Inter Milan have unveiled their first shirt with the club’s new crest, and the Serie A giant has really put everything into the design to draw attention to their rebranding.
The so-called “Special T-shirt” is part of the IM Collection, a capsule of limited edition clothing from Nike that Italy’s 18-time champions hope will help them establish their new identity.
Inspired by the Italian futurist artist Giorgio Muggiani, one of the founders of Inter who designed the club’s original emblem, the jersey combines geometric shapes and patterns. The well-known stripes nerazzurri They are included, but only in a small rectangular patch on the chest. The rest of the jersey is peppered with a random selection of hoops, bars, prints and blocks.
Muggiani hand-painted Inter’s first emblem when the club was founded in 1908 – the well-known round emblem in blue, black and gold with the letters “FCIM” (Football Club Internazionale Milano) that the Milan team wore for most of its 113 years. to exist.
However, he will be formally replaced at the start of the 2021-22 season. The new Inter emblem represents a simplified take on Muggiani’s original – the letters “FC” disappear from the round design to make the “IM” stand out more.
The special shirt is unlikely to be worn on the pitch by Romelu Lukaku and co, as it is officially called a “limited edition fourth jersey” in the launch material.
The special T-shirt was created by graphic designers Dee Mo and Moab Villain. Charged with reinventing the classic Inter look, the duo took inspiration from Muggiani’s design to create their original art.
| JERSEY
The first shirt with our new logo shapes our story. Be inspired by our city.
Are you ready? #IMInter pic.twitter.com/S3RxmHyp8v
– Inter (@Inter_en) April 7, 2021
“Neither of us was born in Milan, but we both represent, each in our own way, the current creative ferment of this city,” they said on the club’s official website. Precedents, in which we see the existence of many visual references in common – revising and reinventing some of the pillars of the history of Milanese design ”.
In a purely stylistic sense, the special T-shirt doesn’t look much like Muggiani’s artwork, with most of its portfolio consisting of elegant commercial and advertising pieces created for Italian brands and companies in the 1920s and 1930s. Stark T-shirt that “evokes a vocation for inclusion” to reflect Milan’s reputation as “most international Italian city” is close enough.
The IM collection also includes a different shirt, more understated (in comparison), as well as a jacket and pants to match.
Inter have been very protective of their identities in recent years, even getting into a brand conflict with David Beckham’s MLS franchise, Inter Miami.
In 2014, the Italian club filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the commercial use of the word “Inter” and problems arose when MLS did the same to register the Inter Miami name. In 2018.
Until last month, the two clubs were still in full negotiation to reach an agreement, in which both parties had to strive for a quick solution.
But the truth is, if the Italian club has its players running around in such daring uniforms, we don’t think they are likely to be confused with their American namesakes.