I’m a bona-fide, dyed-in-the-wool Sunderland AFC history fanatic.
I’m utterly captivated by the rich and storied heritage of our club; editing and reading the always-fascinating “On This Day” articles written by my Roker Report colleague Andrew Smithson always gives me a great deal of pleasure, and I love to discover new stories and previously-unknown facts about how our club has evolved, risen, fallen, risen again and witnessed the presence of some truly iconic footballers.
With that in mind, my hopes
were high ahead of the official release of Sunderland’s 2026/2027 Hummel-manufactured home shirt — and it certainly struck all the right notes when images, throwback football cards and an accompanying video appeared on social media on Tuesday afternoon.
Long-awaited and with plenty of speculation about what kind of design the Danish company would produce, an expected variation on the design of shirt worn by Raich Carter’s Wembley heroes of 1937 had been mooted for some time — yet when it appeared officially, being modeled by Nordi Mukiele, Granit Xhaka and Enzo Le Fée, it somehow looked, and felt, even better than I hoped it would.
Simply put, this is one of the finest Sunderland home shirts of recent times.
It’s easily Hummel’s best effort since they were welcomed back into the red and white fold in 2024, and in both long and short-sleeved styles, it just…works.
It’s a modern shirt with a sufficient degree of historical authenticity and enough little touches — the modern interpretation of the retro badge’s shield, a discreet icon on the rear that pays tribute to the Lads’ 1936/1937 cup-winning side, and so on — to feel like a genuine tribute to a iconic jersey without lapsing into corniness or gimmickry. It’s neat, it catches the eye, and my word, does it scream “This is our history”.
Sponsor-free at the time of writing, the shirt also puts me in mind of the classic ASICS/Lambtons combination that the Lads sported between 1997 and 1999.
Collared shirts can often be divisive yet this one ought not to be and when you add the Europa League patches and Premier League names and numbers, the package will be completed — albeit let’s hope the front-of-shirt sponsor doesn’t turn what may well go down as a classic into something slightly less impactful.
If Hummel opted to think outside of the box and to challenge people’s sensibilities with the Elvis Presley-themed pink and black away shirt, they’ve tapped into a rich vein of our club’s heritage with the home effort, and that in itself is part of a wide and more important point.
With the construction of Legends’ Way, the renaming of the West Stand in honour of Jimmy Montgomery and the imminent creation of a statue in tribute to our iconic goalkeeper, the club is ensuring that the men that made Sunderland AFC what it is are immortalised. That’s absolutely vital and they should he commended for doing so.
When we think of Sunderland in the FA Cup, 1973 always comes to mind and rightly so, given the magnitude of the achievement in dethroning Leeds United at Wembley, but 1937 was equally notable; our first ever victory in the competition’s final with iconic names such as Carter, Gurney, Mapson, Gallacher and Duns at the heart of a 3-1 triumph over Preston North End.
The fact that such a notable moment has been used as the primary theme and accompanying marketing campaign of our new home shirt is highly commendable and it shows that for all of our recent success and the excitement at what lies ahead for our club, the victories of yesteryear still hold a place in our collective consciousness.
Furthermore, maybe it’ll inspire younger fans to spend a little bit of time reading up on those halcyon days, learning about the men that brought the cup back to Wearside and helped Sunderland to one of its proudest mid-twentieth century successes.
2026/2027 will be a landmark season for our club and it seems fitting that the Lads will run out in such colours when in Premier League action and during their first ever Europa League campaign. We hoped that Hummel would deliver something special, and once again, they haven’t disappointed.
It’ll doubtless sell in huge numbers; the players should feel immensely proud to wear it, and the fans will sport it with an equal amount of pride at home and away during the coming season.
Every box ticked. Mission accomplished. A 10/10 product.
