NAC Breda, the Dutch football club founded on September 19, 1912, uses a crest that directly revives its original emblem. The current badge is a black shield with a thin yellow border, crossed diagonally by a yellow band carrying the black letters N.A.C.[1] The club’s classic home shirt mirrors this design with a yellow shirt and black diagonal sash.[2]
Design and History
NAC Breda has used four different logos over the course of its history.[1] The first, a black shield with a diagonal yellow band containing the letters N.A.C., was used from 1912 until 1965.[1] A local Breda news source dates this original mark as the club’s emblem from 1912 to 1968.[3]
Between 1974 and 1996, the club used a slanted letter logo.[4] In 1996, when NAC moved to a new stadium, a marketing agency argued the old letter logo conveyed decline, and the club adopted a new emblem featuring lions.[4] The lion logo never fully resonated with supporters, who felt it replaced a piece of the club’s identity with a marketing story.[4]
In 2012, for the club’s centenary, the initiative came from the Stichting 100 jaar NAC foundation. Its chairman, Peter Daalmans, explained that the group considered NAC’s identity and arrived at the first logo, which they felt best expressed the club.[1] The new mark closely resembled the original 1912 shield, with one addition: a thin yellow border around the shield.[1] The logo was initially introduced for the jubilee season only, with a decision on permanence deferred.[1]
The jubilee logo became permanent in 2013. The Stichting 100 jaar NAC paid for the change, using surplus funds from the centenary celebrations that supporters had raised. The operation cost between ten and fifteen thousand euros and covered all branding applications, including the large lion logo on the stadium facade, which was replaced with the 1912 design.[5] Peter Daalmans noted that the lion logo was designed by a marketing agency and never truly fit the club, while the restored mark was designed by NAC’s founders a hundred years earlier.[5]
Meaning and Symbolism
Hans Poppelaars, NAC’s marketing manager at the time of the 2012 reintroduction, described the first logo as “the origin, the source” and said the centenary was an opportunity to carry a good logo while nodding to history.[1] Peter Daalmans added that the restored logo “really is NAC” and that it stays with you and tells something about the club.[1] He also noted that supporters had little connection with the lions on the previous logo, suggesting rats, the supporter nickname, would be more fitting than lions.[1]
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