Elks unveil new alternate uniform for 75th anniversary season

The Edmonton Elks are getting dressed up for their anniversary.

The Canadian Football League team unveiled its new alternate uniform, its first new one in 10 years, on Wednesday ahead of the official start to its 75th anniversary season.

It’s green and gold, of course — the Elks’ colours since the beginning in 1949, when the club borrowed uniforms from the University of Alberta and subsequently adopted them — with green as the primary hue. Double stripes of gold adorn the shoulders and line the sides of the pants, with dark green player numbers edged in gold.

The gold helmet sports the Elks’ 75th-anniversary logo, which was introduced earlier this year.

The Elks host the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday (2 p.m.) to open their 2024 CFL regular-season schedule.

Evan Daum, the Elks’ vice-president of marketing and fan engagement, told media two years of work went into the design of the jersey “in terms of the symbolism behind it.”

The shoulder stripes and an updated throwback logo on both sleeves — featuring an oil derrick, Elks antlers and an ‘EE’ logo — echo the look of teams from the 1950s and ’60s while a triangular tree pattern on its shoulders and sleeves is a nod to Edmonton’s river valley and Alberta’s forested regions.

“We wanted the jersey to speak to our rich tradition but also modernize things and give our fans a fresh look,” Daum said at an event at the downtown Canadian Icehouse unveiling the uniform, which was modelled by new quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson and linebacker Nyles Morgan.

“We feel we were able to combine that and bridge the past with the present.”