Rockets: Legacy Reimagined
Houston Rockets Unveil New 1990s-Inspired Uniforms, Blending Championship Legacy with Modern Design
Anonymous
After disappointing the expectations of a title run—coming off a first-round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Lakers—Houston Rockets fans now have a major off-court change: a June 4 uniform and branding rebrand debut. The team has brought back the iconic “ketchup and mustard” palette associated with its 1994 and 1995 championship teams, but blends it with modern, space-themed design cues for the 2026-27 season. Houston will debut three uniforms—Association, Icon, and Statement—each with yellow accents, including rocket/space-inspired number styling, slanted lowercase “t” lettering, and quasar- or rocket-rotation-inspired striping on the designs. As part of the rebrand, the Rockets updated their “R” logo with yellow, introduced a triangular global logo inspired by NASA mission patches, and made the Dunkstronaut a permanent secondary mark across the kits. Team leaders said the work—about three years in the making—was guided by fan feedback and aimed to link the franchise’s legacy to its future, with yellow also returning to primary branding and black emphasized for the City Edition look. The new merchandise launch is planned via sign-ups and an in-person retail pop-up, ahead of the jerseys reaching fans for the upcoming season.
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The Rockets said the rebrand effort took about three years and included “adjusting to feedback from the NBA and Nike,” not just internal creative development.
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Rockets vice chairman Patrick Fertitta said the color return was driven by fan history going back to when his family bought the team in 2017: “From the time my family bought the team in 2017, we’ve heard from countless fans about how deeply those colors are tied to their memories of Rockets basketball. We wanted to create something that celebrates the generations of fans who built Rockets basketball while inspiring the next generation of Rockets fans.”
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The Rockets’ new triangular “global logo,” inspired by NASA mission patches, includes two yellow quasars meant to symbolize the franchise’s move from San Diego to Houston.
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Beyond the primary rebrand, the team also confirmed specific City Edition details: black City Edition uniforms will “continue to pay homage to the Houston Oilers’ ‘Luv Ya Blue’ era with light blue numbers.”
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Uniform iconography extends past color and font: the “Clutch City” tag appears on each jersey framed by two quasars, and the Dunkstronaut is featured across the kits via the waistbands (with the logo introduced earlier for Nike City Edition uniforms).
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