Now we again have white, with a dash of some off-green chucked in which may have come via a surplus army supply shop.
The Highlanders away jersey has taken on a host of different looks over time.
Fashion and looks are very much in the eye of the beholder and it has become more of a marketing tool as teams look to make money out of the jerseys as they are now worn by so many people.
When the competition started back in 1996, the side did not really have an away jersey. It did wear some jersey which had a purple strip in and also a dash of yellow but it was not much different than the main jersey.
But a white away jersey became more prominent after about half a dozen years in the competition but it was rarely seen.
White was the default colour for most New Zealand teams when there was a colour clash but that was not very often.
Games in Sydney against the Waratahs and matches in South Africa had away jerseys in use.
Southland got strong from 2007 and by 2009 maroon, being part of Southland’s colours, became prominent in the away jersey colours of the Highlanders.
It lasted for a couple of years but the maroon slipped away and was replaced by the green jersey, first introduced in the final game of 2011.
The green jersey was supposed to be the new main strip for the Highlanders as they looked to carve out a new identity. But that did not go down well and it became an away jersey.
The team then went through a few years of wearing the green on and off. It managed one of its best ever wins in the semifinal victory over the Waratahs in 2015 in the green.
By 2018, the green was still around but its brightness increased as some very tight jerseys were worn which would not have looked out of place at a building site.
The green though was dropped and replaced by a blue, which was part of a campaign about the environment and oceans in 2020.
The blue colour clashed with other sides so what was good for the ocean was not good for the viewer. So it went the way of many before it.
Now we have gone full circle and are back to the white, though there are some flecks of green.
It is likely to be worn this Sunday when the Highlanders take on the Blues at Eden Park.
But really, whatever is worn, in whatever colour, will not matter. As long as the team can win away games no-one will care what colour it wears.
