Northampton Saints unveil new club crest

Gallagher Premiership champions Northampton Saints have unveiled their new club crest which will be used from next season.

The club announced in March that they would be changing their crest, which had only been included on kits from 1984, to reflect the identity of the club.

Following extensive research, Northampton found that the former crest posed five problems that they looked to address.

According to surveyed fans, the previous crest was difficult to recall, did not showcase the club's core colours (black, green and gold), did not reference the club's history, did not raise awareness of the club and was difficult to recognise when scaled down.

The new crest, produced in consultation with Jard Studio, appears to resolve those issues, with the Saints integrating their first-ever emblem into a simplified design.

"We have evolved our crest to truly reflect the identity of Northampton Saints," chief executive Mark Darbon said.

"Ensuring that we honoured the history and tradition of the club, whilst looking ahead to the future, has been at the heart of all of our work – and we are grateful to our club historian Graham McKechnie, the Heritage team at Northampton Saints Foundation, and Jard Studio for all their diligent research and support throughout the project.

Everyone at the club is extremely excited about this new crest. As with anything new, we understand it will take some time to reflect on and get used to, but I very much hope that our fans too will support it, given its importance for the future of Northampton Saints.

"We believe that we must look forward to secure the continued relevance, appeal and sustainability of this brilliant club."

Club historian Graham McKechnie added: "This may be a new crest for Saints, but it’s very clearly something that is rooted within the club’s history."