Leeds United Yorkshire Rose badge history & fan design truth amid 2026/27 away kit reveal — YEP 4/6/26
By Kyle Newbould
A look at the history behind the badge adorning Leeds
United’s 2026/27 Adidas away shirt.
Leeds United officially released their 2026/27 away kit on
Thursday with a nod to one of the club’s most successful periods in history.
The Whites published a brilliant release film narrated by
club legend Lucas Radebe, showcasing the lengths fans go to watch their beloved
club on the road. A handful of current squad members are also involved,
including Anton Stach, Ethan Ampadu, Joe Rodon and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Next season’s away design has reverted back to the bold
yellow that brought record sales ahead of the 2024/25 campaign, but the
similarities don’t end there. Like the 1970s smiley badge that adorned that
Championship title-winning kit, Leeds have gone retro again with the use of
their much-loved Yorkshire Rose badge.
Leeds had their Yorkshire Rose badge in place over a 14-year
period from 1984 to 1998, a hugely successful spell spent mostly under iconic
manager Howard Wilkinson. The new crest was actually introduced when Eddie Gray
was manager, with Wilkinson taking charge in 1988.
Wilkinson’s Leeds won the Second Division title in their
third campaign in 1989/90 before climbing straight up to fourth in the First
Division the following season. They would then go one better, claiming the
First Division title in 1991/92 - their last top-flight triumph.
It remained on the shirt of Leeds players heading into the
first ever Premier League campaign the following season. It lasted six more
years before a bold change in 1998.
How did the Yorkshire Rose badge come about?
Interestingly, the badge on the front of next season’s away
shirt was actually designed by a Leeds fan way back in 1984. A woman by the
name of Brenda Reader won a competition in the Yorkshire Evening Post to design
a new crest for the club.
The decision was supposedly reached to make a change because
chairman at the time Leslie Silver deemed the Peacock badge from 1980-1984 to
be potentially unlucky. Hundreds of designs were sent to the YEP, with Mrs.
Reader’s singled out by manager Gray and the players.
Speaking to the YEP at the time, via a post on X from
@Leeds_Snippets, competition winner Mrs. Reader said: “I did five designs in
all because I wanted to put together something that would be effective. The
flower and the ball seemed to be the most important element.”
Why was the Yorkshire Rose badge changed?
The Yorkshire Rose badge remained on club shirts right up
until 1998, the point at which it officially changed to a shield shape now seen
on modern designs. But despite being sacked two years prior, Wilkinson also had
a huge influence on the bold change of shape.
Wilkinson admired a shield-shape badge on the suits of
Italian national team members during Euro ‘96 and pushed for a more
internationally recognisable design. The White boss believed the Yorkshire Rose
crest to be slightly unclear and not obviously a Leeds badge when seen from a
distance.
He then sketched a shield design himself, ensuring the
Yorkshire Rose remained but much smaller, at the top of the new badge.
Wilkinson was sacked in September 1996 but Leeds kept the crest in their back
pocket, officially releasing it two years later.
