Despite ownership changes, shifting fashion cycles and the rise of larger competitors, Rocket dog has always been the quintessential Southern California footwear brand.
Now, ahead of its 30th anniversary in 2027, the label — which has Y2K roots and retro cred working in its favor — is revamping product and marketing to become more competitive with the critical Gen Z consumer. It continues to bank on classics like the platform flip-flop and wedge cork- bottom shoes, while prioritizing innovation, with a new athletic launch planned for next year.
According to Matthew Choi, president of Top Pick Global, which acquired the brand in September 2018 from private equity firms Golden Gate Capital in San Francisco and Circle Peak Capital in New York, the brand is now back on track after veering off course under private equity ownership. During that era, the business model had evolved toward a “reactive, fast-fashion” focus that didn’t fit its origins, Choi said.
Thanks to solid financial backing, Rocket Dog is ready to make a bigger statement again. Top Pick’s owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, is a high-net-worth, strategic foreign investor, according to Choi.
“The company was bought out opportunistically by a very well-resourced owner who has one of the best and largest manufacturing capabilities that I’ve ever seen from a sneaker side,” Choi said, adding that the owner believes in the label’s heritage.
“He’s built Rocket Dog shoes since the very beginning, so he’s highly invested in [returning the brand] back to its glory days,” Choi said.
THE BEGINNING
Rocket Dog was founded in 1997 by Stephen Hoyt and Terry Anderson. The Hayward, Calif.-based brand was named after Hoyt’s dog, who, according to legend, loved running fast on the beach.
Rocket Dog quickly became a favorite among its teen customer base. Its ethos was based on inspiration from the 1970s beach lifestyle and nostalgic wedge cork-bottom styles.
Two years after its founding, Rocket Dog was sold to New York Transit Inc., a wholesaler of men’s and women’s footwear. As the brand gained in popularity, Rocket Dog also found growth in other business avenues. For instance, it manufactured shoes for Quiksilver and Roxy, according to an FN story in February 2002. And by February 2004, Rocket Dog launched its first ad campaign.
That same year marked its entry into the men’s category. “Expanding the brand name into men’s and eventually apparel is a natural step in the development and progression of our business,” Hoyt said in a statement at the time.
To raise the West Coast brand’s profile on the East Coast, Rocket Dog in June 2004 announced the opening of its first New York City showroom at 1370 Avenue of the Americas. “Opening the New York showroom is a commitment to Rocket Dog’s growth and expansion of the brand,” said Hoyt, who also held the title of creative director at the time. (The showroom is still housed in the 1370 building today.)
Throughout the 2000s, the shoe label continued its rise, in part by courting the celebrity and influencer crowd. One such partner was pop star and Y2K style icon Avril Lavigne.
THE MIDDLE YEARS
Rocket Dog was sold again in February 2007 to Golden Gate and Circle Peak, with the two forming a holding company for Rocket Dog called Millennial Brands LLC.
Reflecting on the history of the label, Anderson told FN in March 2007 that the brand had come a long way from its humble roots. He recalled that when the shoes first came off the production line, he and Hoyt drove to Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.
“We sat outside at Johnny Rockets and started giving away pairs of our new ‘Dogs,’” Anderson said. “The girls put them on right away and were wearing them walking down Melrose. It was quite a sight.”
In 2008, Rocket Dog opened an outpost in the United Kingdom, establishing an international presence. Key customer accounts in 2010 were DSW, Zappos.com and Genesco’s Journeys banner. And by summer 2011, Rocket Dog was juggling several projects that included a relaunch of the men’s and kids’ lines, a larger Los Angeles office and plans to introduce handbags for spring 2012 in Europe. It was also looking to widen its international presence, with Asia as its specific target.
Along the way, the brand collaborated in 2017 with stylist Elizabeth Saltzman for a collection of six updated platform flip-flops, while 2018saw the launch of a platform collection calledRD x California Girls with celebrity stylist Chloe Bartoli.
Meanwhile, the shoes were being worn by celebrities such as Gal Gadot, Madison Beer, Paris Jackson, Jordana Brewster, Saoirse Ronan and SZA, helping to further popularize the brand.
However, all was not well in Rocket Dog’s back office. The brand was facing serious financial distress until Top Pick entered the picture in 2018. The acquisition of Rocket Dog included two siblings: the midtier contemporary footwear brand Kelsi Dagger Brooklyn, which is still in operation, and the accessible luxury line Pour La Victoire that is currently on pause, Choi said.
FORWARD MOMENTUM
Choi’s background in real estate, private credit and mergers and acquisitions provides Top Pick with operational know-how, as well as a healthy dose of financial discipline. The company also has a secret weapon in the form of Mike Routledge, the general manager of Rocket Dog Europe since 2017.
With more than 20 years of experience in the sports, footwear and lifestyle sector, including stints at Puma and Le Coq Sportif, Routledge’s mandate when he joined the brand was to relaunch it in the U.K. at a time when “it didn’t have a single door open,” he said. “I had some experience with working with this type of situation before, and in the U.K., we’ve been trying to [reposition the brand] to make it more desirable to get better distribution.”
