Building a team
with the community
Montreal Roses
The Montreal Roses are the city's professional women's soccer team, a symbol of pride, strength and inclusion, embodying Montreal's passion for sport and diversity.
What if a soccer team was more than just a club? What if it became a symbol, a voice, a culture in itself? It was with this ambition that we shaped the identity of Les Roses de Montréal, a women's soccer club conceived as a collective movement, rooted in its community and built to last. Here, every match is more than just a sport; it's a moment of togetherness, pride and transmission, a way of asserting loud and clear that soccer is also about culture and identity.
This vision is rooted in an unprecedented governance model based on shared ownership. Alongside Quebec entrepreneurs Isabèle Chevalier and Jean-François Crevier are a diverse group of investor-ambassadors from the worlds of sport, media and community, including Samuel Piette, captain of the Montreal CF, and renowned athletes Bruny Surin and Patrice Bernier. Together, they embody a collective leadership that goes beyond traditional business logic: the Roses are not just a team, but a cultural and social engine, designed to reinvent itself with its community, not just for it.
The Montreal Roses bring together a number of investors who believe in the potential of professional women's soccer.
Amy Walsh former Canadian national team player and a respected figure in Quebec soccer; she was a key collaborator from the start of the project. Photo : AFP/Frederic J. Brown
Isabelle Chevalier and Jean-François Crevier have a clear vision: to make a difference by giving more space to women's soccer and concretely supporting the development of women in sport.
“As for me, to support the Roses,
I’d rather wear their T-shirt or uniform
than buy a season ticket.”
Project 8, was launched with the ambition of building the league and clubs simultaneously, laying the foundations for what was to become, the Northern Super League.
This sentence sums up what's at stake. Women's soccer is all about emotional engagement. To ensure the club's long-term future, we had to go beyond simple ticketing and build a brand that would captivate as much on the street as on the pitch. A brand capable of federating a community and creating a sense of belonging, while responding to the phenomenon of the fluid fan: those fans who navigate between several passions and teams, and who need to be constantly seduced with strong experiences, values and stories, in order to ensure sustainable revenues from merchandising and sponsorship.
We received a gift from DARBY magazine, an independent publication that celebrates soccer culture in all its forms, to inspire us with Canadian soccer culture.
Among our most memorable encounters were Annie Larouche and Marinette Pichon, two people driven by an extraordinary passion for people.
Reading and inspiring meeting with Florence-Agathe Dubé-Moreau about Hors jeu, her book on the place of women in sport.
“A sports club is first and foremost a collective endeavor that must bring together fans, local communities, athletes, and entrepreneurs. Through our participatory branding approach, we involve these stakeholders and give them a voice from the very beginning to build identities that live up to everyone’s aspirations.”
We were lucky enough to add Ketsia Nkumbu, a person with an extraordinary passion for soccer, to our team. A real heartthrob! Photo : Passion Lifestyle
We collaborated with our friend Angelo Destounis, founder of the Ringleaders, an emblematic Montreal community where soccer passion, design and urban culture meet, a veritable living encyclopedia of soccer and fashion. Photo : The Hundreds
Thanks to the many interviews we conducted within the female player and fan community, we quickly realized that soccer had to be more than just a sport: it had to reflect the aspirations of fans, break down female stereotypes of the sport and become their voice.
We brought together a diverse, local circle: creatives, athletes, fans, investors, experts, including two key allies of the project: co-founder Isabelle Chevalier, new club president Annie Larouche and former soccer pro Amy Walsh. This advisory committee helped to instill the brand with a collective and authentic vision, rooted in the culture of Montreal.
A memorable encounter between Amy Walsh, Marinette Pichon, Angelo Destounis, Jennifer Nagy, Nicola DeSantis, Annie Larouche and Ketsia Nkumbu.
The power of Roses lies in their ability to unite the softness of the petal and the prickle of the thorn, combining beauty and resilience.
In collaboration with agency Cossette, we created a strong identity based on a powerful symbol: the blue rose, which evokes community roots, resilience in the face of challenges, and the ambition to nurture a meaningful project. With the help of Angelo Destounis, founder of Ringleaders Football Club, designer Jeniffer Nagi and photojournalist Ketsia Nkumbu, we have created a brand that makes Montreal tick.
The graphic identity and typography were created by Cossette.
The launch of the Roses de Montréal united the city around a new sense of pride, unanimously acclaimed for its branding.
The launch attracted nearly a thousand people, and was enthusiastically received by the media and the soccer community. The team's players immediately embraced and expressed pride in their new identity. More than just a team, the Montreal Roses have already established themselves as a cultural signature, a way of experiencing soccer in Montreal, a unifying force that goes beyond sport.
It makes us proud because, in the end, what drives us is not just designing identities, but co-creating movements.
Latifah Abdu, the first player to don the Montreal Roses uniform designed by Jennifer Nagi and Niti Marcelle Mueth, represents the return of a local star to the professional scene.
When a brand is spontaneously adopted and reinterpreted by its community, it's a sign that it has reached a real level of cultural resonance.
Photo : Instagram Camilia Leclerc-Richard
Photo : Northen Super League
Client
Isabèle Chevalier
Jean-François Crevier
Annie Larouche
Patrick Boivin
Collaboration
Jennifer Naggy
Soccer culture consulting
Amy Walsh
Ketsia Nkumbu
Marinette Pichon
Content & photography
Ketsia Nkumbu
