UFA Championship Weekend 2026: Oakland Takes the Crown
The Oakland Spiders are your 2026 UFA Champions, capping off another memorable Championship Weekend in Madison, Wisconsin. Every August, the best teams in professional ultimate frisbee come together to settle it on the field, and once again the weekend delivered. As the official apparel sponsor of the UFA, we had a front-row seat to it all, with teams competing in gear built for moments like these. Here’s our recap of the weekend.
Shop your 2026 Champs - Spiders gear here
Oakland Spiders Win
The Oakland Spiders are your 2026 UFA Champions, taking down the Minnesota Wind Chill 21-16 at Breese Stevens Field on August 28 to claim the franchise's third title, and its first since 2015.
This one had layers. Sixteen of Oakland's twenty active players walked into the final fresh off winning the World Ultimate Club Championships days earlier with San Francisco Revolver, the club team that shares much of the Spiders' roster, chasing a second major title in under a week. That momentum showed: the Spiders controlled the game from the opening pull, never got broken on defense in the second half, and got efficient offense all night from Walker Frankenberg, Dillon Whited, and Raekwon Adkins, a player who suited up for Oakland's high school system just four years ago and is now closing out championships for the club he grew up around. Stories like that are exactly why we love this league.
Minnesota fought through adversity to even get there. Star hybrid Will Brandt went down with a leg injury in the semifinal and couldn't suit up for the final, and first-year hybrid Nate De Morgan was scratched during warmups. Wind Chill still made it a game. "We had a couple opportunities early to build a two- or three-point lead and we didn't convert," reflected Dylan DeClerck afterward, but Oakland's depth and poise were the difference. Huge credit to both squads, along with New York Empire and Austin Sol, for a semifinal field that made this one of the tightest championship races in years.
BE the Change Award
Every year, the “BE The Change” Community Award recognizes someone whose impact goes far beyond the scoreline, and this year’s honoree is a strong example of what that looks like.
Jake Rubin-Miller of the Chicago Union was named the 2026 “BE The Change” Community Award recipient on August 19. Jake founded and directs Chicago Union Cares, reaching more than 7,200 youth since late 2023 by bringing ultimate into K-12 PE classes across Chicagoland, with a deliberate focus on underrepresented communities. He’s partnered with local nonprofits like The Bloc, Kuumba Evanston, and Lost Boyz, launched a coaching fellowship for girls’ team coaches, and built Teaching Ultimate Frisbee, an open-source curriculum now used by programs worldwide. And yes, he can still play: a 2024 All-Defensive First Teamer and the Union’s 2025 Fan Favorite.
"Jake is the absolute embodiment of 'BE The Change,'" said Chicago Union owner CJ O'Brien. "His relentless drive to expand access to ultimate frisbee has left an indelible mark on thousands of young athletes."
This is the part of the weekend that reminds us why we love partnering with this league in the first place. Winning matters, but growing the sport matters more, and Jake's been doing that work for years.
Read the full UFA article here
Suited up in APX
If you were watching, you saw it on every roster: this was the first title decided in our new APX kits, and it showed. APX is a next-generation performance system built for the demands of ultimate: 92% recycled polyester, 8% spandex, 135 GSM precision knit, a diamond-structured weave for durability without extra weight, 4-way stretch for full range of motion, mesh side panels for airflow, and copper-infused fibers that fight odor all tournament long. Ultimate asks a lot of a jersey (full-field sprints, layout dives, hard cuts, all weekend long), and APX was engineered to keep up with all of it. Watching Oakland and Minnesota lay out for discs in it all weekend was the best proof of concept we could ask for.
Why the Partnership Matters
The UFA continues to raise the standard for professional ultimate, from the level of competition on the field to the experience around it. Our role is to support that with high-performance gear for players, coaches, and fans, including our newest APX fabric, while helping the league keep building momentum season after season.
Learn more about the UFA
Looking Ahead
Another Championship Weekend in the books, another reminder of why we're proud to be part of this community: the athletes chasing titles, the ones like Jake building the sport's future, and everyone in between. Congratulations to the Oakland Spiders on title number three, and to every team that made this season one of the best yet.
Want to celebrate with your team? Our 2026 UFA Replica Jerseys are live now, including gear for the champion Oakland Spiders and every squad that made a postseason run Shop the UFA Replica Collection. Curious what makes this year's kits different? Read more about APX, or head to beultimate.com for everything else we're building this season.
Here's to another year of being part of some of the best ultimate in the world.
