Naturally, as a new colour scheme was introduced, reaction among the Blue Army was varied when the Foxes unveiled a striking jade-navy combination in the summer of 1995 ahead of the upcoming campaign under the management of Mark McGhee.
City had recently been relegated from the Premier League after just one season, but the Filbert Street outfit had retained the likes of Iwan Roberts, Julian Joachim and emerging talent Emile Heskey. Steve Walsh, meanwhile, was heading into his 10th campaign as a Fox.
Optimism was high in Leicester that they would be able to launch a successful push for promotion. Alongside the more familiar blue and yellow kits, meanwhile, the jade-navy effort would only be worn on three occasions that season – and it was never involved in a Leicester City victory.
Twenty-six years after the original launch of that shirt – which is available to buy now as part of Leicester City's retro range – Walsh got his hands on it earlier this month and it brought back memories for the iconic former Foxes captain.
"It was a nice kit," Walsh said, speaking a stone's throw from Filbert Street, where he played such a prominent role in so many fabled moments in the Club's history. "The lads seemed to like it too. We’d had white or yellow kits before, but this one was something different and really quite unique.
"I remember it was a nice fit. It wasn’t absolutely massive like a lot of the other kits were at around that time. We were starting to move away from those enormous shirts!
"A lot of them were absolutely huge at around that point in time, apart from in the very early days, when we had to contend with the tight shorts! When you’ve been on your summer holidays and you’ve got a bit of a tan, I thought it looked quite nice.
"It seemed a strange choice of colours at the time. Obviously, we had a blue home kit and half of this kit was navy, but times change, and we managed to get three uses out of it.
"I do remember when we were all shown the kit, a lot of the lads really liked it, although I know some of the fans didn’t at the time. It’s become a cult classic ever since though. All of the Fox Leisure kits have been given a new lease of life nowadays and I thought all of their kits were great.
"They were really smart and typical Leicester City."
The jade-navy kit's debut came in a 1-1 draw with Luton Town at Kenilworth Road on 26 August, 1995 as a Garry Parker free-kick sealed City's fourth point of a season which was only three games old.
By the time Leicester would next stride out onto a football pitch adorning the classic strip, the Wolverhampton Wanderers job had become available following the resignation of former England manager Graham Taylor.
Speculation was rife that McGhee would be the next figurehead at Molineux. Nonetheless, the Scot remained in post at Filbert Street, but as the rumour mill churned into gear, the Foxes' form stalled.
The kit's second outing was a 3-1 loss at Huddersfield Town on 21 November, 1995, with Mark Robins the only away goalscorer, in the second game of a five-match winless run for the Foxes.
"I was injured at the beginning of McGhee's reign, I had a cruciate ligament injury, when we were in the Premier League," Walsh recalls. "We’d worked so hard to get into the Premier League and then I get that injury and we get relegated in our first-ever season in the Premier League.
"In the summer after, I remember McGhee took us to Germany in pre-season and I was able to get myself really fit. We came back and were ready for a bid for promotion.
"That time in the ‘90s was terrific, but it was a roller-coaster ride too. We’d finally get promotion at the third attempt and then get relegated again, and then a new manager would come in, it was all stop-start, but it turned out alright in the end.
"We’d actually started the season really well but form started to dry up when McGhee was being linked away. We’d lost a few managers beforehand as well.
"We just needed some consistency really. [Brian] Little left because Villa was his club and it was his one chance to manage them. I spoke to him and he didn’t want to leave Leicester at all.
"It was a little more controversial with McGhee, but we had to get on with it. The Club was just trying to find the right guy, the right manager, but we were getting used to being let down."
By the time City would secure their next three points, on 17 December, 1996, it came against a Norwich City side who had also just lost their manager. That man was Northern Irishman Martin O'Neill.
In the days to follow, just before Christmas, he'd be confirmed as the Club's 24th full-time manager.
It took time for the former Nottingham Forest midfielder to make his mark in the East Midlands. Leicester went seven games without a win in the First Division, plummeting down the standings, but they will have enjoyed ending the draught against McGhee's Wolves at Molineux on 21 February, 1996.
The jade-navy kit's final-ever outing, on the other hand, came three days later, in a 1-1 draw at Reading. Neil Lewis' effort secured a point for the Foxes on the day Neil Lennon made his debut for the Club. Slowly, O'Neill's methods were working.
By the end of the season, after a four-game winning run, the Foxes would squeeze into the play-offs on the final day of the season. The rest, as they say, is history. Steve Claridge's 'shinned' effort at Wembley eventually saw O'Neill's men defeat Crystal Palace to secure their return to the Premier League.
"We knew Martin was adding quality," Walsh adds. "Muzzy [Izzet] and Lennon in midfield were just great. Robbie Savage would eventually follow too. You could see in training there was going to be some success somewhere.
"It was just a matter of time, you could sense it. It was just a matter of galvanising and creating the team spirit that we did create in the end. It was a fantastic time to be a Leicester City player. There were always ups and downs, especially during that season, but we did well to get promotion.
"It all started there, really. A few years later, we were playing in Europe and winning cups, it was the time of our lives. I’d signed for Leicester in the first place to do all of those things and it may have taken a little bit of time to get there since 1986, but it was well worth it in the end."
To browse the retro range, including the 1995/96 jade-navy away shirt, click HERE.