WIDNES VIKINGS have unveiled a new club crest, which marks the return of the Viking head to their logo.
They have waved goodbye to the Viking longboat crest, introduced back in 2008, and re-adopted an amended version of the head as part of a wider design.
The Viking head is now surrounded by a black circular band, with red trim, and also features a gold star, to signify the club’s 1989 World Club Challenge victory. The town’s motto, Industria Ditat, Latin for Industry enriches, is included, as is the foundation date of the club, 1875.
Chairman Stuart Murphy said: “One of the main reasons to change was that we needed an identity.
“If you showed this to someone and asked what it is, they would tell you Vikings. The previous crest, that was supposed to be the bottom of a longboat, didn’t clearly signify who we are.
“Another reason to change was that we were the only club in Super League and Championship that had any floating items left on our crest, meaning it was difficult to use our crest in certain ways.
“Industry is a massive thing for this town. We felt it very important to include Industria Ditat on the new crest. We’ve just had our 150th year where we’ve used our heritage crest, that includes those words.
“I stood at the War Memorial in Victoria Park on Remembrance Day recently and you look directly up at it and ‘Industria Ditat’ is there. It’s important it’s there for us, because that’s what we are about.
“We’ve done a lot of product research in the background over the last 12 months to see what people thought and how it will be received.
“We brought the Viking head back on to a few things, we had the 2001 shirt re-release just to see how it went, and the reason was to get feedback from the people of Widnes, and it’s gone down really well.
“We’re really excited to see it out there. It’s been a major project since February, working on everything that requires changing, working with RL Commercial and the RFL; working with designers; kit designs start in May to get produced in time, you won’t believe how much work has gone in to it!”
The new crest will feature on the club’s new kits, due to be released on December 8.