German workwear brand Strauss is set to significantly increase its financial investment for its upcoming sponsorship of the UEFA European Championship compared to its previous involvement with Euro 2024, as the company targets further commercial growth in the United Kingdom.
According to company chief executive Henning Strauss, the family-owned business will serve as an official workwear partner of UEFA Euro 2028. In taking on this prestigious role, the brand joins an elite roster of global sponsors for the tournament, which is scheduled to be jointly hosted across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Other major global brands backing the tournament include corporate heavyweights such as Alibaba, Coca-Cola, and Hisense.
Founded in 1948, Strauss has evolved into one of the most recognizable and successful workwear brands across German-speaking countries, currently generating approximately €1.4 billion (US$1.6 billion) in annual revenue. Over recent years, the company has increasingly placed sports sponsorship at the absolute core of its international expansion strategy, utilizing the immense cultural and mass-market reach of soccer to introduce its products to new territories.
Speaking exclusively in London, Henning Strauss identified the UK market as one of the company’s best-performing growth regions. He confirmed that the UK’s status as the host nation for the upcoming Euros was definitively one of the primary catalysts behind the decision to commit substantial resources to sponsor 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," Henning Strauss said. "We appreciate it as an opportunity to make more of a splash on a global scale."
This upcoming partnership represents a high-profile renewal for the brand, which previously served as the official workwear partner of Euro 2024 within its domestic German market. Reflecting on that previous campaign, Strauss explained that a key motivation for returning to the tournament stage was to continually reinforce the brand’s core corporate values of reliability and consistency.
However, the operational dynamics and market expectations for Euro 2024 were vastly different. Strauss noted that the company’s involvement in the tournament hosted in Germany was "almost expected" by consumers and industry professionals alike. This expectation stemmed from the fact that the brand already maintained a long-running, deeply established partnership with the German Football Association (DFB) alongside ongoing sponsorships of several prominent Bundesliga soccer teams.
Consequently, because domestic brand recognition was already exceptionally high, Euro 2024 "didn’t have a strong impact" on incremental brand awareness in Germany.
The corporate reality in the United Kingdom presents a distinctly different landscape. Strauss first launched its specialized workwear products in the UK back in 2002. Despite having established commercial partnerships with several well-known Premier League clubs—including Liverpool, Fulham, and Nottingham Forest—Strauss acknowledged that the brand is still not widely recognized outside of its core professional trade audience. To rectify this and capture a broader consumer base, the company plans to roll out much more extensive marketing and promotional activations during the build-up to and duration of Euro 2028.
"Given our current market position here, we’ve been around, but there is room to grow," Henning Strauss said, outlining the company’s ambitions for the British market. "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."
Beyond the domestic UK market, Strauss also anticipates that the immense international reach of the European Championship will project the brand in front of receptive audiences in other key strategic territories, most notably North America and Australia. In the United States, for example, television coverage of Euro 2024 broadcast by Fox averaged 1.68 million viewers per game, culminating in a massive audience of 6.43 million tuning in to watch the tournament final.
The company’s visibility at Euro 2028 was already secured through a recently announced landmark agreement making Strauss the first-ever official sponsor of UEFA refereeing. Under the terms of that comprehensive agreement, the brand’s distinctive ostrich logo appears prominently on referee sleeves across all of UEFA’s major club and national team competitions. In addition, the branding is displayed on video assistant referee (VAR) monitors and inside the governing body’s centralized video operations room located in Nyon, Switzerland.
The broader tournament-wide sponsorship package grants Strauss an extensive physical and digital presence. This includes prominent branding on pitchside LED advertising boards, official authorization to utilize tournament marks in marketing campaigns, and exclusive fan engagement opportunities throughout the competition. Furthermore, the company holds the exclusive commercial right to nominate two mascots who will walk out hand-in-hand with the match officials prior to the start of every game.
The anticipated commercial impact of the upcoming partnership has already served as a catalyst for a comprehensive internal strategic review of the company’s operational framework in the UK. Ever since preliminary talks with UEFA formally began, the business has actively been adapting its product lines specifically for British tradespeople. This product evolution reflects what Henning Strauss described as "slight differences in the way people use tools and pouches" between markets.
Simultaneously, the company is actively evaluating whether to transition toward local distribution models within the UK, moving away from its traditional practice of shipping orders directly from its central logistics hubs in Germany. Management is also exploring ways to further localize its digital presence, including tailored updates to its website and regional social media channels.
"If we claim to become relevant from a cultural perspective, we want to make sure we get those details right," Strauss explained.
He added that the company is "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 executive leadership at Strauss is concerned, the preparation and strategic execution for Euro 2028 has already begun. Initial corporate meetings centered on comprehensive activation plans have already kicked off. The objective is to ensure that the company fully leverages the multi-year partnership to drive sustained brand recognition and direct sales in the months leading up to the tournament, ensuring that the marketing investment generates momentum long before the opening whistle blows.
"The question is how we’re going to activate the partnership to really make it relevant beyond the four weeks in that summer," Strauss concluded.
