Championship big hitters reveal eye-catching rebrand with new logo for 2026

Championship side Widnes Vikings have revealed a rebrand and fresh logo for the 2026 season which they insist gives them a better identity. 

The Vikings, who will be hopeful of a push towards the top end of the newly-merged Championship next year, have ditched their old logo for one which they say better represents the club’s name and the history and heritage of the town of Widnes.

With the town’s motto of Industria Ditat central to the logo, as well as a Viking and the use of the club’s birth year – 1875 – Widnes have a fresh look for 2026 that chairman Stuart Murphy insisted was vital for the club to keep growing.

He said: “One of the main decisions 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’’ 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, the number of people who’ve said, ‘Vikings, that’s what we are’.

“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!”

Another crucial feature of the new logo, which will feature on Widnes’ new kits that are released next month, is a single gold star to signify that the club were previously world champions.