Rocket Dog is now available across the U.K. in Next, Very, Urban Outfitters, Soletrader, Asos and Amazon U.K., Routledge said. He and U.K. marketing expert Sam West have been working to hone Rocket Dog’s image. West brings extensive experience in the European fashion space, including past roles at Original Penguin and Perry Ellis America, as well as PVH Corp. for Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger (U.K. and Ireland). Their goal is to make the brand more desirable so it can, in turn, increase the average selling price.
“We want to be a fashionable brand that’s accessible, but not cheap,” said Routledge, who noted the label has been able to judiciously raise prices.
Rocket Dog now attracts both younger women and consumers who are more mature. “We no longer define ourselves as a juniors’ brand. One of the exciting things is that our core customers have grown with the brand and remain highly engaged,” Routledge said. “But we’re attracting new and younger consumers, particularly [given] the resurgence of Y2K [fashion] and the renewed relevance of some of our iconic styles.”
Another focus for the label is comfort — a growing priority for many shoppers.
“Comfort has become something that’s fashionable. Ten years ago, you wouldn’t really talk about [comfort] unless you were talking [about] shoes for older people,” Routledge said. “But comfort now has become a real thing. Brands like Skechers have brought that through quite strongly.”
However, he added, the Rocket Dog aesthetic remains central to its identity. “We have a real distinctive style to our footwear. We’re known for color. We’re known for our patterns. We’re known for being fun as well as fashionable,” said Routledge.
He noted that the direct-to-consumer channel is ideal for testing new looks. If something resonates there, that’s an indicator to bring those styles into the wholesale component.
In the U.S., Choi said Rocket Dog has a “pretty decent-sized DTC business.” That channel represents about 20 to 30 percent of the overall volume. In addition to its own website, Rocket Dog is sold on Amazon through an arrangement where the marketplace buys inventory from Top Pick and sells it on the Amazon site. The rest of the business is built on wholesale accounts. Rocket Dog’s biggest U.S. retail partners include Shoe Show, Shoe Station, Shoe Carnival and Kohl’s.
Chrissy Oliger-Quiggins, divisional merchandise manager and senior buyer at Shoe Sensation, has long carried the brand’s flip-flops, especially its Spotlights and Sunsets styles. “Rocket Dog’s iconic flip-flops have proven to be a multigenerational favorite, tugging at the nostalgic heartstrings and purse strings of Gen X and finding a place in the closets of Gen Alpha,” she said. “As a merchant, we are consistently pleased with the incredibly strong sell-throughs and long margins that Rocket Dog yields weekly. The productivity and probability of Rocket Dog’s EVA program is the key [reason] Shoe Sensation will continue to allocate open-to-buy to the brand.”
Choi said growing wholesale continues to be a priority, though he noted Rocket Dog is already “a pretty healthy business.” While he declined to disclose annual sales, the president said the brand is not far from its targeted goal of about $40 million in annual volume.
NEXT STEPS
Given Rocket Dog’s ownership structure, the brand has ambitions to build its Asia presence, and Top Pick is already in talks with potential partners.
First though, the plan is to strengthen the U.S. business before tackling a global expansion. Choi said investments already made — into staffing, infrastructure, branding and comfort technology — and those upcoming will become realized within 12 to 18 months.
In the U.S., Top Pick aims to expand its retail network by potentially partnering with Nordstrom’s Marketplace arm and with DSW. (Sister brand Kelsi Dagger is already part of Nordstrom’s vendor mix.)
To that end, Choi said, “We’re looking to beef up the sales team.” He explained that the goal is to “move up into the tier-one accounts.”
Top Pick also just changed up its design team as it looks to elevate the brand. Two new senior designers, Heather Marie de Courrèges and Lana Andes, began work in September.
“What we want to do is definitely move up the chain a little bit more on price. And the way we’re accomplishing that is by continuing to improve our product,” Choi said.
As for other next steps, Choi said Rocket Dog could return to the men’s market, but such a move is at least 24 to 36 months away, he said.
The executive also is keeping the door open for an acquisition or two if the right opportunity comes up. “What we would look for is a company or brand that’s a little distressed, where we can pick it up for a relatively good valuation,” said Choi. Top Pick’s infrastructure, back-office functions and in-house marketing expertise make it a solid brand steward, he explained.
Choi is open to a kids’ or men’s acquisition, where Top Pick would stick to its core competency in footwear and then license out brand extensions, such as apparel and accessories. “That’s definitely in our longer-term strategy,” he said.
For now, the executive is focused on helping Rocket Dog’s owner effect a turnaround of the brand and business.
“Does it go back to a $100 million company? We don’t know. We hope so,” Choi said. “We believe we now have the right people in place from a strategic point of view. We think the business is extremely strong [and] we’re strategically spending money on marketing, and we are really paying attention to product and how to acquire new customers and getting our name more omnipresent with an age group that probably doesn’t know us very well.”
