In this modern age, where technology is king, it's hard to keep a secret.
When photos of the Whitecaps' third strip started doing the rounds online on April 22nd, after a fan bought one of the strips in a shop on Vancouver Island, the authenticity of the shirt was denied by the Caps FO, pictures were removed from various media and the damage limitation campaign began, so as not to spoil the big unveiling.
That unveiling took place at BC Place this morning and it came as no surprise to anyone when the same brown and blue strip we saw back in April was revealed to be the Caps' new third jersey.
The arbutus brown and sky blue strip draws on the forests of BC and Cascadia, to compliment the white glaciers of the home strip and the blue oceans of the away one. It will be worn for the first time against Colorado Rapids in MLS action on Saturday and will be used in three games this season.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Personally, I really like it.
It's different and it's hard to find anything unique in football these days. I think the colours work well together, but then again, I have a jacket that is in pretty much the same colours so it's not a new look for me!
Some fans will hate it. Of that you can be sure.
Brown is a strangely polarising colour when it comes to football strips.
It's the marmite of sporting colours.
There haven't been that many knocking around over the years. Some will say there's a reason for that!
I'm of the age and background when any mention of a brown strip immediately whisks me back in time to Coventry City's chocolate brown away abomination from the 1978-79 season.
How could anyone get this image of an ageless Steven Lenhart modelling the kit out of their heads? Ok, well it's actually Scottish striker Ian Wallace, but still, it terrified me as a child and is perhaps why Coco Lenhart gives me the creeps today.
The Admiral strip is a timeless "classic", although you could argue it's timeless due to the fact that it doesn't belong in any time period!
It was worn by many clubs of the time though around the world. Apart from Coventry, my childhood memories have the likes of Wales and Dundee running out in that strip. Even my own East Fife wore that Admiral striped top from 1977 to 1980. Did anyone else actually make jersey at that time?!
The Whitecaps themselves famously wore that particular Admiral jersey in 1978, both home and away. Either all white with red stripes, or all red with white stripes. Never chocolate brown though!
Time and again, that Coventry strip has been voted as one of the worst football strips ever, and that's some feat when you consider some of the monstrosities that have been doing the rounds worldwide over all these years.
You would think that that would put teams off going for a brown strip but apparently not!
Even Coventry themselves tried to cash in on the notoriety of the strip by bringing out another brown away strip in 2009 for the club's 125 year anniversary, and like the Whitecaps, they went for the brown and blue colour combination.
It was either loved or loathed by the fans of the 'Sky Blues'.
Even Coventry manager Chris Coleman hated it!
But I'm pretty sure they would all have had to agree it was a damn sight better than the 1978 version!
The marketing ploy clearly worked with enough fans though and the 1125 limited edition strips sold out very quickly. The Caps will be hoping for the same result with their brown and blue beauty.
Not many other teams have really wanted to dabble with the brown stuff.
It's a strange one. I'm sure we all have a lot of brown clothes in our wardrobes, or maybe that's just me!
It's not the worst colour in the world and as we said, when you look at some of the other hideous designs that have been seen on a football pitch, you have to wonder why there haven't been other clubs that have gone to the brownside.
The Caps should at least be applauded for trying something a little bit different.
So who are some of the other clubs that have been down with brown?
Barcelona, always a popular jersey the world over, had a brown training jersey for the 2008/09 season.
Funny it's not something you really see people walking the streets in.
Celtic had an absolutely hideous away jersey for the 1991/92 season that was green, brown and white and looked like it had been designed by a blind person. Or at the very least a colour blind person. Or maybe just a Rangers fan!
If you have a look at this picture with the Barca shirt on the left and the Celtic one on the right, it's the best example we could give you of how a brown jersey can work and how it just shouldn't even be allowed past the design stage.
When you look at some of these other brown bombers, you have to say that Caps new kit looks particularly sharp against them and I don't think we'll be looking back in 5, 10 or 20 years time and saying what a horrible jersey we wore back in the day.
One football club that has embraced the brown is Germany's St Pauli FC from Hamburg.
The club have played in brown and white ever since Amandus Vierth established that unified colour scheme for the team in 1909.
With that amount of history they have produced a number of brown kits over the years, some more predominately brown than others. They always seem to make it work too and have some classy jerseys in their back catalogue.
As you can see below, for the 2011/12 season just past, their home strip was brown and white stripes, their away one was brown and black stripes, and they also had a third one which was brown and red stripes.
The big advantage of brown is that you are likely to be unique in your League and have very little kit clashes!
Vancouver Whitecaps are now in that unique band of brown.
In the build up to the jersey launch, John Furlong declared that this was a <i>"great milestone for the club"</i>.
Still haven't lost that Olympic trait of hyperbole then John?
It isn't a great milestone. It's a kit launch, and a third one at that. Not a retro one (that will undoubtedly come in 2014 for the Caps' 40th anniversary). Not a home one or an away one. Just a third kit grab more money from the fans one. That's not a milestone, it's just a sad truth about the modern day game - $$$.
The Caps will certainly be hoping that the strip is brown sugar and will make some sweet money for them. I think it should.
At least it's a decent strip and not something hideous like we've come to expect from the Seattle barfing clowns. Let's all be thankful for that at least and anything that adds something a bit different and some character to our club should be welcomed.
Come on the Boys in Brown.
<p>
[** You can find a slideshow of photos from today's launch from AFTN photographer Christopher Vose <a href="
<p>