File under: “Ideas bound to get copied.”

When the Colorado Rapids play their home opener next month in Commerce City, they’ll be doing it with perhaps the most unique jersey in North American sports. As a tribute—and a brilliant marking plan—to its “One Club” initiative, the soccer team’s roughly 3,500 season-ticket holders will have their names emblazoned on the club’s primary home jerseys.

The names—culled from the March 2012 season-ticket list—run horizontally around the jersey in a charcoal tone and look like five chunky stripes from a distance. The font can only be read up-close, perhaps from a few feet—if your eyesight is good. Still, it’s an interesting way to weave fans into the on-field product and we hope other teams are taking notes. If the National Basketball Association would allow it, we’d be all for the Denver Nuggets having a special “fan” alternate jersey that’d be worn a couple of times each year. (And maybe that isn’t such a far-fetched idea since the Rapids and the Nuggets both fall under the Kroenke sports empire.)

For folks who think the Rapids’ new kit is a naked ploy to sell a few more tickets, at least the club isn’t Spanish soccer team FC Sevilla. Two years ago—for $33.25—Sevilla put fan photos on the backs of their players’ jerseys.

Get a look at the Rapids' new kit, plus some other alternate jerseys, at public events Tuesday when the team rolls through town as part of Major League Soccer's "Jersey Week."

—Image courtesy of Shutterstock