On Tuesday, The Athletic ran with an exclusive that next season all of Arsenal’s kits would have the “new cannon” emblazoned upon them rather than the club badge – similar to this season’s 3rd shirt.

Now before I begin, let’s put away the debate surrounding it not being the old cannon, and it pointing the wrong way. We will never change the decision made by the club 20 years ago, and for many fan under 30, the current cannon is the real cannon.

This decision by the club is something that I can get behind.

Since we changed our badge to the cartoon version, most other clubs have followed suit – and they all must have used the same designer as they all follow almost the same spec.

Why are we changing?

Ultimately, top sporting teams are brands. Therefore, when it comes to marketing themselves, they will follow the trends of the time to ensure that they stay on top.

Modern logos, however, are simple. Designers would call them “minimalist”. Think the nike swoosh, Apple logo, McDonald’s M.

Arsenal are simply following suit by stripping back the logo on the shirt to its most basic part – the cannon.

Following in others footsteps

Liverpool currently use the liver bird with the letters ‘LFC’ underneath it, whilst Tottenham have just the seagull sitting on a beachball. Manchester United mimicked Arsenal by opting for a stripped back logo for just one of their shirts this season (a red devil on the away shirt).

In recent years, we have also seen Puma produce kits that contain no club badge, and instead have the names of the club across the front.

A stripped back logo rather than full club crest looks a lot cleaner and sharper, and creates a much stronger brand awareness.

Nothing is ever really new

I am a big believer that history just repeats itself when it comes to trends.

You only have to look at music and clothing to see what was once popular will become popular once more in the future.

This move by Arsenal will not be the first team we have gone with just a cannon. Infact, two of our clubs greatest moments came with a stripped back logo rather than a full crest – Anfield 89 and the 1971 double winning team.

Logo’s on shirts became a regular thing in 1967 (prior to that, a club would only really have their crest on a shirt for an FA Cup Final).

From 1967 through to 1990, Arsenal only ever had a cannon.

As the trends changed, clubs moved to badges in the 90s, and Arsenal adopted the Islington based crest (which was also the official club badge). This remained the case until the 2002 change.

So a cannon on the shirt is not new. It is just the trend returning to the minimilistic logos of the 60s, 70s and 80s.

And what is happening with the crest?

The cartoon crest is going no-where. It is still going to be the official emblem of Arsenal Football club.

Whilat it was not the style to have crests on shirts prior to the late 60s, Arsenal still had an official crest (the most famous being the “art deco”. The club changed this to the Islington crest in 1949 but still played without a badge on the shirt.

When it became common for logos to be on shirts, Arsenal went for the cannon in 1967 rather than the Islington crest, thus leaving us with a “shirt emblem” and an “official club crest”.

This change is just us going back to that era where we have a simple logo on the shirt, and then the official club crest sitting alongside it.

Final thoughts

I have thought for a long time that we should simplify our crest to just the cannon, so I am delighted we are making the move.

Now it will be interesting to see whether this is just a one-off, or whether the minimalist logo is here to stay…

Keenos