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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Standard
Japanese washlet bidets gain ground in US despite tariffs, cultural gaps
Having conquered its home market, the Japanese toilet-maker Toto is selling more bidets in the United States. Toto's president says not even tariffs will halt its advance. In 1982, a peculiar commercial aired on televisions across Japan. An actress in a pink floral dress and an updo drops paint on her hand and futilely attempts to wipe it off with toilet paper. She looks into the camera and asks: 'Everyone, if your hands get dirty, you wash them, right?' 'It's the same for your bottom,' she continues. 'Bottoms deserve to be washed, too.' The commercial was advertising the Washlet, a new type of toilet seat with a then-unheard-of function: a small wand that extended from the back of the rim and sprayed water up. After its release, Toto, the Washlet's maker, was deluged with calls and letters from viewers shocked by the concept. They were also angry that it was broadcast during evening prime time, when many were sitting down for dinner. Four decades later, Japan has overwhelmingly accepted Toto's innovation. Washlet-style bidets, sold by Toto and a few smaller rivals, are a common feature in Japan's offices and public restrooms and account for more than 80 percent of all household toilets, according to government surveys. Toto now sees a similar shift emerging in the United States. After decades of trying to persuade leery American consumers of the merits of bidets, Toto Washlets have become something of a social phenomenon — popping up on social media tours of five-star hotels and celebrity homes. The comedian Ali Wong devoted a segment of her 2024 Netflix special to Toto's 'magical Japanese toilet.' In 2022, the rapper Drake gifted four Totos to the artist DJ Khaled. An industry report last year showed that more than two in five renovating homeowners in the United States are choosing to install toilets with speciality features, including bidet toilet seats. Toto's profits in its Americas housing equipment business have grown more than eightfold over the past five years — and the company has its sights on expanding even more. 'I could have never imagined how popular Washlets would become overseas,' said Shinya Tamura, a former Washlet engineer who was recently appointed Toto's president. But as was the case with Washlets in Japan, 'once the fire is lit, they tend to hit a J curve,' he said. Toto was founded in 1917 in Kitakyushu, an industrial port city at the tip of Japan's southernmost main island. Like many Japanese companies, Toto excelled at adopting and refining overseas technologies, such as Western-style seated flush toilets, for the Japanese market. In the 1960s, Toto noticed a little-known bidet-like device being used in the medical industry in the United States. It began redeveloping the device in Japan, enlisting more than 300 employees to test and optimize aspects like the water stream's flow, angle and temperature. The Toto Washlet first appeared in 1980. At the time, the product had three primary functions: washing, drying and a heated seat. It was expensive, costing the equivalent of about $2,000 in today's currency, and early models were known to sometimes spray inspectors in the face. The Japanese public was slow to warm to the devices. It took Toto 18 years to sell its first 10 million Washlets. But Toto added features — deodorising in 1992 and automatic flushing and lid opening in 2003 — and sales picked up. In current models, the water spray is kept at a precise 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature the company describes as 'warm but not surprising.' Toto sold another 10 million Washlets between 2019 and mid-2022 and has maintained a similar pace of sales since. Its all-time Washlet sales now exceed 60 million. The rise of Toto Washlets makes sense in the cultural context of Japan, said Masako Shirakura, an industry analyst. In contrast to Western countries, where toilets are sometimes mocked and generally accepted as being dirty, toilets tend to be more respected in Japan, Ms. Shirakura said. This traces back to a belief in Japan that gods or spirits reside in all things, even household objects like toilets, she said. Japan has also built a brand of capitalism, Ms. Shirakura said, that seeks to transform even minor inconveniences of modern life into business opportunities. This is evident in heated toilet seats, self-filling bathtubs and notebooks with ringed spines that flatten to avoid poking one's hands while writing. 