Stunning Stormers rebrand is a reboot into the future

Published on 13th August 2025 | Leave a response

The Stormers of 2025 have landed with emotion, power, authority, innovation and authenticity, writes Mark Keohane. They symbolise something very special in the world of rugby.

It has taken 26 years but the wait has been worth it for the Stormers in having a global brand presence that speaks to everything about the history of the club, the ambition of the club and the people of the city, region and province that this club represents in the Western Cape.

I have never masked my love for the Stormers. As a supporter, they are my club.

I was born in Kuilsriver and schooled in Kuilsriver and Durbanville in city’s northern suburbs.

My late mother was a Kiwi and my nickname in primary school was ‘Maortjie Boertjie’.

I have played and lived rugby in this province all my life and professionally I was fortunate to work on the 1999 Men in Black campaign, which was a winner, for that time in South African and Western Cape rugby, and in an age where Super Rugby and professionalism was the next big thing.

Western Province had played in the 1996 inaugural Super Rugby season and missed the following year. The Western Stormers, made up of Boland, Western Province and South Western Districts, were the 1998 regional participants, but it was in 1999 when the Stormers, through the Men in Black, were born as a club.

The professional game in the Western Cape needed an identity that did not confuse the Super Rugby squad with the domestic provincial team. The Cape of Storms, the lightning bolt and the colour black. It worked 26 years ago.

Today’s rugby landscape is different, and so is Cape Town as the most sought after international city destination.

The Stormers rebrand speaks to the city they call home in appeal and in trend, and in international appeal.

This week I was given a glimpse into the thought process of the Stormers logo symbolism which speaks directly to its design.

The blue and white hoops, which are the history of rugby in the province, are dominant, the design of Cape Town’s DHL Stadium, which is the Stormers’ Theatre of Dreams’ on match day, is obvious when looking at the top of the design and the lightning bolt is as present, but introduced with sophistication more than thunder.

It is striking because the rebrand shows the respect there is for the history of the game in the province, but transports all that was cool in 1999 into all that is cool in 2025 with the most glorious of strikes.

Lightning does strike twice: It did in 1999 and it has in 2025.

The Stormers, in last season’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship, averaged the highest ground attendance, exceeding 25 000 a match, and this did not include any home play-off matches. They also sold out for two league fixtures, which was a first in the club’s URC history.

The URC is still in its infancy as an international league, but the Stormers will always be the first team to have won the title, and the ambition of the club, through Director of Rugby John Dobson and the new ownership, led by Johan le Roux, is to sit at the top table of world club rugby, starting with a sustained challenge in the URC and Investec Champions Cup and, through on-field success, automatic qualification for the inaugural 2028 World Club competition that is expected to feature the top eight Investec Champions Cup teams, the best from Super Rugby Pacific, Japan and the United States of America.

Dobson is a Cape Town rugby thoroughbred, blue blood and original: He was born, schooled and raised in these parts, and is a historian of the club’s history because he has lived it at every level at school, varsity, amateur club, provincial, fan, assistant coach and coach of the youth teams, the provincial teams and now the Stormers, where he doubles as head coach and Director of Rugby.

Dobson’s late father Paul was the most renowned rugby historian in South Africa, among the most celebrated internationally, a school master in Cape Town and a referee in the province. The blue and white hoops rugby DNA has always been in the Dobson family.

Home is where the heart is, and so many of the Stormers current squad learned to play in this province, were schooled in this province and chose to live their professional dream with the Stormers.

The essence of the rebrand comes from the identity of a squad Dobson shaped that speaks to every suburb in the province because the players and coaches have a history with those suburbs, through birth, childhood and high school.

Those who have sought out the Stormers as a new home always adapt quickly and the biggest World Cup winning home grown talents who play for overseas clubs have publicly stated their desire to return to the city and the Stormers for one last hurrah.

The seduction of the Stormers, like Cape Town as a international tourist destination, is tangible, but now there is a commercial rugby purpose to dovetail with the passion that has always been the trademark of those who support the Stormers and those who play for them.

Dobson, when he took charge of the Stormers emphasised the need to ‘make Cape Town smile’.

He and his squad have done this, through winning titles, winning clutch matches and playing the beautiful game beautifully. They have invested in their supporters and in the dreams of their fans, as much as they have in their own.

‘In it together’ is what describes the Stormers of 2025 and last season’s stadium and television broadcast, digital and social media numbers reinforce that the rugby people of the Stormers, players, coaches and supporters, have always been ‘in it together’.