The Canadian Premier League (CPL), Canada’s incoming professional men’s soccer league, is literally gearing up for the launch of its inaugural season on April 27. The league just announced the kickoff will prominently feature the iconic Nike swish.

Nike has been named the official footwear and equipment provider, and is supplying all of the league’s seven teams with Nike performance football boots and Nike Merlin balls.

David Clanachan, CPL commissioner, tells MiC that teaming with a global brand such as Nike will help the CPL with its mandate to become a force on the international stage. “We are excited for our fans to see our players outfitted by two global brands, Macron and Nike on April 27.”

The opening match will take place in Hamilton, Ont. at Tim Horton’s Field, where Forge FC will take on York9 FC.

The partnership with Nike was negotiated by Canadian Soccer Business (CSB), which was set up by CPL a year ago to represent the commercial assets and inventory for soccer properties in Canada.

Last month, CSB announced a 10-year media partnership with Mediapro, a global multimedia communications group based in Barcelona, Spain, that includes production of all matches. The deal, estimated at $200 million, gives Mediapro all the media rights under CSB management for the run of the contract, including global and domestic rights to the CPL.  This inaugural year features 98 regular season matches.