Seeing your team's new home kit being launched is always a high point of any summer. It signals that football is never far away, and brings back the excitement ahead of a new season. The Sunderland formula will never change from red and white stripes, but it's amazing how a kit supplier can produce a classic or an awful shirt from the same basic pattern. As the cost of brand new shirts continues to soar, many people are going back for their worn-out retro kits, each with a different story to tell. With Sunderland, a lot of kits can't be associated with any great success, but that doesn't detract from the fact that there have been some excellent designs over the years. The Black Cats actually started out wearing navy for the first four years of their existence, before moving to a red and white half-and-half shirt with navy shorts in 1884. By the end of that decade, the blue would be gone entirely, and the kits were red and white striped, with black shorts, and has remained that way ever since, barring a few odd moments - the 80s pinstripe edition anyone? While there have been some excellent kits stretching back for decades, there are simply too many to look at it one go, so here are Sunderland's Premier League home kits rated from worst to best.