Wigan Warriors have unveiled a new club badge, which will become central to the club’s identity and will take immediate effect.
The club believes it has created an eye-catching identity that will appeal to a new generation of supporters.
In a radical change to the club’s long-standing crest, a Warrior now features at the centre of the design, in keeping with the identity that the club has held throughout the Super League era, whilst also retaining several elements that are crucial to Wigan’s heritage.
Elements within the new badge include: The iconic Northern Soul circular shape, which is synonymous with the town; one of Wigan’s founding Brigante warriors at the centrepiece; a reference to the first year rugby was played in Wigan (1872); the club’s and the town’s ‘Ancient and Loyal’ motto; the club’s iconic cherry and white hoops; the shield from the former crest with a modern twist; and the club’s world-famous name.
“As part of Super League’s adoption of a broadcast-first digital strategy, they did an individual audit of Super League clubs to inform clubs where they thought they were at,” explained Wigan director Kris Radlinski.
“The main feedback we got was that our crest was outdated, old fashioned and probably not recognisable. This reaffirmed what we had been thinking for a while, that we needed to do something with our badge.
“We’ve made no secret over the past few years that we need to attract a younger crowd. We do have an ageing fanbase, so we need to look at different ways in which we can engage and inspire the next generation in this hyper-connected world we are now living in.
“My Chairman, Ian Lenagan, and I, who between us, have got around 120 years’ worth of invested commitment and emotion in the club, feel as though now is the right time to do it. We know that fans are consuming sports differently, so we took a look at the current sporting landscape to see what’s working for some of the biggest clubs in the world and fed that into the process.
“The whole process has taken just over a year, from the initial brainstorming meetings, through the design process and then ultimate sign off. With a project of this size, consultation from all stakeholders has to be an important consideration which is why speaking to a cross-section of fans was critical in this process.
“All we ask is that fans approach this with an open mind and understand that we are doing it to make us better and improve everything we offer to them.
“I am confident we are doing this for the right reasons, which is to make this Rugby League club a better club.
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