- Strauss will be official workwear partner of Uefa Euro 2028
- UK is delivering double-digit growth, outpacing Strauss’s home market
- Tournament also prompts rethink of aspects of company’s UK operations
German workwear brand Strauss will invest more behind its new sponsorship of the Uefa European Championship than it did for Euro 2024 as it looks to drive further growth in the UK, according to chief executive Henning Strauss.
SportsPro can exclusively reveal that the company will be the official workwear partner of Uefa Euro 2028, joining the likes of Alibaba, Coca-Cola and Hisense as a global sponsor of the tournament, which will be held in the UK and Ireland.
Founded in 1948, the family-owned business is already one of the most recognisable workwear brands in German-speaking countries and generates around €1.4 billion (US$1.6 billion) in annual revenue. In recent years, though, it has put sponsorship at the heart of its efforts to grow internationally, especially through soccer.
Speaking to SportsPro in London, Strauss described the UK as one of the company’s “best-performing growth markets” and said the country’s hosting of the Euros was “definitely” one of the key reasons for sponsoring the tournament.
“It’s quite a milestone for us as a brand, being one of the very few global partners, with our family brand next to some other companies that are much larger than ours,” he said.
“We appreciate it as an opportunity to make more of a splash on a global scale.”
Strauss became the first-ever sponsor of Uefa refereeing earlier this year (Image credit: Strauss)
This is essentially a renewal for the company, which was the official workwear partner of Euro 2024 in its home market, and Strauss said part of the motivation for returning was to convey the brand’s reliability and consistency.
At the same time, Strauss noted that the company’s involvement in Euro 2024 was “almost expected” because, at that point, the brand was a long-running partner of the German Football Association (DFB) and sponsored other Bundesliga soccer teams.
As a result, Euro 2024 “didn’t have a strong impact” on awareness due to the company’s brand recognition in Germany already being strong, he said.
That is less true in the UK, where the business launched its workwear products in 2002. Despite having partnerships with Premier League clubs like Liverpool, Fulham and Nottingham Forest, Strauss said the brand is not widely known outside its core trade audience, meaning the company plans to activate more during Euro 2028 to raise its profile.
“Given our current market position here, we’ve been around, but there is room to grow,” he said.
“For sure, we will be doing more [activation] than we did last time. We’re going to make sure to activate much, much more and, budget-wise, allow not only in terms of awareness, but ideally also in terms of performance [marketing], to help us actually sell.”
Strauss also expects the global reach of the Euros to put the brand in front of audiences in some of the company’s other key international markets, particularly North America and Australia.
In the US, for example, Fox’s coverage of Euro 2024 averaged 1.68 million viewers per game, with an audience of 6.43 million tuning in for the final.
The company was already set to be visible at Euro 2028 through a recently announced deal to become the first-ever sponsor of Uefa refereeing. That agreement sees the brand’s ostrich logo appear on referee sleeves across Uefa’s club and national team competitions, as well as on the video assistant referee (VAR) monitors and in the governing body’s video operations room in Nyon.
The tournament-wide package gives it a much broader presence through branding on pitchside LED boards, use of tournament marks and fan engagement opportunities. The company will also have the exclusive right to nominate two mascots to walk out with the referees at each game.
The anticipated impact of the partnership has also been the catalyst for a rethink of aspects of the company’s UK operations. Since talks with Uefa began, the business has been adapting products for British tradespeople, reflecting what Strauss described as “slight differences in the way people use tools and pouches”.
It is also considering whether to move to local distribution, rather than shipping from Germany, and further localising its website and social channels.
“If we claim to become relevant from a cultural perspective, we want to make sure we get those details right,” Strauss said.
He added: “We’re already introducing some of these specialities to the market here and really using all the media power the event will give us to strengthen our position.
“At the same time, [we want to] actively sell who we are, staying close to the roots, but creating that awareness and the buzz beyond workwear.”
As far as Strauss is concerned, Euro 2028 “starts now”. Initial meetings around activation plans have already kicked off to make sure that the company leverages the partnership to drive brand recognition in the months leading up to the tournament – not just while games take place.
“[The question is] how we’re going to activate the partnership to really make it relevant beyond the four weeks in that summer,” Strauss said.
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