A St George’s Day guide to avoiding a branding own goal.

The recent reveal of Nike’s new England football kit ignited a fiery debate which is worth revisiting as we mark St George’s Day. 

Controversy erupted after the US sportswear giant revealed it had altered the red of the traditional St George’s Cross flag on the England kit, introducing purple and blue stripes. In its defence, Nike said the design was "a playful update" to the shirt ahead of Euro 2024.

Building a brand represents a significant investment of time, money and energy. The England kit debacle largely showed the risks associated with making changes which might be considered uncharacteristic and even damaging.

We’d say that a brand can be flexible within reason, but only with firm brand guidelines in place. A properly planned and curated brand can avoid controversy, or even choose to embrace it, providing controversy is relevant to the goals of the organisation it represents.

The process of creating brand guidelines might include an exploration of any elements that are sacred and those that may be subject to future changes.

The heart of the Nike issue lay in Nike’s redesign of the distinctive red on white cross, which some critics argue departs from traditional representations associated with St George’s Day. The kit, representing England on the global stage, carries the weight of national expectation. Critics fear that the modern design elements may dilute the historical and cultural significance of St George’s emblem, reducing its impact to mere aesthetic play.

This debate is not just about a football kit; it’s about how brands like Nike interact with national identity markers. In the age of globalisation, brands often seek to innovate and appeal to a broad audience. However, when these brands engage with symbols deeply rooted in a nation's psyche, like St George’s Cross, the risk of alienating a segment of their consumer base becomes real.

Equally, this debate reflects the importance of ensuring that anything which potentially impacts on your brand is properly considered. It underscores the need for brands to engage in thoughtful consultation and consider the deep-seated meanings of the symbols they wish to reinterpret or incorporate into their products.

Now consider what your branding says about your business and the lengths that you went to ensure that it provides a true representation. As you can read on the Truth website here, we have created and helped to grow some of the UK’s best-loved brands. From inception to enhancement, our strategic partnership between business and branding creates a framework for growth and visibility.

Our Truth Labs series includes the Brand Lab, a highly productive way to solve complex business problems with design thinking. The brands we create may not lean on national icons and emblems, but they are of equal importance to the organisations they represent.

Once we’ve arrived at a brand proposition that works for your business, we’ll support you and your team by providing brand guidelines, with a range of practical pointers to ensure you’ll always get it right when it comes to logos, language and tone of voice, colour palettes and fonts.

It might seem simple, but the controversy surrounding Nike’s latest version of the England football kit shows how easy it is to score an own goal.

Speak to Truth if you’d like help in building and protecting your brand.