WNBA expansion team Golden State announces team name: Valkyries

On Tuesday, WNBA expansion team Golden State announced its name and brand identity: Golden State Valkyries.

The name, which originates from Norse mythology, refers to “a group of fearless and unflinching warrior women – who fly through the air and sea alike,” a team statement said. “This brand is Golden State’s modern interpretation of the Valkyrie: strong, bold and fierce.”

The team said that the team’s primary color is “Valkyrie Purple,” which signifies “strength, ambition, nobility, and women’s empowerment, just as the color purple has been used symbolically in modern history.”

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“It feels like we’ve arrived,” Valkyries president Jess Smith told ESPN. “As much as I loved saying WNBA Golden State, that was a placeholder, and that’s who we are. To be able to put that stake in the ground and start building brand value and start bringing our community together around the world, it’s a really special moment.” “

The Golden State Valkyries will begin competition in the 2025 WNBA season as the league’s 13th active team and first expansion franchise since 2008. The organization will host home games at the Chase Center in San Francisco and practice in Oakland at the Golden State Warriors’ former training facility. , the NBA’s Valkyries affiliate.

The branding makes a “big nod” to the legacy of the seven-time NBA champion Warriors, but ensures “we’re also building a legacy of our own and something special about us,” Smith said.

Smith, the organization’s first employee, previously helped transform the NWSL’s Angel City FC into what is considered the most successful women’s sports brand in the world.

“The nice thing about Valkyrie is that it’s versatile and cohesive,” Smith said. “We need everyone — the visual representation on the field of those athletes coming together in games, but how we win together, with the partners and the fans and the broadcast and the league and everyone else alongside us, is really where the real impact will be. We hope that being a Valkyrie, that People being able to find their inner Valkyrie and where they will be is part of that puzzle, a big part of what makes this powerful.

The organization’s logo depicts the Bay Bridge, an appeal to the team’s criss-crossing roots, and is V-shaped, signifying “the unity of a group of Valkyries in flight, standing for victory,” the statement said. The bridge tower in the logo can be used as a sword and the bridge cables as wings – both features associated with Valkyries. The five triangles created by the cables on either side of the tower represent five players facing each other on the basketball court, while the 13 lines emerging from the top of the tower signify Golden State’s arrival as the 13th team in the WNBA.

“We wanted to include that Golden State name,” Smith said. “We want to be inclusive of all women’s sports, so people know that we are a pillar of strength for where this is going and how we can build people and bring them together. But more importantly, we want to build a brand that is incredibly inclusive and that people love to be a part of because of what it means.” Through the strength of Golden State and the Valkyries, so we feel like every decision we made along the way allowed us to reference all of those fans.

Development of the brand, led by Amanda Chen, Warriors’ senior vice president of marketing, began in October 2023, when the expansion franchise was officially announced. The franchise used Cartwright’s agency while also looking for community input – Smith pointed to a write-in survey conducted by the San Francisco Chronicle in which 25% of respondents suggested “Valkyries” for the team’s name.

The team, which surpassed 7,500 season ticket deposits and last week introduced its newly appointed general manager in Ohemaa Nyanin, will hold a Valkyries party on Saturday at Thrive City in San Francisco to celebrate the launch of the team’s identity.

“We’re going to do everything we can to build this brand and build a successful brand, which we believe drives equity by building a successful business, but it’s going to take everyone coming together to do that,” Smith said.