Tranent Juniors Football Club was established in 1911 in the town of Tranent, East Lothian. The Belters, as they are known, competed in the Scottish Junior Football Assocation for the vast majority of their existence. During their pre-Lowland League days, the greatest honour they enjoyed was winning the 1934/35 Scottish Junior Cup with a landslide 6–1 victory over Petershill at Ibrox Park (home of Rangers FC).
For the 2018/19 season, Tranent joined the East of Scotland League. Their time in this league was short, with the club winning the league in the 2021/22 season (finishing with 80 points, the same as Penicuik Athletic, but overwhelming the second-placed side with a +59 to +38 goal difference). This achievment reserved the Belters a spot in the three-match round robin Lowland League play-off. They faced the winners of the South of Scotland and West of Scotland Football Leagues (St Cuthbert Wanderers and Darvel, respectively).
During the mini-tournament, they trounced their opponents, finishing without conceding a goal and accumulating nine goals and two victories in the process. For the 2022/23 season, Tranent replaced Vale of Leithen (who were relegated from the Lowland League after finishing the 2021/22 season with a dismal record of one win, two draws and 31 losses). Upon entering the Lowland League, Tranent Juniors retained their name, despite having reached the heights of senior football, in order to call back to their long junior league heritage.
The current Tranent badge consists of a centerpiece of the Tranent coat of arms, topped with a banner containing the club’s name and another banner containing the club’s motto on the bottom. In redesigning this badge, I kept wanting to move away from the busy detail of the current badge. The Tranent coat of arms references the town’s assocaition with agriculture and coal-mining, with the left half portraying a farm worker harvesting by day and the right half portraying a coal-miner working by night. A crossed hammer and sickle would have served as an excellent minimalistic image, but its other associations would detract from the meaning of the badge. And while I appreciate the Scots ‘LIE FORRIT’ (‘lie forward’) motto, I decided to do away with all but the club’s initials (TJFC) and year of founding in the redesigned badge.
The kit redesigns are based on Tranent’s historical colour scheme (maroon and white) and current away colour scheme: