the darker matte forest green. The yellow represents the sun, not gold.

The mountains on the crest are angled at 26° to symbolize the club’s inaugural season in 2026. That is a really nice hidden gem. The custom font is inspired by the jobbing typeface used during western expansion, another fun easter egg tying the club back to its locale and the pioneering history of Colorado.

Overall, I really like it. It’s vibrant and a little busy with four contrasting colors and the mountains. You take one look at it, you know it’s a soccer team in Colorado and you think it looks cool. It’s got a retro almost 80s look to it. This will be an amazing sticker for ski poles, stadium terraces, and away day bars around the state and country. Job done. BOSNATION could never.

I’m glad they kept the green and the white (green is my and Jordan Angeli’s favorite color). It will interesting to see what they do kit wise. Which colors will be the main look for the home kit? Presumably the green and white but maybe they go back and forth. They nearly re-created the Colorado flag color palette but with green instead of blue. Maybe we some Colorado flag-style merch eventually along with a third/one-off kit.

Name wise, I’m glad they landed on Summit. It’s distinct from the other names in that it’s definitionally at the top. The names were very similar, a little cliche. Elevate would have been confusing with the Rapids’ mini-documentary series which has the same name. Not everybody would have understood what 14ers meant. Summit rolls off the tongue and when you say it in an American Soccer context, you’ll know what we’re talking about. Just like “Sporting,” “Galaxy,” or “Current.”

Overall, we knew the angle they were going for with all the mountain-themed names. The change from Colorado Summit to Denver Summit was possibly because of the Colorado Summit ultimate frisbee team, which is now patterning with the club and will be rebranding ahead of their 2026 season. Maybe there was a trademark issue there that prevented Colorado Summit FC from happening. Burgundy Wave will follow up on this. The public council meetings also brought up wanting the team to be named Denver if they were going to be in Denver and get public funding. Maybe this isn’t a big deal. Maybe it slightly annoys soccer fans outside the 303.

The club will be hosting a Brand Launch Block Party at McGregor (1901 Wazee St) on Saturday July 26 starting at 2 p.m. MT. It will feature music, food, drink, and exclusive merchandise. Fans are encouraged to RSVP here.

The club has had a few hiccups. We’re still waiting to hear from Curt Johnson regarding his time at Carolina Current with Paul Riley. We need more public clarity on the finances behind the stadium district. Recently, the club did put out some social media posts about selecting the club’s supporters group name when normally that’s something the supporters do on their own independently from the club. Burgundy Wave will continue to cover Denver Summit FC into their expansion season next year.

Photo Credit: Denver Summit FC

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