There are many reasons why we have made this bold change; some more important than others. Our existing crest is associated with cherished memories, but unfortunately doesn’t appeal to new generations in the way that it has done previously and is a difficult crest to recreate in many formats, not least in many areas of merchandising where clubs with a fresher identity hold an advantage over us in terms of the garments suited to their club logo. A competition-wide audit of Super League club logos fed back a response that our crest felt dated compared to the rest of the division. Therefore, armed with the offer of one of the most renowned design agencies in the country, Nomad, to guide us through the process, we felt that it was an opportune time to give us an exciting new look to give us a fresh and easily identifiable new badge to use for many years to come. We needed something fit for the digital and broadcast age which would appeal to the many new audiences that we’re keen to attract, ensuring that we always have a ‘next generation’ of fans ready to back the Club and continue its proud heritage… hitting 2021 and beyond with an energy and optimism that isn’t as prevalent elsewhere in professional sport right now due to obvious global challenges. Nomad – who were behind the positive re-designs of the Premier League brand and Sky Sports’ identity in recent years – have carefully taken on board our key requests on what needs to be part of the new badge and created something that we’re truly proud of, and hope all of our fans will be too.

This will become the club’s primary badge for all the places you’d normally expect to see it – on our kit, merchandise, stadium signage, across our media channels, on live TV coverage and so on. It will be a big process to roll it out in place of the existing crest, but you can expect to see it much more prevalently in the coming months as we add it to the DW Stadium, Robin Park Arena and all of our external advertising, complimenting the immediate switch we have already made across our website and social media platforms. We will continue to use the existing crest on our kit and training wear until the end of the 2020 season before adopting it on the new Hummel range for 2021 and beyond. You will continue to see the existing crest tastefully used where it’s appropriate, e.g. on merchandise heritage ranges, on historical/flashback content or – we hope – on items such as players’ suit jackets if we make future Wembley finals, where something like the iconic town crest feels like a more fitting addition to the garment and the occasion.

This has been a huge exercise for the whole club, featuring every department of the club and every tier of staff, working alongside some hugely important people to make sure that we’ve got it right before launching. A number of senior figures within the club – including our ownership group – began the consultation process with Nomad to create the outline design, which has then been refined through feedback from a sub-committee of several members of staff and a selection of supporters from a wide-cross section of our fanbase; young and old, local and exiled (who have been hugely supportive and tremendously trustworthy in keeping this information away from the public domain). The same groups have then been responsible for creating the wide array of videos, microsites, social media teasers and countless other content pieces that have helped to bring the new design to life, with support from our long-standing design partners Fishtank, external media organisations, researchers from local universities and key figures within the game, who have given us some valuable time and feedback to ensure that the process has been as thoroughly researched and prepared as possible.

In many ways, there has never been a better time to make this change. Though it was planned long before we knew how this remarkable year was going to unfold, we have carried through with our plans to unveil it in 2020 as we feel that it shows great belief that we’re going to come out of this challenge stronger and more ambitious than ever before. The world has changed so much in recent months so it’s a natural fit to make these changes while we’re adapting to new ways of thinking, working and living. We trust that it will become synonymous with a new era of success for the club following the remarkable and unusual challenges that the current year has presented us with.

No. A number of Super League clubs are also in consultation with Nomad as to how they can modify their appearance to create a more modern and easily identifiable appearance, but – as is customary for Wigan – we have taken the bold step of being the first club to confirm our new look and lead where others follow.

Being distinctive within our sport is something that we look upon as an advantage; we have always stood out for our on-field achievements and we intend to stand out for all the right reasons with this new look for our club. There are undoubted crossovers with other professional sports clubs’ badges, but this is reflective of the modern feel of how clubs are presenting themselves, much in the same way that half a century ago – or more – the use of detailed town crests as part of a club’s identity was the prevalent way to go.

Unlike some clubs who had one distinctly traditional design element of a previous crest that you couldn’t imagine them ever being without, there is so much detail to our existing crest, that you could ask 100 fans their views on which elements to retain and get 100 different answers. Ultimately, with no one part of the existing design being uniquely Wigan Warriors, and instead being part of the town’s wider identity, this has provided us with a chance to look at what makes up Wigan Warriors. As a result, for the first time we incorporate our traditional cherry and white hoops into our badge, along with the iconic year of 1872 when the first Wigan club started playing rugby and incorporated a more recent element of our identity with the Warrior getting a distinct look for the first time. Our circular design also pays homage to an entirely different chapter in our town’s proud history by evoking memories of the iconic Northern Soul logo that become synonymous with Wigan. Of course, the one key element that has stood the test of time is our proud ‘Ancient and Loyal’ motto, which is retained on the new badge and is arguably now more intrinsically linked with our club than it is with our town.

