Since the recent establishment of the interim Scottish Ice Hockey (SIH) Committee the issue of the sport’s branding has been a constant topic of conversation, particularly as the National Programme moves towards competition season.

It was understandably important to engage with the members before any change was made and they were presented with the following options:

• A – Lion Rampant is a step in the right direction – 54%.
• B – Keep the unicorn, Scotland’s national animal – 4%.
• C – Back to the thistle and sticks, no change please – 42%

With an excellent 77% member turnout to vote on the three options, it was abundantly clear that the unicorn design was unpopular with the membership.

The new Lion Rampant design proved to be the most popular and will be adopted along with the current SIH font with immediate effect for all branding moving forward.

However, it was also clear that many members still favoured the traditional thistle and sticks design which predated the unicorn.

The revised design is unlikely to be the final piece and a more thorough branding exercise will be required ahead of next season.

This will take into account the members’ views expressed to date and the outputs of a full rebranding exercise.