Another piece of the ’90s in Inter’s new jacket Where Italy 1996, Nike’s archive and Inter tradition meet

They look like photographs from thirty years ago, but they were taken today. Alongside the 2026/27 third kit, which made its debut at San Siro on Monday night against Udinese, Inter unveiled one of the most interesting pieces from the new Third Kit: a jacket that brings together an iconic design from the Nike Football archive and the colors that defined the Nerazzurri aesthetic of the late 1990s. The same colors that still fuel the nostalgia of so many Inter fans today.

At first glance, a few iconic flashes from the football imagery of that era immediately come to mind, from Ronaldo with Inter in the 1998/99 season (the Milan club’s first with Nike) to Francesco Totti with the Italian national team in 1996. And it is above all the latter image that provides the most immediate reference for the jacket’s silhouette and construction, which belongs to the broader i96 family: one of the most recognisable visual languages ever created by Nike Football, recently brought back across the collections of some of its biggest clubs.

One jacket, two archives

The jacket almost literally reprises the elements that made Nike’s mid-1990s anthem jackets timeless: an oversized fit, a wide horizontal chest panel featuring an oversized blue-and-yellow Swoosh and the club crest in its traditional colours, plus the two parallel bands on the left sleeve. The palette, meanwhile, draws from Inter’s identity: black, anthracite, blue and yellow, in continuity with the new Third jersey, itself inspired by the 1998/99 kit.

So this is not simply a reissue, but the meeting point between two different archives: on one side, a historic Nike template; on the other, the colour codes of the opening chapter in the relationship between the American brand and Inter. The reference to that imagery also carried through into the launch of the collection, with photographs shot across Milanese bars, oratories and billiard halls.

The return of Nike’s ’90s jackets

Inter’s jacket is not an isolated case. In 2026, Nike brought i96 back into its catalogue, turning what had for years remained primarily an archival reference into a new family of products. The same blueprint seen on Inter’s jacket also appears across the collections of other Swoosh-sponsored clubs, including Chelsea, Atlético Madrid and Barcelona, with colours and details adapted to each club’s identity. The Nigeria national team has also returned to stores through a reissue of its 1996 jacket.

Nor is this the first time that design has resurfaced. In 2021/22, Nike produced a Liverpool jacket heavily indebted to the aesthetic of Italy’s 1996 national team. The piece suddenly returned to the spotlight four years later, when Virgil van Dijk pulled it back out of his wardrobe and wore it during the celebrations for Liverpool’s 2024/25 Premier League title.