logo
WNBA's Golden State Valkyries and Sephora Announce Multiyear Partnership Debuting With New Performance Center

WNBA's Golden State Valkyries and Sephora Announce Multiyear Partnership Debuting With New Performance Center

Yahoo09-04-2025
The Golden State Valkyries announced a new partnership with Sephora, expanding the WNBA's cultural reach and broadening the multinational beauty retailer's relevance beyond makeup, skin care and hair care. The multiyear partnership kicks off with the name of the Sephora Performance Center in Oakland, Calif.
The performance center will feature Sephora-branded elements throughout its spaces, including three professional-grade basketball courts, a locker room, strength and conditioning areas, recovery zones, and a player lounge. The Golden State Valkyries new collaborative relationship will also feature Sephora as the presenting partner for the Valkyries Content Day and Training Camp.
More from WWD
WNBA's Candace Parker Named President of Adidas Women's Basketball
WNBA Stars Nika Muhl and Jewell Loyd Turn the Tunnel Into a Runway in Smartwater x WNBA Pre-game Fashion Challenge
Sydney Sweeney Embraces Corsetry in Elisabetta Franchi Suit, Becky G Pops in Yellow Tony Ward Gown and More From the Hollywood Beauty Awards 2025
'Partnering with Sephora is a natural fit for the Valkyries. They are not just a beauty leader, but a company with deep Bay Area roots like us,' said Jess Smith, Golden State Valkyries president.
'From our state-of-the-art Sephora Performance Center in Oakland to the unique content we'll create, this partnership brings tangible benefits to our players while giving fans unprecedented access to the team during our inaugural season. Having Sephora's support as a founding partner is a significant milestone for women's sports and the Valkyries.'
Sephora's presence will also be featured throughout the Chase Center near San Francisco. Among the in-arena placements, a Sephora kiosk will prominently feature in offering a curated selection of beauty product offerings available for purchase.
'We are thrilled to be a founding partner of the Golden State Valkyries and support a team that is committed to women's empowerment, self-expression and excellence,' said Zena Arnold, chief marketing officer at Sephora U.S.
'Joining forces in our shared Bay Area home underscores the strong alignment between our brands, and we are proud to see Sephora represented in both a physical space and with an organization where confidence and performance thrive. We look forward to celebrating the synergy between sports and beauty and continuing to champion our shared values throughout the Valkyries inaugural season and in the years to come.'
Sephora's partnership with the WNBA team comes on the heels of the retailer's role in the Netflix original series 'Running Point.' In the series, Sephora becomes a sponsor for the fictional Los Angeles Waves basketball team, of which Kate Hudson's character becomes the president.
View Gallery
Launch Gallery: WNBA All-Star Weekend Orange Carpet 2024 Arrivals: Caitlin Clark, A'ja Wilson & More Looks [PHOTOS]
Best of WWD
Elizabeth Taylor's Diamond and Gold Star of David Pendant Sells for $35,750 From Julien's Auctions
What Is Vogue World? Details on the Upcoming Hollywood Edition of the Event, Tickets, Featured Artists and More
Donatella Versace With Celebrity Friends Through the Years: Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Dua Lipa and More [PHOTOS]
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Why WNBA players are wearing 'pay us what you owe us' shirts: 'We want to be able to have that fair share'
Why WNBA players are wearing 'pay us what you owe us' shirts: 'We want to be able to have that fair share'

CNBC

time25 minutes ago

  • CNBC

Why WNBA players are wearing 'pay us what you owe us' shirts: 'We want to be able to have that fair share'

