The 2016-17 season was not a memorable one for Internazionale as they finished seventh in Serie A and were eliminated from the Europa League at the group stage. However, there were some notable kit occurrence.
Like so many other big names in the Nike portfolio, Inter were given contrasting socks for the campaign – yellow in the case of the Nerazzurri, with matching accents on the shirt and shorts.
Similarly, the traditional white change kit now had blue socks – however, the strip in its default form was worn just once, an International Champions Cup game (i.e. friendly) against Paris Saint-Germain, who wore navy socks as part of their first-choice outfit.
This was a period when Nike applied a blanket third-kit design across its main contracts and Inter looked sprightly (Sprite-ly?) in bright blue and green.
The goalkeeper kits were green, luminous yellow and grey versions of the Nike Gardien template.
The first two away games of the league season, against Chievo Verona and Pescara, saw the first use of a mashup, with black alternative socks creating a more traditional look.
As Roma were also Nike and had yellow/orange home socks, this Inter look would also be seen as Stadio Olimpico and in the home Milan derby.
Then, away to all-blue of Empoli in September, Inter needed to deviate from the registered second kit. However, while the black socks might have again been expected, the home set was called upon, making an unusual white-white-yellow combination.
By the time of the trip to face Atalanta in October, it was decided to instead bring the 2015-16 white away socks back into usage – with eight appearances in this all-white look from there to the end of the season, it would be the second-most-worn kit after the default home.
The next away match after Atalanta, against Sampdoria, saw the black home shorts used with the white shirts, along with the alternative black socks.
In November, Inter ‘travelled’ to face AC Milan and, as the Rossoneri had black shorts and socks that season, the white away shorts appeared with the stripes – presumably, it was felt that they wouldn’t mix well with the yellow socks and so the white socks were used, too.
Inter had premiered the third kit in the home Europa League game against Hapoel Be’er Sheva. The Israeli side had red shirts, white shorts and white socks, so for the away match Inter didn’t have to change but opted to wear white shirts, along with the black shorts and blue socks – not a combination we recall seeing the club wear on any other occasion.
That brought them to eight combinations for the season, seven of them featuring either the first or second shirt, with the third kit never having to be altered in its seven outings. Of the eight, exactly half were one-off looks for that season, while four different sock colours appeared with the white shirt.
The Inter home socks have been black in six of the eight seasons since 2016-17, with blue used in 2020-21 and a half-and-half style the season before that.
