Stade Rennais F.C., the French football club founded on 10 March 1901 in Rennes, Brittany, has carried a visual identity rooted in the red and black colors of the Football Club Rennais since a 1904 merger created the Stade Rennais Université Club (SRUC).[1] The club’s crest has evolved through several distinct phases, with the ermine, a heraldic symbol of Brittany, as a recurring motif.
Design and History
Early in the 20th century, the club’s emblem was a simple heraldic ermine, not yet stylized as it appears today.[2] By 1965, the year of the club’s first Coupe de France victory, the crest had taken a round form featuring the colors of the city of Rennes, including five ermines over white and black stripes in its upper quarter, with large “SR” letters on a red and black background below.[2]
In the 1970s, the ermine returned in a new form: the animal, emblem of Brittany, appeared as a pair holding a ball between them on a red and black background, a design close to the current crest.[2] The club’s official history confirms that the two ermines appeared on the Stade Rennais F.C. crest in the 1970s.[3]
The crest only became a regular feature on outfield players’ shirts in 1994, and from the summer of 1996 it was permanently installed on the jersey.[2] In 1997, the badge adopted a more modern, octagonal shape with simplified ermines, a version used for six years.[2]
For the club’s centenary in 2001, a new crest was created with a golden border and “Centenaire 1901 2000” lettering.[2] In 2003, after the celebrations, the crest was simplified again while keeping the main lines of the previous version: the centenary reference was removed, but the club’s founding date, which had never appeared before 2001, was retained.[2] Ouest-France dates the current crest’s design to 2002, describing it as a copy of the centenary version with the “centenaire” mention removed.[1]
For the club’s 125th anniversary in March 2026, Stade Rennais and Puma unveiled a collector’s jersey that, for the first time in the club’s modern history, revived the historic crest created in 1901 when the club was founded.[4] The anniversary shirt, worn for the first time in a match against Lille OSC on 15 March at Roazhon Park, featured the original 1901 badge in place of the modern emblem.[4][5]
Meaning and Symbolism
At the center of the current crest, two ermines are depicted contending for a ball.[1] The ermine is a symbol of Brittany that the club has consistently adopted.[1] According to the club, the ermine, immaculately white in winter, is a symbol of loyalty and purity, and was initially speckled when the club was founded before the two ermines appeared on the crest in the 1970s.[3]
The red and black colors come from the Football Club Rennais, which merged with Stade Rennais in 1904 to form the SRUC.[1]
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