WNBA players sent a message to the league ahead of their All-Star Game in Indianapolis Saturday: "Pay us what you owe us." All of the players on Team Clark and Team Collier wore shirts with the message as they warmed up in front of a sold-out crowd of over 16,000 attendees and millions more viewers at home. The declaration came days after more than 40 players met with the WNBA and failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement. The players opted out of their last CBA in October and are negotiating for a better revenue-sharing model, higher salaries, better benefits and a softer salary cap. The players weren't satisfied with the progress in negotiations as they head toward a late-October deadline, the Associated Press reports. They decided to wear the "pay us what you owe us" shirts at a meeting Saturday morning, knowing the All-Star Game was one of the last high-profile events where all players would be in one place before the regular season ends in September. One major sticking point in negotiations between WNBA players and the league is the salary structure and revenue-sharing agreements. The league wants to pay based on a fixed percentage whereas players want "a better share where our salaries grow with the business, and not just a fixed percentage over time," according to Nneka Ogwumike, president of the Women's National Basketball Players Association labor union and Seattle Storm forward. WNBA players currently receive 9.3% of league revenue, including TV deals, tickets and merchandise sales, MarketWatch reports. In comparison, NBA revenue is split roughly 50/50 between players and owners, with players receiving between 49% and 51% of basketball-related income. The WNBA has grown rapidly in recent years, including a new $2.2 billion media deal and expansion fees of $250 million. It recently awarded three new expansion teams to Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia, which will grow the league to 18 teams over the next five years. The league had a record 2024 season with historic viewership, attendance and merchandise sales led by fandom around stars like Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark. In turn, players want a salary structure that gives them a "[larger] piece of the pie that we helped create," Minnesota Lynx forward and 2025 CNBC Changemaker Napheesa Collier said to press after the game. "We want to be able to have that fair share moving forward, especially as we see all of the investment going in, and we want to be able to have our salaries reflected in a structure that makes sense for us," Ogwumike said. WNBA salaries currently range from the league minimum of $66,079 to the maximum of $249,244. The average WNBA base salary is $102,249, according to Spotrac data. The league minimum in the NBA is now $1.27 million and the average salary is more than $13 million, according to data from Sports Reference. Some say comparing the pay structure between the men's and women's leagues isn't exactly fair. The NBA has been around for more than 75 years, has a six-month regular season and brings in billions of dollars in corporate sponsorships, while the WNBA is in its 29th season and plays four months out of the year. The NBA has around $13 billion in revenue while the WNBA is roughly around $200 million, CNBC reported in 2024. To others, WNBA's salary structure is "blatantly unfair to its players," top sports agent Jeff Schwartz said in an interview with CNBC Sport in January. Schwartz founded and runs Excel Sports Management, which represents more than 500 clients including Collier, Clark, Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning and has negotiated billions in athlete contracts. "The WNBA has to figure this out," Schwartz said of the CBA negotiations and player salaries, otherwise many athletes may choose to play overseas to supplement their league income. They could also start their own, like his client Collier's Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 startup women's basketball league which offers players equity and a reported $220,000 paycheck — the highest average player salary of any professional women's sports league, according to Unrivaled. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert described recent CBA talks as "constructive" and ongoing, talking to press ahead of the All-Star Game. "I want a lot of the same things the players want," she said. "I'm still really optimistic that we'll get something done that will be transformational and next year at All-Star we'll be talking about how great everything is. Obviously, there's a lot of hard work to be done on both sides to get there." "We were at a very different place in 2020 than we are in 2025," Engelbert said of when the last CBA was reached. "I think you'll see the revenue-sharing be a much more lucrative one as we go forward because we're in a better place, quite frankly." WNBA players characterized the meeting as a "missed opportunity," hence their Saturday warmup shirts. The second half of the WNBA season resumes Tuesday, and players from the All-Star Game say they haven't decided if they'll wear the shirts on their own teams in the weeks ahead, the AP reports. Some players, including All-Stars Collier and Angel Reese, say they may stage a walkout if a new CBA is not reached by October. The WNBA did not respond to CNBC Make It's request for comment by time of publication. S

Four scary stats that must change in 2025, plus readers' pick the best football movie
Four scary stats that must change in 2025, plus readers' pick the best football movie

New York Times

time27 minutes ago

  • New York Times

Four scary stats that must change in 2025, plus readers' pick the best football movie