'Japan has a very strong culture of endlessly challenging these types of things, and that's why it has been able to evolve and perfect things like Washlets,' Ms. Shirakura said. Toto-style bidet toilets first spread to Japan's neighbors, including South Korea and Taiwan. After they expanded to China in 1994, the country quickly became Toto's top overseas market, but sales outside Asia remained elusive. When Toto began selling Washlets in the United States in 1989, it encountered many of the same hurdles it faced early on in Japan. The company was shut out of magazines and upscale malls that were reluctant to run advertisements for toilets, said Mr. Tamura, the president of Toto. He recalls a 2007 backlash in New York from a Washlet billboard in Times Square displaying a row of naked backsides. By the late 2010s, Toto had built an American sales network for its Washlets, using local business partnerships, listings on Amazon and Costco store shelves. However, it was having to rely mostly on word-of-mouth marketing, and demand lagged. Toto's annual sales in its Americas housing equipment business were stuck under $300 million — less than half of its Chinese proceeds at the time. The company saw a big shift when the Covid-19 pandemic started in 2020. During nationwide lockdowns, Americans struggling to get toilet paper began flocking to Washlets. In 2020, Toto Washlet sales in North America nearly doubled from the year prior. That boom has carried forward, even after toilet paper stocks have replenished, Mr. Tamura said. Toto has also benefited from record numbers of tourists descending on Japan and becoming converts. Ryan Gregory, a biology professor at the University of Guelph in Canada, experienced Washlets for the first time during a recent trip to Japan. Initially, he was apprehensive. 'It's not a region of your anatomy that you're used to having sprayed for most of us,' Mr. Gregory said. 'I think fairly quickly you realize that North American toilets are vastly inferior.' After leaving Japan, Mr. Gregory bought two Toto Washlets for his home. The Washlets have become a hit with visiting friends and family, he said: 'Now it's very much the case that anywhere we go it's like, 'Ugh it's not even heated, what are we doing here?'' More recently, Toto, like many international businesses, has had to navigate the whiplash of President Trump's trade policies. Toto manufactures most of the Washlets it sells in the United States in Thailand and Malaysia, countries that Mr. Trump has threatened with additional tariffs of more than 20 percent. Mr. Trump's tariffs, if enacted, would most likely force Toto to raise its prices in the United States, Mr. Tamura said. Even so, he said, Toto sees plenty of room for growth, since Washlet-style bidets still account for only about 2.5 percent of American toilets. 'Even with tariffs, the United States will be the biggest growth market for us,' Mr. Tamura said, adding that Toto is not changing its target of more than doubling its Washlet sales in the United States by the end of 2027. He shared another personal goal: 'As revenge, I kind of want to try Times Square again.'
New York Times
4 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
The Rise of the Japanese Toilet
In 1982, a peculiar commercial aired on televisions across Japan. An actress in a pink floral dress and an updo drops paint on her hand and futilely attempts to wipe it off with toilet paper. She looks into the camera and asks: 'Everyone, if your hands get dirty, you wash them, right?' 'It's the same for your bottom,' she continues. 'Bottoms deserve to be washed, too.' The commercial was advertising the Washlet, a new type of toilet seat with a then-unheard-of function: a small wand that extended from the back of the rim and sprayed water up. After its release, Toto, the Washlet's maker, was deluged with calls and letters from viewers shocked by the concept. They were also angry that it was broadcast during evening prime time, when many were sitting down for dinner. Four decades later, Japan has overwhelmingly accepted Toto's innovation. Washlet-style bidets, sold by Toto and a few smaller rivals, are a common feature in Japan's offices and public restrooms and account for more than 80 percent of all household toilets, according to government surveys. Toto now sees a similar shift emerging in the United States. After decades of trying to persuade leery American consumers of the merits of bidets, Toto Washlets have become something of a social phenomenon — popping up on social media tours of five-star hotels and celebrity homes. The comedian Ali Wong devoted a segment of her 2024 Netflix special to Toto's 'magical Japanese toilet.' In 2022, the rapper Drake gifted four Totos to the artist DJ Khaled. An industry report last year showed that more than two in five renovating homeowners in the United States are choosing to install toilets with specialty features, including bidet toilet seats. Toto's profits in its Americas housing equipment business have grown more than eightfold over the past five years — and the company has its sights on expanding even more. 