Debate raged in the lead-up to July's Friday night blockbuster against Collingwood when North was forced to wear a clash strip despite being the home side.
Honouring its 1975 and 1977 premiership players in a pre-match lap of honour, the team donned its preferred guernsey in the warm-up and then swapped for the contest.
But it was already obvious that a change had to be made.
"When Drew Petrie was interviewed on television he said, 'We love our stripes and we love Friday night football'," Arocca said.
"He actually came and spoke to me the next day and said, 'I'm sorry I said that, I didn't mean it, it was off the cuff'. I said, 'No, you actually echoed the sentiments of everyone who was watching the game'."
In recent seasons, North's clash strip has been traditional royal blue in solid form with a white V and kangaroo emblem on the chest.
But from next year, and only for matches against Collingwood (round six) and Geelong (round eight), the Roos will wear a guernsey not dissimilar to Argentina's soccer colours.
History has been a theme at North in 2008 – from its re-commitment to Melbourne to a successful return to member-based ownership – and Arocca sees the new guernsey as another instalment.
"We've had a striped jumper since 1886 apparently, even though we had various incarnations over the years," he said. "When coming up with the clash guernsey, we thought we'd come up with something that incorporated stripes but was subtle enough from a colour point-of-view to not clash with Collingwood and Geelong.
"The whole thing about North Melbourne this year has been turning back to the past and I think we've recaptured the essence of the old North Melbourne.
"I genuinely believe that an alternate strip is exactly that. Unless the AFL tells us to wear it for other games or for [another] reason I would not know, then we're going to be wearing our blue and white stripes for 20 games a year and hopefully in the finals."
Arocca added that, if warranted, slight variations could be made to the new guernsey on an annual basis but is confident it will be well-received.
"I think we've taken as much input we can from as many people as we could," he said. "You're never going to keep everyone happy all of the time but we think most of our fans will endorse and embrace this latest version and hopefully that will be it for a long, long time."
New apparel sponsor X-Blades has had a key role in the creation of the guernsey, which has been knitted with an innovative, light and durable fabric – encouraging better body movement than other materials.
