Cromotransfer Turns 30 with a New Brand

The South American powerhouse behind FIFA’s Champions Badges unveils an identity built on a single proposition: engineering precision at industrial scale.

JOINVILLE, SANTA CATARINA, BRAZIL, September 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Cromotransfer, the global embellishment manufacturer behind the crests, patches, names and numbers worn on football shirts around the world, has launched a new brand identity in the year it turns thirty.

In an industry that treats precision and volume as opposing forces, Cromotransfer has spent three decades refusing that premise, holding the same tolerances across a single sample and full tournament batches. An exacting balance of craftsmanship and scale, a rare trait in this highly competitive sector.

The company works in what the trade calls embellishment: club crests, competition patches, sponsor marks, names and numbers, and trims. It supplies the leading sportswear brands rather than the public, which is why its work has been in the major leagues for years under someone else’s logo. It is also on the backs of supporters, in authentic and replica kits worldwide. Cromotransfer is an ingredient, not a label: present in the object, absent from the credits.

Cromotransfer also holds its own relationships with retailers, clubs, platforms and manufacturers. Europe is its largest concentration, across fourteen markets led by the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany and Switzerland. In Latin America it supplies every major sporting retailer, in North America through a strategic partnership with a specialist football retailer, and in Asia it supplies the retail operations of the leading sportswear brands, opened through its work in Saudi Arabia.

The company manufactures in Brazil and Argentina and exports to more than 40 countries. The operation is fully vertical: every stage, from development to finishing, happens in its own plants, nothing outsourced.

In Joinville it runs a dedicated laboratory, where it develops new techniques and materials and tests every product against OEKO-TEX Standard 100 before it leaves. Two lines of research drive most of that work: making the product last, on the principle that the most sustainable products are the ones that never have to be replaced, and making it harder to counterfeit. Cromotransfer was among the first manufacturers anywhere to embed NFC chips inside a patch, through a joint venture with the Californian technology company VestID.

That is what brought football’s governing bodies to Joinville. Since 2022 the company has held the FIFA licence for the Champions Badges, beginning with the FIFA World Cup 2022 Champions Badge and covering every FIFA competition since, from clubs to nations. In 2025, FIFA awarded Cromotransfer the first tournament badge licensing agreement in its history, covering the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 and the personalisation of shirts for all 32 clubs. The most recent in that line is the FIFA World Cup 26 Champions Badge, which Spain will wear until 2030.

Between 2023 and 2026 the company was the exclusive supplier of official sleeve and champions badges to the Saudi Pro League, along with the custom names and numbers worn by every club. In its home market, it has recently agreed with the CBF to supply and license every patch for the Copa Betano do Brasil, Brazil’s national cup.

Clubs found their way there too. Flamengo is the only non-European club among the fifty most valuable brands in world football, and it runs more than 180 official stores, the largest network in football. Cromotransfer supplies every non-fabric element of the shirts they sell: names and numbers carrying anti-counterfeiting technology developed in the Joinville laboratory, dedicated collections of special patches, and trims supplied through adidas.

“We are a fine ingredient,” said Bernard Schmidt, CEO of Cromotransfer. “Supporters do not buy a shirt because of us, but the quality of our work is what makes that shirt stand out. And the professionals who decide what goes on it know exactly who we are, and what we are capable of.”

A new brand

The identity, developed by the Brazilian studio Abstra, rests on a deliberate comparison: that this work deserves the same regard as fine watchmaking. What separates a shirt a supporter buys from one they merely own is a set of details few people register. Getting them right is what turns a garment into an object worth wanting, and what a club can charge for.

“Those pieces are what a supporter looks at, touches, and pays a premium for,” said Schmidt. “They are the reason someone chooses the authentic shirt over the replica, and they are where shirt revenue is decided. Beyond making them look great, we strive to make them harder to copy and harder to match.”

At its centre is a mark the company calls the Liner: a single rising stroke set above the name, in the place a mark of rank would occupy. It carries two references: the movement of a patch being applied to fabric, and the curve of the metal dies from which the emblems are struck. Cromotransfer makes the small object that confers standing on a shirt, and the mark was built to carry the same weight. Below it, a crest bears the three words repeated since the start: Quest for Perfection.

About Cromotransfer

Founded in January 1996 in Joinville, Brazil, Cromotransfer manufactures embellishment for football and sport. It has held the FIFA licence for Champions Badges since 2022 and in 2025 became the first company in FIFA’s history to hold a tournament badge licence. It manufactures in Brazil and Argentina and works with retailers, clubs and sportswear brands across Europe, the Americas and Asia. cromotransfer.com

Felipe Soalheiro
Playmaker
+55 11 94853-1063
fs@playmaker.global