After placing 15th on the IMG rugby league gradings, Championship club Barrow Raiders have announced a new badge and identity ahead of the 2027 season.
The Cumbrian club will remain the Raiders but they’ve altered their badge to better reflect their own identity and launch into a new era.
Barrow scored highest of all clubs outside Super League when Thursday’s IMG rugby league grades were released, even surpassing London Broncos, and lots of that has come down to the hard work going on at the club.
They’ve now continued that hard work to launch a new identity that is closer linked to the town’s roots and heritage, with a submarine now set to feature on the club badge.
Their statement announced: “The club’s name does not change. Nor do its colours. What changes is the badge, and the way the club presents itself in everything it puts its name to.
“The new badge sets the club’s name against the shipyard that defines the town’s skyline, with a submarine at its centre and the year 1875 on the ball beneath it.”
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Barrow Raiders change badge ahead of 2027 rugby league season
Barrow actually inherited the name Raiders from former club Carlisle but it’s now become their own, however, they’ve adapted their identity to better fit with the town.
They said: “This is a town built by work. Hard, physical, unglamorous work, done in shifts and in all weathers by people who got on with it and did not make a fuss. The yard has set the rhythm of life here for a century and a half, and generations of the same families have gone through those gates.”
On why the name Raiders works so well, they added: “A submarine is a raider. That is what it is for, a vessel that goes out unseen, does what it went to do, and comes home without telling anyone where it has been. Barrow has built them for more than a century. And for the last 25 years, Barrow’s rugby league club has been called the Raiders.”
Club chairman, Steve Neale, added: “We have been the Raiders for many years and we have never really said what we meant by it.
“That is what today is about. Anyone who has worked in this town will recognise themselves in that badge.”
“We were never going to change the name. It might not have started here, it came down the county from Carlisle in 1997 and we kept it, but it is ours now, and there are three generations of supporters who have never called this club anything else. It stays.”
As well as launching a new badge, the club have also confirmed their home and away kits for 2027 with a new kit partner launched in Hummel.
Our town.
Our history.
Our club.
A new identity for Barrow Raiders has arrived 🫶
#GoDeeper https://t.co/CFZna5ENL0
— Barrow Raiders (@BarrowRaiders) October 9, 2026
