Re-public brands Copenhagen's new elite handball club HC København
Two of Copenhagen's oldest handball clubs, FIF and Ajax, have merged their men's elite divisions to form HC København — the city's first serious bid at top-flight handball in more than a decade. Copenhagen-based design agency Re-public developed the visual identity, anchoring the new club's colours in a shared piece of city infrastructure: the green of Copenhagen's iconic park benches. The brand is built to work like a football shirt, something people wear as a statement, not just on match days.
“We tried to retain the heritage of FIF and Ajax — and of Copenhagen. But at the same time, we need to be relevant and appealing to create the hype necessary to put handball on the Copenhagen map.”
Morten Windelev, founder and managing director of Re-public
A monogram built from city and sport
The centrepiece is a KBH monogram that interlocks the three letters in a heraldic, serif-based lockup. The green references the "Københavnerbænk", the cast-iron park bench designed for the 1888 World Exhibition that still lines streets across both Copenhagen and Frederiksberg municipalities, making it a shared civic marker for the two clubs' home territories.
The jersey design deliberately plays on football shirt codes — the reference point, aspiration, and signal of belonging that makes people want to wear a club shirt in public. Windelev describes the initial kit as intentionally classic: "First, it's about establishing the club and the colours. Once everyone knows the colours, we can start experimenting with them — go fashion, if you will."
“Handball doesn't have the same attention or resources here as it does outside the capital. With HCK, we want to create the conditions for a strong first team that can compete at the highest level again. That takes time and commitment — and beyond facilities, finances, coaches and players, you also need a framework to place all those ambitions in. That's the HCK brand.”
Morten Windelev, founder and managing director of Re-public
