After months of speculation on Twitter and other web sources, it would appear that the rumours are correct and Everton are set to introduce a new badge from next season.
What remains unclear is how wide the badge will be used. Will it appear on the shirts from next season, or will it simply be used by the club on a range of merchandise?
Everton wouldn’t be the first club to modernise their “logo” in recent times, with a number of leading clubs, most noticeably Arsenal, updating their badge to appeal to a growing global market. The new design has been protected by the club, with a far reaching copyright application submitted to the Intellectual Property Office. The application does include the use of the logo on the club shirt, and I for one would be surprised if the badge doesn’t appear on the 2013-14 Nike shirts.
Amongst all the furore, we must remember the Everton badge has had many iterations over the years. The picture below shows a number of different badges that have adorned Everton shirts since a badge was first incorporated on the tops in the 1970s.
Much of the anger on social media platforms has been over the removal of the laurels and the disappearance of the clubs famous Latin motto. It is hoped that although the club have chosen to adopt a new badge, most probably on the playing shirt, the club remains loyal to over 80 years of history and retains the current badge as the official club logo. The badge was first designed by Theo Kelly in 1938 and although it has been modernised as generations have passed, any changes have been minimalistic as demonstrated by this picture below.