KEY POINTS:
Is blue the new black? Are there now shades of black?
These are among questions perplexing the minds of long-suffering cricket fans who do not know what to make of the new one-day uniform.
"Black," was New Zealand Cricket's one-word reply when asked whether the new Canterbury-sponsored kit
was actually a deep shade of blue.
But an unscientific straw poll of 40 people had just one respondent agree with NZC and that was the Beige Brigade's founder Paul Ford.
"It would be a disaster if it wasn't black given how much they have invested into the 'Black' Caps brand," he said.
So it might be that Canterbury and NZC have pulled off one of the great optical illusions - inventing a black uniform that looks a deep shade of blue.
A trip to a Canterbury store proved just as confusing. The new gear was not due to be delivered for retail until next month but the salesperson gave this cryptic reply when asked what colour it was. "It's meant to be black," she said, "but it looks midnight blue."
Colour issues aside, the reaction to the 'Black' Caps new uniform has been under-whelming, with a Facebook page titled "I Hate The New Zealand Cricket Uniforms" set up in response.
"Voice your contempt and utter embarrassment for the atrocious and visually offensive 'new' NZ Cricket team uniforms," it states.
"... Canterbury would (I assume) have some decent graphic artists, so how in the great blue sky of Venus could they come up with this bizarre, visually offensive barrage of lines and zig-zags?
"Also, given that I have eyes and can tell the national 'sports' colour of New Zealand is black, why they decided to make the colour of the shirt a blue/grey tone and the pants a completely different tone of black is beyond me."
While the All Blacks have deemed it good enough to use one colour wherever possible, New Zealand's cricket kit suppliers have subjected Black Cap fans to a veritable spectrum over the years.
They have gone to the palette and given us white, black, grey, teal and, of course, beige.
The move from small players W-Star to clothing empire Canterbury was greeted with some anticipation, especially when reports started surfacing of magic pants being used to assist reverse swing.
But not only do many claim it looks like Scotland in disguise, the cut has highlighted that cricketers aren't necessarily designed for the slim fit.
Ford believed bad uniforms could have a great effect.
"There seems to be a fashion crime-cricket ability continuum," he said. "We play some of our best cricket in the worst uniforms. I love the beige, obviously, but it was horrific, and New Zealand's World Cup uniform in 1992 was awful but we were pretty good then too."
There's no doubting what was New Zealand's most misguided uniform though: the infamous white with a thick black hoop and vertical black stripes. Pakistan quite rightly complained they couldn't see the white ball against them and it was promptly consigned to the 'bad idea' bin.
