UNITEE Design Lab / Seattle, Washington
Rain City Fitness
Seattle gives this collection a natural design language: rain on pavement, Pike Place Market, Puget Sound, coffee culture, Mount Rainier, the Space Needle, public market signs, grunge texture, and a city nickname that already sounds like a gym brand.
For Rain City Fitness, the system turns that atmosphere into a clean apparel drop. The collection uses storm blue, mint, neon rain green, charcoal grey, navy, and a custom umbrella-kettlebell icon to make the brand feel local, athletic, and built for a city that trains through the weather.
Pike Place, Puget Sound, Rain Culture, And Seattle Identity
Built For Weather, Water, And Work.
Seattle sits on the traditional lands of Coast Salish peoples, including the Duwamish, and grew into a major port city on Puget Sound. Its identity has always been tied to water, trade, timber, fishing, boats, hills, and weather. That geography gives the city a natural visual contrast: dark water, grey sky, green landscape, and sharp skyline.
Pike Place Market opened in 1907 and became one of Seattle’s clearest public symbols. It is not just a tourist stop; it is a working market built around fish, produce, flowers, signs, street energy, and daily movement. That mix of utility and public life shaped the apparel direction, especially the clean block type, practical placements, and market-sign color contrast.
Seattle’s modern image is also tied to icons like the Space Needle, built for the 1962 World’s Fair, and Mount Rainier, which sits as a constant backdrop beyond the city. Add coffee culture, rain jackets, music venues, and the grunge movement of the late twentieth century, and the city starts to feel both technical and raw. That tension became a major part of the collection.
The design system pulls from those layers directly. Pacific blue and storm grey reference water, sky, and pavement; mint and neon rain green add visibility and energy; navy gives the hats and core pieces a cleaner athletic base. The umbrella-kettlebell icon, vertical Rain City type, coach back print, and weather-ready hoodie translate Seattle’s rain identity into a gym system that feels local without becoming a souvenir.
The collection brings the full system together: Rain City wordmarks, umbrella-kettlebell icon, coach apparel, rope cap, training tights, blue market tee, mint crop tee, neon hoodie, and a storm blue / navy / mint / grey / rain green palette built around Seattle.
Concept + Design Rationale
The collection starts with the name. “Rain City Fitness” gives the gym an immediate connection to Seattle, but the goal was to make the idea feel active instead of dreary. Rain becomes motion, color, and identity.
The central icon combines an umbrella, a kettlebell, and the Washington state silhouette. It gives the gym a symbol that is simple enough for hats and leggings, but still specific enough to feel built for Seattle.
The typography is split between clean block lettering and more expressive Rain City script. The block type feels direct and athletic. The script brings movement, drip texture, and a looser streetwear energy.
The final system is designed to work across different member types and product needs: coach tees, lifestyle tees, crop tees, tights, hats, hoodies, and full-drop collection images. Every piece carries the same weather-built story in a different way.
Color System
Pacific Blue
Primary city color pulled from Puget Sound, market signage, rain gear, and Seattle sports energy
Market Navy
Used for hats, outlines, and darker athletic contrast without going fully black
Rain Mint
Soft garment base that gives the collection a wet, cool, Northwest feel
Neon Rain
High-visibility accent inspired by rain jackets, street reflections, and storm-day gear
Pavement Grey
Training neutral used for tights, weather texture, and rainy concrete references
Cloud White
Clean support color used for outlines, embroidery, and logo separation
International Jersey
An International Jersey designed for Seattles finest gym
Coach Grid Back Tee
The coach tee uses a stacked repeat layout to make staff apparel read quickly from behind during class. The alternating neon green and blue type adds visibility while keeping the design clean enough for daily coaching use.
Public Market Tee
The blue tee gives the collection its clearest everyday member piece, pairing a simple Rain City chest mark with the umbrella-kettlebell icon on the back. The bright green outline was added to keep the white type sharp against the blue garment and echo wet street reflections.
Rain City Rope Cap
The rope cap reduces the brand to its smallest icon, using the umbrella-kettlebell mark in raised embroidery on a navy field. The white rope and light embroidery were used to increase contrast while keeping the hat clean, technical, and wearable.
Neon Rain Performance Hoodie
The neon hoodie pushes the weather story into a high-visibility training piece, using the Rain City script as the loudest mark in the collection. The bright garment color was chosen to reference rain gear and street-safety visibility while giving the drop a bold retail moment.
Storm Grey Training Tight
The training tight carries the system through a more minimal lower-body piece, placing the icon at the hip and vertical Rain City Fit type down the leg. The grey base was selected to feel like wet pavement and give the white print a softer athletic contrast.
UNITEE Design Lab
Concept cars for custom gym apparel.
The UNITEE Design Lab works like concept cars for gym apparel. We start with an idea, then turn it into a real concept people can see: a shirt, hat, hoodie, uniform set, or full merch drop. Then we explain the thinking behind it. Why this garment? Why this graphic? Why this placement? Why this kind of finish? The work is built to inspire, test new ideas, and give our clients better custom gym apparel before they ever place an order.
For larger fitness brands, multi-location gyms, event groups, and enterprise clients, the Design Lab is where brand kits and full merch programs take shape. We build the look, then we print the gear. That means the same team can help shape the brand story, plan the apparel, design the graphics, and produce the final pieces.
For an independent gym owner, the value is simple: you get the benefit of our research and development without needing to buy a full brand package. Your order may be a small run of tees, hats, hoodies, or event shirts, but the thinking behind it comes from a team that studies gym merch every day.
Need better gym merch?
Tell us what you are trying to make. We can help with one shirt, a full drop, or a larger apparel program.
Start a Design Lab Conversation