Rocket Dog brings its Noughties signatures into a new season

The Californian footwear brand that found its audience in the late 1990s and early 2000s returns to familiar boots and trainers for Autumn/Winter 2026, at a moment when the period it helped define is firmly back in fashion.

Rocket Dog does not need to search very far through the archives to understand what younger shoppers are wearing. Much of it looks remarkably familiar.

Founded in Santa Monica in 1997, the Californian footwear company became part of the visual language of the late 1990s and early 2000s: chunky boots, casual trainers, buckles and a distinctly relaxed approach to dressing. Avril Lavigne, Hilary Duff and Kourtney Kardashian were among the famous names associated with the brand during the period.

Almost three decades later, fashion has returned to much of the same territory.

For Autumn/Winter 2026, Rocket Dog is therefore doing something more interesting than simply recreating an old collection. It is bringing some of its established silhouettes together with new designs that borrow from the same Californian sensibility.

The timing is fortunate. The revival of Noughties fashion has moved well beyond novelty, with younger shoppers adopting the footwear, denim, accessories and proportions that defined the period without necessarily having experienced it first time around.

Rocket Dog has already found itself crossing that generational divide. PinkPantheress wore its Telsa Charcoal Strap Boots in the video for Nice to meet you, featuring Central Cee, while SZA wore the brand’s Drea Tall Boots during her headline performance at Glastonbury.

For a company established in 1997, these are useful endorsements. They place Rocket Dog within contemporary music and fashion without requiring the brand to pretend that its history began yesterday.

The new collection, described by Rocket Dog as “Dynamic Fusion”, draws together sport, preppy and more feminine references. There are studs and statement lacing, alongside buckles, hardware and textured finishes.

Some of the most recognisable designs remain.

The Trumble returns with its biker influences, while Sugar Daddy provides the heavier winter option and Sidestep brings a looser Western shape. They are joined by the Ramble Tan Winter Boot, the cleaner Stable Fillie and the chunkier Jimmy Ankle Boot.

Trainers provide the other half of the collection. Destin adopts the low profile proportions that have become increasingly prominent in recent seasons, while new Rebel designs appear alongside established Rocket Dog styles including Cheery, Jazzin and Jazzin Plus.

The collection also retains an emphasis on comfort that is considerably less visible than its styling. Selected shoes use Rocket Dog’s Plush Foam Comfort Insole, combining memory foam and EVA cushioning beneath a stretch jersey layer.

None of this amounts to a radical reinvention, nor does it need to.

Fashion’s recurring fascination with its recent past has created an unusual advantage for brands that survived the period now being rediscovered. They possess something newer labels can reproduce aesthetically but cannot manufacture retrospectively: provenance.

Rocket Dog’s task is to make that history relevant without becoming trapped by it.

AW26 suggests the company understands the distinction. The buckles, slouchy boots and casual trainers are recognisable, but they are not being presented as museum pieces from the Noughties. They are being sold to women who may have worn Rocket Dog the first time around, and to another generation for whom 2000s fashion is not a memory at all.

For Rocket Dog, what looks like a revival is really a rather convenient continuation.