'I could have never imagined how popular Washlets would become overseas,' said Shinya Tamura, a former Washlet engineer who was recently appointed Toto's president. But as was the case with Washlets in Japan, 'once the fire is lit, they tend to hit a J curve,' he said. Toto was founded in 1917 in Kitakyushu, an industrial port city at the tip of Japan's southernmost main island. Like many Japanese companies, Toto excelled at adopting and refining overseas technologies, such as Western-style seated flush toilets, for the Japanese market. In the 1960s, Toto noticed a little-known bidet-like device being used in the medical industry in the United States. It began redeveloping the device in Japan, enlisting more than 300 employees to test and optimize aspects like the water stream's flow, angle and temperature. The Toto Washlet first appeared in 1980. At the time, the product had three primary functions: washing, drying and a heated seat. It was expensive, costing the equivalent of about $2,000 in today's currency, and early models were known to sometimes spray inspectors in the face. The Japanese public was slow to warm to the devices. It took Toto 18 years to sell its first 10 million Washlets. But Toto added features — deodorizing in 1992 and automatic flushing and lid opening in 2003 — and sales picked up. In current models, the water spray is kept at a precise 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature the company describes as 'warm but not surprising.' Toto sold another 10 million Washlets between 2019 and mid-2022 and has maintained a similar pace of sales since. Its all-time Washlet sales now exceed 60 million. The rise of Toto Washlets makes sense in the cultural context of Japan, said Masako Shirakura, an industry analyst and an executive member of the Japan Toilet Association. In contrast to Western countries, where toilets are sometimes mocked and generally accepted as being dirty, toilets tend to be more respected in Japan, Ms. Shirakura said. This traces back to a belief in Japan that gods or spirits reside in all things, even household objects like toilets, she said. Japan has also built a brand of capitalism, Ms. Shirakura said, that seeks to transform even minor inconveniences of modern life into business opportunities. This is evident in heated toilet seats, self-filling bathtubs and notebooks with ringed spines that flatten to avoid poking one's hands while writing. 'Japan has a very strong culture of endlessly challenging these types of things, and that's why it has been able to evolve and perfect things like Washlets,' Ms. Shirakura said. Toto-style bidet toilets first spread to Japan's neighbors, including South Korea and Taiwan. After they expanded to China in 1994, the country quickly became Toto's top overseas market, but sales outside Asia remained elusive. When Toto began selling Washlets in the United States in 1989, it encountered many of the same hurdles it faced early on in Japan. The company was shut out of magazines and upscale malls that were reluctant to run advertisements for toilets, said Mr. Tamura, the president of Toto. He recalls a 2007 backlash in New York from a Washlet billboard in Times Square displaying a row of naked backsides. By the late 2010s, Toto had built an American sales network for its Washlets, using local business partnerships, listings on Amazon and Costco store shelves. However, it was having to rely mostly on word-of-mouth marketing, and demand lagged. Toto's annual sales in its Americas housing equipment business were stuck under $300 million — less than half of its Chinese proceeds at the time. The company saw a big shift when the Covid-19 pandemic started in 2020. During nationwide lockdowns, Americans struggling to get toilet paper began flocking to Washlets. In 2020, Toto Washlet sales in North America nearly doubled from the year prior. That boom has carried forward, even after toilet paper stocks have replenished, Mr. Tamura said. Toto has also benefited from record numbers of tourists descending on Japan and becoming converts. Ryan Gregory, a biology professor at the University of Guelph in Canada, experienced Washlets for the first time during a recent trip to Japan. Initially, he was apprehensive. 'It's not a region of your anatomy that you're used to having sprayed for most of us,' Mr. Gregory said. 'I think fairly quickly you realize that North American toilets are vastly inferior.' After leaving Japan, Mr. Gregory bought two Toto Washlets for his home. The Washlets have become a hit with visiting friends and family, he said: 'Now it's very much the case that anywhere we go it's like, 'Ugh it's not even heated, what are we doing here?'' More recently, Toto, like many international businesses, has had to navigate the whiplash of President Trump's trade policies. Toto manufactures most of the Washlets it sells in the United States in Thailand and Malaysia, countries that Mr. Trump has threatened with additional tariffs of more than 20 percent. Mr. Trump's tariffs, if enacted, would most likely force Toto to raise its prices in the United States, Mr. Tamura said. Even so, he said, Toto sees plenty of room for growth, since Washlet-style bidets still account for only about 2.5 percent of American toilets. 'Even with tariffs, the United States will be the biggest growth market for us,' Mr. Tamura said, adding that Toto is not changing its target of more than doubling its Washlet sales in the United States by the end of 2027. He shared another personal goal: 'As revenge, I kind of want to try Times Square again.'
