Exeter Chiefs, the English rugby union club based at Sandy Park in Devon, adopted a new visual identity in 2022 that replaced its long-standing Native American-themed crest. The club, founded in October 1872 as Exeter Rugby Club and rebranded as Exeter Chiefs in 1999, introduced a logo inspired by the Celtic Iron Age Dumnonii Tribe, which historically occupied Devon, Cornwall and parts of Somerset.[1][2]
Design and History
For decades, the Exeter Chiefs crest featured a Native American figure in a feathered headdress. That imagery drew sustained criticism from supporters, rival clubs and the National Congress of American Indians, which wrote to the club stating the branding “harms native people through the offensive stereotypes it promotes.”[3] The club retired its “Big Chief” mascot in 2020 and, after a two-year internal review, announced in January 2022 that it would abandon the Native American-themed brand entirely.[2][3]
The new logo, unveiled on 27 January 2022 and officially adopted in July 2022, retains the “Exeter Rugby” text and “Chiefs” wordmark from the previous crest but replaces the Native American figure with the helmeted image of a Celtic warrior.[4][5] The club said the change came after “detailed submissions, together with extensive historical research from leading professionals,” and the choice of the Dumnonii followed work by local historians and Exeter University.[2][6]
Chairman and chief executive Tony Rowe said the club would spend close to £500,000 on the rebrand, which included a complete facelift at Sandy Park and new playing kit, with the old imagery phased out gradually.[6] The club also renamed its “Wigwam” and “Tomahawk” stadium bars as part of the wider identity change.[7]
Meaning and Symbolism
The club stated that the new logo “is made up of elements which represent the region’s Celtic history, as well as its links to the Iron Age Dumnonii Tribe, whose presence in the local area mirrors our own, ever-expanding supporter base.”[8] The Dumnonii Tribe encompassed Devon, Cornwall and parts of Somerset for centuries before the Roman occupation from AD 43, and the later “Celtic Kingdom of Dumnonia” was established around AD 410 and lasted almost 500 years.[2]
The helmet depicted in the crest is based on Celtic helmets known to have been worn around 300 BC, featuring a hammered design in the style of La Tène art, a decorative style popular in Britain in the last few centuries BC.[8][9]
Rowe emphasised that the “Chiefs” name itself was retained because the term was “equally entrenched in our make-up, going back to over a century ago when teams in this region would regularly call their first teams that of the Chiefs.”[2]
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