Nike and Inter Milan have released a special mashup jersey to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their partnership. The Inter x Nike 20th Anniversary Jersey will be worn by the Italian side in the Milan derby on 17 March.
To create the jersey, Nike looked back on some of the highlights from Inter’s last two decades of competition, selecting the 10 kits that marked the clubs biggest achievements and fan memories. “Some of these [kits] are synonymous with great victories, while others are fan favourites," said Pete Hoppins, Nike Football Apparel Senior Design Director. "The real challenge was to get all the different striped patterns to work cohesively."
The jerseys selected are split into five for the front and five for the back. The front features Inter’s first season with Nike in 1998/99, which was famously worn by Brazilian striker Ronaldo; the club’s centenary season jersey from 2008/09; the 2010/11 jersey, for which club icon "Il Biscione" (grass snake) lent the classic stripes a snakeskin effect; the last jersey worn by legendary Inter captain Javier Zanetti in 2013/14; and the 2017/18 jersey, which was an important year for the club as it sealed a return to the Champions League.
For the back, there’s the 2009/10 jersey, which was arguably Inter’s most famous in history as the club sealed their first ever domestic and European treble under Jose Mourinho; the first use of thin stripes from 2011/12; this was followed in 2014/15 by the pin striped jersey which also features; the jersey that celebrates the 25th anniversary of the UEFA Cup win from 2015/16 also makes an appearance; and rounding things off is a fan favourite from the 2016/17 season.
It feels like it's been quite the wait for this long-rumoured mashup shirt, but it's not the first look we've had at it after model Winnie Harlow was spotted wearing it at Milan Fashion Week recently. Unlike the recent Barcelona x Nike mashup jersey, it's good to see that the club will actually wear the Inter x Nike 20th anniversary jersey on pitch. Along with the standard stadium jersey, a Vaporknit match-level version has been produced and limited to 1,908 units to honour Inter’s founding year.
The Inter Milan x Nike 20th Anniversary Jersey will be available from prodirectsoccer.com on March 9.