Inside: Before the flood of training camp reports, I'm spotlighting stats for four NFC teams to fix in 2025 — starting with Caleb Williams and the Bears. Plus: The league's highest-paid non-quarterback and the best football movies of all time, as voted by you. This article is from Scoop City, The Athletic's NFL newsletter. Sign up here to receive it directly in your inbox. David Carr never had a chance. He remains the only rookie quarterback to take more sacks (76) than Caleb Williams did last season (68), and he led the league in that stat in three of his four full seasons. Watching all 76 of those sacks taught me two things: There's no lowlight reel of all 68 of Williams' sacks, but watch him take 15 in two games and you'll see a quarterback who can often blame his offensive environment. Former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron's scheme rarely got receivers open, and asked too much from the rookie quarterback and his below-average line. Chicago finished 32nd in total yards, though Williams' final stat line was closer to his fellow rookies than you might expect: Still, the Bears were determined to give Williams the chance Carr never got. They paid up for rookie head coach Ben Johnson, who immediately revamped the interior of the Bears offensive line and added receiving weapons. Optimism abounds in Chicago, for now. Johnson's progress is one of 10 storylines to watch during training camp, while the competitions in New York and Dallas, plus the health of a key Panthers defender, are likely to impact three more NFC stats: Giants: 6.0 yards per pass. Only the Browns saw their average pass fall shorter than the Giants, who also completed the league's second-fewest deep passes (63) and scored a league-low 15 passing touchdowns. Deep threats WR Malik Nabers and WR Darius Slayton should pair nicely with Russell Wilson, who had the league's third-highest passer rating on throws of 20-plus yards in 2024. Advertisement Cowboys: Six rushing touchdowns. While WR George Pickens is justifiably Dallas' entry in The Athletic's list of 32 players to watch in training camp, I'm more interested in learning who leads the Cowboys backfield. Javonte Williams, Miles Sanders and fifth-round pick Jaydon Blue are jockeying to lead a unit that ranked 27th in rushing yards per game (100.3) and 32nd in rushing scores. Panthers: 31.4 points allowed per game. The league's worst defense allowed the most points and yards per game (404.5) in 2024. Improvement should be immediate with the return of star DE Derrick Brown, whose health is crucial to their run defense, and free-agent additions at all three levels. You can follow along with The Athletic's live training camp blog, which promises to have plenty of contract-related updates. Such as ... It is rare for a player's third contract to reset the market, and even rarer for that player to be a non-quarterback on the wrong side of 30. Like most offensive linemen, the usual rules failed to stop T.J. Watt. Though he'll turn 31 in October, the Steelers' star edge rusher was given a three-year, $123 million extension that makes him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history, when sorted by average per year: Watt earned this by recording a combined 30.5 sacks and league-leading 10 forced fumbles while playing 17 regular-season games in each of the past two seasons. It's a mild surprise given his age, but Watt remains elite and should be atop the leaderboard until Micah Parsons, 26, signs his deal. Meanwhile, 30-year-old Trey Hendrickson — the only player with more sacks (35.0) than Watt since 2023 — just raised his asking price. I am once again begging the Bengals front office to sign players early. Watt's $108 million guaranteed hints at future plans to build around a rookie-contract quarterback. There's plenty more on the extension in Mike DeFabo's story. Last week I asked for your thoughts on the best football movies of all time. Thousands responded, including a producer of "Invincible." Here are your top five: An inspiring message, overcoming prejudice with a shared goal, and Denzel Washington — plus an extra appearance by my editor, Jason Kirk — combine to make the greatest football movie of all time. Your pick for most overrated football movie was "The Blind Side," with many readers citing questions over its accuracy given the shocking legal case against the Tuohy family. Advertisement If you're looking for drama, follow the NFLPA. Executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. stepped down after a tumultuous few weeks, with reports ranging from hidden arbitration decisions to charging the union for visits to strip clubs. Then one of the favorites to replace Howell, JC Tretter, former NFLPA President, resigned from the organization. Netflix could work with that. For everything else, I'll point you to the New York Times' list of the 100 best movies of the 21st century. Just don't let it distract you during fantasy football draft season. Priorities, folks. 📈 Aging gracefully. Tom Brady made it work. Brett Favre did, too. Can Aaron Rodgers join the list of quarterbacks who've succeeded over 40? Mike DeFabo searched for an answer within the history of aging quarterbacks. 📊 The next generation of college football quarterbacks promises to be better than the 2025 class. The Athletic's ranking of all 136 projected starters had Arch Manning lower than you'd expect. 💬 More headlines for Belichick? The former Patriots head coach fired another shot in his ongoing feud with Robert Kraft, saying he took a "big risk" by coaching the Patriots. ⭐ Fantasy football strategy: Shoot for the stars, urges Michael Salfino in an outline of his "if-you're-not-first-you're-last" strategy. ▶️ Thursday's most clicked: Vic Tafur's take on the win totals of all 32 NFL teams. 📫 Enjoyed this read? Sign up here to receive The Athletic's free NFL newsletter in your inbox. Also, check out our other newsletters.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store