We have now been Wigan Warriors across four different decades, but this significant addition to our club’s identity has never matched up with the badge on our shirts. The distinct look of our Warrior allows us to now have a characteristic akin to the cannon at Arsenal, the Brisbane Bronco or the Raiders badge in NFL that has moved cities more than once, yet still represented the same institution… something that sports fans can see in isolation and immediately associate with our club, heightening the wider awareness of our club and our sport. It’s an element of the badge that can be seen in isolation and yet still be identifiable as Wigan Warriors, without any of the accompanying detail such as our name, year of foundation or motto that appears on the full version of the badge.

There are many benefits to this new design; not least the fact that it’s entirely ours and not shared with other institutions within our town. This has given us a chance to incorporate cleaner lines, bolder elements and a colour scheme that is the perfect fit with our club colours for the first time. Now that we’re into the digital age, this design – placed side by side against our existing crest – stands out and our name is given much greater visibility in the increasingly important area of digital media, helping us to gain recognition among new fans, far and wide. Whilst it wasn’t at the top of our list of considerations, the circle is also the perfect shape for social media platforms, so we’re maximising the chance to make our identity stand out in that critical area of communications where thousands of elite professional sports clubs are competing for attention.

The decision to go for a circle provided many strategic advantages, such as those we’ve already mentioned like the subtle connection to Northern Soul and the perfect (and increasingly important) fit for social media, but it also proved to be one of the tidiest and most flexible options when thinking about the kind of places it’s likely to be seen. It’s no coincidence that some of the world’s leading sports clubs like Manchester City, Paris St Germain, Inter Milan and David Beckham’s Inter Miami have opted for a circular badge; they’re some of the leading lights in maximising awareness of their identity and have gone for this shape because it seems to work better than other ways of providing a defined border to the badge. If we’d simply added a border to our current crest, we’d run the risk of further squashing an already detailed logo into an even smaller space on a number of different platforms where it already starts to look a bit squashed (e.g. social media profile images, small icons on fixture lists, etc).

We’ve always represented our town with pride and will never lose that contact, hence why the existing crest will continue to be used as a heritage design; e.g. on reproductions of classic shirts, historical content or for possible incorporation as a cup final blazer embroidery; much like the way Manchester United players sport their city’s coat of arms on their official suit when traveling to games. The new badge that will appear on our playing shirt, stationary, merchandise and any representations of the club in the media is able to pay greater homage to our identity as a club through all of the more personalised elements that we’ve now introduced. We trust that keeping both designs for different uses ensures that we can be proud of both our club and town identity.

We’ve long held the Wigan Warriors name, but never been able to provide the warrior element with a clear visual identity. Now we have a figurehead as part of our crest that can help everyone to visualise what Wigan’s warrior looks like. The striking design includes some key features that make him unique to our club and town, including – for starters – him being a Brigante warrior, and the connection to our town’s roots that entails. His piercing eyes are a deeper look into the steely determination and relentless nature of Wigan people – something in our eyes that you just have to know to understand (or fear if you hail from elsewhere)! A subtle reference to our name is incorporated into his beard, shaped to form a visual WW across both sides of the face.

We’re proud of our historic colours, so it made perfect sense for these to be the lead colours on our new design, with subtle use of black outlines where needed. The beauty of this predominantly single colour design is that we can be more versatile in how the badge can be used on replica kits to fit in with the overall design. Cherry and white remains the primary colour scheme and will always feature on our home strip, but should we decide to go with a predominant colour on an away strip that wouldn’t necessarily look quite right with a mainly cherry badge (e.g. colours like black or purple that we’ve used in recent seasons), we can change the badge colour to match the strip (or provide a more aesthetically pleasing colour contrast) in those situations, as teams as diverse as Celtic, LA Lakers and South Sydney Rabbitohs have done with recent strips.

The date pays homage to the first Wigan rugby team, who played their first game in that year and were the forerunners to the club we now know and love. In changing the look and feel of the badge from something historic, we felt that it was important to pay tribute to a different part of our back story by including this significant date – especially given that we’re very close to the 150th anniversary of rugby being played in Wigan.

It’s a fair question, but nor does our existing crest either, which has simply read ‘Wigan Warriors’ since the mid-00s, having previously been adorned with ‘Wigan R.L.’ for a few years either side of the turn of the Millennium. Our long-standing belief is that the Wigan name – especially when quantified with our full Wigan Warriors title – is unmistakably intertwined with the concept of rugby league itself and that to many people, we ARE rugby league, so we’re confident enough to leave this off our badge to keep it clean and un-cluttered and help to reinforce the Wigan Warriors name as boldly and widely as possible. When you look at almost every instantly recognisable team logo from the world of professional sport – think Chicago Bulls, New York Yankees, Manchester United – none of them reference the sport they play by name, and many don’t give any clues visually either, because their reputation and achievements transcend the sport they play. We’re confident that we belong in that company.

Looking around the current badges of our fellow Super League clubs, you’ll see a neat split between those who just utilise the club name (e.g. Warrington Wolves, Leeds Rhinos) and those who use a number of different styles to reference the sport (e.g. Wakefield Trinity RLFC, Hull Kingston Rovers RFC and St Helens R.F.C.). In terms of design elements, none of the current badges feature a rugby ball; the nearest match is the shape of the Catalans Dragons and St Helens badges.