UNITEE Design Lab / New Orleans, Louisiana
Fit De Lis
New Orleans gave this collection a symbol before it gave it a color palette. The fleur-de-lis has long been tied to the city’s French influence and Louisiana identity, but in New Orleans it is more than an old mark. It shows up on gates, jerseys, signs, flags, ironwork, house fronts, parade graphics, and local pride.
For Fit De Lis, that symbol became the anchor. The collection pulls from the city’s layered culture: French and Creole architecture, jazz movement, Mardi Gras color, Mississippi River energy, food culture, old neighborhood texture, and the kind of civic personality that makes New Orleans feel unlike anywhere else in the country.
New Orleans As Symbol, Sound, And Street Language
A city where the mark already carries memory.
New Orleans has one of the clearest visual identities in America. The city’s French and Spanish colonial layers, iron balconies, shotgun houses, Creole cottages, corner stores, old signs, and painted doors give the streets a look that feels both historic and alive.
The fleur-de-lis gave the collection its main symbol. Instead of treating it as decoration, the design turns it into a fitness mark: set inside a kettlebell, repeated in mascot form, and paired with heavy type that feels built for gym apparel.
Jazz and Mardi Gras shaped the attitude. Purple, green, and gold gave the collection its loudest color system, while the jester mascot brings in parade energy, performance, humor, and the city’s comfort with being bold in public.
The Mississippi River and the city’s old-world architecture add the deeper layer. This is not just a party-color collection. It is a gym apparel system built from a place where music, food, sport, politics, faith, and street life all push against each other at once.
The result is a New Orleans collection that feels local without becoming a costume: bright, strange, athletic, historic, and hard to mistake for any other city.
The Collection brings the full system together: Fit De Lis tees, coach rugby shirts, joggers, hoodie, beanie, mascot raglan, fleur-de-lis marks, kettlebell graphics, and a purple / green / gold palette built around New Orleans.
Concept + Design Rationale
The concept starts with the name. Fit De Lis works because it turns a familiar New Orleans symbol into a gym phrase without losing the local meaning. It reads fast, it sounds local, and it gives the collection a mark that can flex across several garment types.
The fleur-de-lis was designed to do more than sit on the shirt. It becomes a kettlebell icon, a jester mascot detail, a chest mark, a patch graphic, and a full front print. That gives the system one recognizable symbol, but many ways to use it.
The type system pushes into old athletic and parade language. Heavy serif block letters give the main tee a New Orleans sports feel. The vertical jogger type makes the lower-body piece feel active. The script hoodie adds a louder merch lane that feels closer to festival and streetwear energy.
The goal was to make Fit De Lis feel like New Orleans in motion: French influence, Mardi Gras color, jazz rhythm, river-city texture, and a gym identity that can be worn beyond the gym.
Color System
Carnival Purple
Main identity color for type, mascot outlines, and Mardi Gras energy
Parade Gold
Bright apparel base and high-impact print color
Deep Green
Local contrast color used in stripes, joggers, and mark structure
Old Quarter Cream
Vintage neutral for rugby stripes, raglan bodies, and older city warmth
Street Grey
Training neutral for joggers and mascot raglan pieces
Krewe Olive
Accessory neutral for beanies and patch-based pieces
Fit De Lis Crest Tee
The purple tee gives the collection its clearest New Orleans mark, pairing the fleur-de-lis kettlebell with yellow and green striping and a Louisiana back hit.
504 Training Jogger
The grey jogger turns the name into a vertical leg mark, using purple, gold, and green blocks to make the lower-body piece feel connected to the full New Orleans system.
Garden District Street Set
The striped coach rugby and yellow tee show the system in a streetwear setting, connecting the gym identity to New Orleans color, house fronts, and neighborhood texture.
Coach Stripe Rugby
The striped rugby keeps the coach role clear with large back lettering, while the green and cream palette gives the staff piece a classic New Orleans athletic feel.
Krewe Patch Beanie
The olive beanie pulls the Mardi Gras palette into a quieter accessory, using the Fit De Lis patch as a small but finished retail mark.
Jester Lifter Raglan
The mascot raglan turns the collection playful without losing the gym tone, using a jester lifter to connect Mardi Gras character, strength, and old-school team apparel. It also gives Fit De Lis a character system that can live on raglans, stickers, event tees, youth pieces, and future drops without replacing the main fleur-de-lis identity.
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.
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