Gloucester Rugby have revealed their brand new 2018/19 home shirt from XBlades, the most notable aspect of which is a radically redesigned club logo that will adorn the famous cherry and white jersey from now on. The new home shirt is a modern yet classic take on the traditional hooped Gloucester jersey that’s reminiscent of their 2002/3 shirt– abandoning the classic hoops that XBlades have opted for in recent seasons, the 2018/19 home shirt is a primarily red accented with thin white hoops, themselves flanked with dark blue/grey pinstripes either side. It’s all capped off with a dark blue/grey collar and sleeve cuffs.
The new badge is no doubt going to be the most talked about aspect of the new design, however, as it’s a radical departure to the previous badge, which the club has worn on their jerseys since 2005, and was influenced by the City of Gloucester coat of arms the club had previously worn.
Instead, the new crest is defiantly modern design, but incorporates several aspects of the club’s history – the lion is a holdover from previous Gloucester badges and again throws back to the city’s coat of arms, while the red and white stripes of the lion’s mane are designed to reflect the cherry and white hoops of Gloucester’s classic jersey.
The shield of the badge is designed as a nod to the history of the city of Gloucester, while the ‘1873’ is of course a nod to the club’s long and prestigious history.
It had been rumoured that the rebrand of the club’s visual identity would be tied up in a name change to ‘Gloucester Lions’ but perhaps as a result of the mixed reaction that the Bristol Bears got last month, that has been either shelved or put on hold for the time being.
What do you think of the new Gloucester jerseys and their new club crest? Keep an eye on Rugby Shirt Watch for our review of the new jerseys soon.
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Liked the logo. The idea of bringing back 2002 jersey is nicely thought, but this XBlades collar is awful.
I am a Yank that follows Gloucester having even seen a match standing in the Shed back in the early 90’s. And the first thing I thought of when I saw the crest this morning was…Leicester Tigers! Love the jersey, like that they wanted to update the crest, but didn’t anyone on the design team look at the other crests in the Preimiership and think…OK so the cat profile with stripes is out…Next.
I understand a re brand is necessary every so often, but I feel this logo falls short. It seems like the designer has just grabbed a picture of a lion of google images. Plus the poor addition of the ‘1873’, very understated.
The design is strong and holds it’s own. It’s just a shame the neck and fit of the XBlades pattern looks poor.
Are they trying to be like Leicester tigers?
The logo itself looks good, it’s just the shirt is very poor
The Shirt i think is the right shade of red, Nice design, The logo is terrible, and the carpet sponsor on the sleeve is just as bad. If the old badge was on this shirt, and the carpet logo was removed i definitely would by this shirt
This iss awesome