Memphis inspiration for the new Inter shirt

After the uniform dedicated to the Unité d'Habitation by Le Corbusier of Marseille, architecture and design seems to be the new trend for the football shirts of the next sports season.

It’s Inter’s turn now, with its new Nike 2020/2021 home shirt, openly inspired to one of the most recognizable and copied postmodern design movements: Memphis. ‘Made of Milan’, this is the name of the football kit, it aims to “represent a sense of unity with the Lombard capital and the people, part of a large community that shares a sense of pride for the city and a desire for innovation”. Perhaps a metaphor of the freshness and rebirth represented by the movement/collective founded by Ettore Sottsass in Milan, forty years ago now. Inheritance of the Radical design of the 1970s, Memphis included emblematic names such as Andrea Branzi, Michele De Lucchi, Aldo Cibic, Barbara Radice, Michael Graves, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Hans Hollein, Matteo Thun, Marco Zanuso, George Sowden, Martine Bedin and others.

But the disappearance of the traditional black and blue stripes, has been a cause for debate among the supporters of the sports club, since the first leaks dated June 2019, as well as feeding a consumption of “collectible” t-shirts with shapes and colors increasingly unrecognizable. The decision for this change was actually taken by Nike designers who, after the success of the streetwear jersey during the 2018 season in Nigeria, decided to replicate the same format in the Lombard capital, where the garment will probably become more loved by prophets than by football lovers themselves.

“We are always working to reinterpret the striped identity of the club. This time we did it taking inspiration from one of the main artistic currents in Milan,” said Scott Munson, VP of Nike Football Apparel. “The zig-zag graphics are the basis of post-modernist design and are also a reminder of the Biscione. The result is an amazing kit that combines well with the uniqueness of the club”.