The Golden State Valkyries won’t take the court as the newest WNBA franchise until 2025, but their brand goes to work today.
On opening day for the Women’s National Basketball Association, Golden State Warriors svp of marketing Amanda Chin unveiled the name and logo of the Golden State Valkyries—the first new WNBA franchise since the Atlanta Dream joined the league in 2008.
The Warriors ownership group paid a WNBA record $50 million expansion fee for their spot in the league, but Chin told an audience at ADWEEK’s Brand Play Sports Marketing Summit that it wasn’t the price of admission that made the organization want to get the details of its entry into women’s basketball right.
“My 6-year-old and I were at a Warriors game about a year ago, and she leaned over to me and she said, ‘Mom, how come girls don’t play basketball?’ And I was like, ‘I’ve failed her,’” Chin said. “Immediately, my husband and I ran to Stanford, and we got her to see a Stanford women’s basketball game, and now [University of Southern California star freshman] JuJu [Watkins] is her favorite player.”
After Warriors ownership was granted a WNBA franchise in October 2023, it similarly made that team’s branding a community effort. It hired Los Angeles-based agency Cartwright—which just produced a Coca-Cola March Madness campaign targeting women’s and men’s basketball fandoms during the Final Four—to help develop the brand and find a name that would inform the logo, colors and other elements.
During the press conference announcing the new franchise, Warriors owner Joe Lacob—who previously owned the San Jose Lasers of the now-defunct women’s American Basketball League from 1996 to 1998—referred to California’s Golden State nickname several times and noted that the team’s name would reflect the entire Bay Area.
For the rest, however, the Warriors looked at elements like local culture (think Las Vegas Aces, New York Liberty), nature (Seattle Storm, Chicago Sky), and energy and vibe (Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics). With no clear answer, the Warriors turned to the public, who sent back thousands of submissions with one recurring name: Valkyries.
The Valkyries of Norse mythology are fearless, unwavering, flighted warrior women who guide the souls of deceased warriors to the afterlife. Chin noted they’re “associated with brightness and gold, but also bloodshed.” More recently, however, Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe evolves from a drunken, blaster-wielding scrap-metal retriever to a redeemed warrior and ruler of New Asgard.
“We want to build something that people will want to wear on a shirt or a hat—how do we drive merchandise, and is it something that a player is going to be excited to represent?” Chin said. “As a marketer, one of the most important filters was the storytelling possibilities.”