File under: “Ideas bound to get copied.”

When the Colorado Rapids play their home opener next month [2] 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 [3] 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 [4] on the backs of their players’ jerseys.

Get a look at the Rapids' new kit, plus some other alternate jerseys, at public events Tuesday [5] when the team rolls through town as part of Major League Soccer's "Jersey Week."

—Image courtesy of Shutterstock [6]