The Chronicle's Sunderland AFC writer James Hunter has picked his three favourite Black Cats away kits

If Sunderland's home shirts are always variations on a classic, away kits provide the opportunity for experimentation.

Pinstripes, plain colours, horizontal stripes, or a sash; white, various shades of blue, yellow or bright green - the Black Cats have worn them all.

And because away kits can be so distintive, they immediately bring to mind special games, specific seasons - good or bad - and indivdual players who are associated with a particular shirt, in a way that the club's barely-changing red and white home shirts cannot.

Away kits are a big focus this Christmas due to homelessness charity Shelter’s #NoHomeKit campaign.

ChronicleLive has teamed up with Shelter for the campaign, which will see football clubs across the country wear away kits to raise awareness of the increasing number of rough sleepers and those in unsafe housing.

Fans are also encouraged to wear their away kits to games on Boxing Day or December 27, with Shelter hoping the campaign will help to generate funds to help tackle the issue.

More than 180,000 households have been made homeless since the start of the pandemic, with families - many of which contain children - being placed in hostels that Shelter consider unsuitable.

Sunderland will be wearing their yellow away kit at Doncaster Rovers on Monday and we’re encouraging Black Cats fans to wear their away kits for the League One game at the Keepmoat Stadium and, to give you some help over which kit you decide to wear, here are my favourites.

Sunderland Away Kit One - 1998-99

This shirt will bring back good memories for Sunderland fans, as the one worn in the club's record-breaking 105-point Championship promotion season.

Made by Asics and and, under the long-running sponsorship deal with Sunderland brewery Vaux, bearing the Lambton's logo, this dark blue shirt with red and white collar, red and white horizontal bands, and the post-1997 club crest embroidered on the chest, remains popular and can still be seen worn by fans to this day.

It was the kit worn by Niall Quinn, Kevin Phillips, Kevin Ball, Michael Bridges, Mickey Gray, and Lee Clark as Peter Reid's side responded to the previous season's play-off final disappointment by taking the division by storm and earning a place in the Premier League.

Sunderland also reached the semi-final of the Worthington Cup that season, losing over two legs to Premier League Leicester City who were then managed by future Black Cats boss Martin O'Neill.

Sunderland wore this kit when they won 3-1 at Barnsley in April 1999, the result that clinched the Championship title.

Sunderland Away Kit Two - 1991-94

A terrace classic, this Hummel shirt instantly transports you back to the early 1990s and the days of Gary Bennett, Paul Bracewell, Kevin Ball, John Byrne, Craig Russell, and Gordon Armstrong.

Predominately white, sporting an embroidered badge - the club's pre-1997 'ship' version - and with sponsor Vaux emblazoned across the chest, it was the snazzy sleeves that marked this shirt out from the rest.

The sleeves featured Hummel's signature chevrons in white, on a blue, white, and black pattern, bordered by a green geometric stripe.

It's a description that barely does the design justice - it just worked!

Sunderland used this away shirt for three seasons starting in 1991-92, and it was famously the shirt worn by the Lads in the 1992 FA Cup final against Liverpool when Malcolm Crosby was in charge.

Sunderland Away Kit Three - 2016-17

Nice away kit, shame about the season.

That just about sums up Sunderland's wretched 2016-17 campaign which saw the club crash out of the Premier League under David Moyes.

There were precious few positives to come out of that season but the away kit was one of them.

Manufactured by Adidas, it was a white shirt with a blue sash of fading horizontal stripes running from top left to bottom right.

The details were also blue - the embroidered Adidas logo, the crew-neck collar, and the manufacturer's signature three stripes running down the white cool-mesh shoulders.

Sunderland's embroidered post-1997 club crest was present, and the sponsor was betting firm dafabet whose name and logo featured.

It was a shirt worn by fondly-remembered players such as Jermain Defoe, Lee Cattermole, Seb Larsson, and John O'Shea, but also by a whole cast of characters that Sunderland fans would prefer to forget.

Sunderland wore this shirt for their biggest win of the season, the 4-0 victory at Crystal Palace in February 2017, when two goals from Defoe and one apiece from Lamie Kone and Didier Ndong saw them clip the wings of the Eagles, who were managed by ex-Wearside boss Sam Allardyce.

Reach PLC is an official media partner for Shelter's #NoHomeKit campaign. We are proud to be supporting the homeless charity in their fight to tackle homelessness. On Boxing Day this year, football clubs and fans are asked to swap their home shirt for their away or third kit in aid of people who don’t have a safe place to call home. We want as many teams, players and fans as possible to join the #NoHomeKit campaign and work with Shelter to help people dealing with homelessness and unsafe housing this winter. By joining the campaign you’ll be helping raise awareness of the housing emergency and raising vital funds to help us fight it. You can also donate to the cause HERE

Whilst the festive season is always an important time for football, it is also a period when those in help need it most, and Shelter says there is a ‘housing emergency’ this December.

Shelter offers a number of services that aid those in need, such as one-to-one help with housing issues, a 365-day free emergency hotline and free legal advice from its solicitors.

For every £1 donated to Shelter, 79p is spent directly on helping people through advice, support and campaigning, and a further 21p is spent on more fundraising.