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Ride of the Valkyries: how the WNBA finally found a home in the Bay Area
Purple-dyed ponytails and sequin jackets glittering in shades of black and violet. Fans are decked out in sports logos and LGBTQ rainbows while Black Box's Everybody Everybody – a queer dance club classic – booms from the speakers. Ali Wong is playfully dancing on the Jumbotron. There's no misinterpreting it: the WNBA has arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Golden State Valkyries – who are owned by Golden State Warriors tech mogul Joe Lacob, and housed with their sibling franchise at Chase Center in San Francisco – were announced in 2023 (their name was confirmed in 2024) as the first WNBA expansion team since 2008. Last Friday, the team made their WNBA debut, against the Los Angeles Sparks, in front of a sellout crowd of 18,064. Advertisement As local reporter Randy Dumalig said on KCBS, 'it felt like everyone and their mom was there.' The energy in and around the arena was electric. A diverse, intergenerational crowd that skewed noticeably more female than those at most Bay Area sporting events gathered from all over the region to celebrate the WNBA's splashy and long overdue arrival. With local celebrities such as Steve Kerr, Jonathan Kuminga and Brandi Chastain also in attendance, WNBA games are suddenly a real Bay Area attraction. But it has taken the WNBA a long time to arrive. When the 'W' started play in 1997, the San Francisco Bay was surprisingly excluded, despite its sports pedigree. Sacramento, roughly two hours away, was given its own team, the Monarchs, but they folded in 2009. Meanwhile, an opportunity for women's basketball had been steadily accruing in the Bay Area. The franchise has already made history by becoming the first in the WNBA to surpass 10,000 season-ticket holders, a feat that was declared mid-game against the Sparks, who ultimately defeated the still-inexperienced Valkyries 84-67 on Friday. Chants of 'GSV' and 'Let's Go Valkyries' broke out throughout the night at decibels that longtime Bay Area fans may recall from the days when the Golden State Warriors played at Oracle Arena. With the Valkyries' practice facility and headquarters located in the previously vacant Oracle in East Oakland, they're sure to appeal to fans from all over the Bay's shoreline, too. Advertisement 'There was nothing like this for a long time,' says Mickey, a 74-year-old who made the commute from Silicon Valley during rush hour for the inaugural Valkyries game (she requested not to publish her full name). Before tip off, she sat in front of the arena in an electric wheelchair wearing her Valkyries gear, soaking it all in. 'I used to go to Sacramento to watch the WNBA; I didn't miss a single playoff game [during the team's championship season] in 2005. I've been waiting for a WNBA team in the Bay Area for over 27 years.' The air seems noticeably fresher in town with the WNBA – a league known for its social justice efforts, gender and labor equity advocacy, and its appeal to queer and non-traditional fans. Enthusiasts like Mickey abound here and are a reminder of the many dimensions of sports fandom that can thrive in a place like the Bay Area. And yet, Ballhalla (a de facto nickname for the Valkyries' home court, and a playful ode to Valhalla, the mythic hall of fallen warriors in Nordic myth) wasn't built overnight. Women's basketball has had a rich, if not overlooked legacy in the Bay. And its phalanx of supporters, in tandem with the Bay Area's vibrant arts and culture scenes, have been ready for their big shot. *** Advertisement In 1969, Lew Alcindor – later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – was the No 1 overall pick in the NBA draft; he went on to become a dominant Hall of Fame force who would change the sport. Yet, a far lesser known prospect was drafted that very same night. She who would have just as profound effect on the sport by becoming the first hooper to break the league's gender barrier. Denise Long was selected by the then-San Francisco Warriors in the 13th round with the 175th pick, becoming the only female player to be picked in the NBA draft. This was nearly 30 years before the formation of the WNBA. Long's tenure as a professional basketballer in San Francisco didn't last. The league's commissioner, Walter Kennedy, immediately annulled the move, citing her status as a high schooler and gender. Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli, a bombastic Bay Area entrepreneur, had another gameplan – launching a women's basketball league in nearby Daly City. Long, who had scored more than 100 points in a single game three times in high school, would go on to headline the nascent, local women's circuit (Mieuli gave his young star a purple Jaguar to show his esteem for her skills). That season, four women's teams competed before every Warriors home game. But the league folded after one campaign, and Long moved back to her home state of Iowa to lead a quiet life away from basketball. Advertisement Pro women's basketball wouldn't renew itself until 1979, when the San Francisco Pioneers of the Women's Professional Basketball League made Oakland native Anna Johnson the first professional women's player from the Bay Area. Like the Warriors' upstart efforts, however, it proved too difficult to maintain a professional women's franchise in the area. The San Jose Lasers (also funded by Lacob) would make an attempt in 1996, along with the San Jose Spiders, but both failed. And though the Stanford Cardinal assembled an college dynasty in Palo Alto, winning three national titles, the professional women's game never caught a break in the Bay Area. Until now. *** Michelle Miller has worked for the Golden State Warriors, Bay Area Panthers and California Golden Bears. Better known as DJShellheart, she keeps the energy high at Bay Area sporting events. As a Black, queer woman rooted in the local hip-hop scene, she says nothing feels quite like working with the Valkyries as one of the team's DJs. 'This is the start of something bigger, just having a safe space to go, to feel comfortable and not be scared to speak about sports with [like minded] people,' she says. 'The Valkyries coming to the Bay has shifted the energy. Since last year we've been doing community drives, girl's camps focused on mental health, things that are just bringing positivity. This is the ideal place to have a team like this.' Advertisement She's just one of the Valkyries' community partners. Others include artists like Kehlani, P-Lo, E-40 – who performed for the opening game's half-time show to a raucous crowd – and Goapele, a legendary R&B singer who is appointed as one of the Valkyries' public ambassadors. In an effort to build inroads within local arts and culture, the team has also initiated its Valkyries Collective program, featuring athletes, influencers and entertainers from the area. Even the Valkyries' head coach Natalie Nakase, who became the first Asian American head coach in league history, has quasi-local roots. The Californian began her professional career as a point guard with the San Jose Spiders about an hour south of San Francisco. The organization's focus on the local area can be seen in the arena's rafters. Allison 'Hueman' Torneros is a decorated Filipina muralist from the East Bay who grew up watching the Warriors. Though she has worked with the NBA in past seasons – even designing a Nike uniform for the Dubs in 2022-23 – she is particularly excited to team up with the V's. Her work often incorporates womanhood, femininity, and Bay Area immigrant identity. So it's no surprise that she was brought on to paint a Valkyries-sponsored mural at their practice facility in Oakland. The work is sprawling, covering 200ft and unfurls elegantly across a long hallway: a surrealistic rendition of women in battle, running mid court, swords drawn, galloping towards what appears to be victory, clouded in a purplish, dreamlike haze. It is everything that a women's basketball team in the Bay Area is, and may one day yet be. Back in San Francisco inside Splash Bar – a Steph Curry-backed sports bar, in which the NBA star has expressed his support for the Valkyries – WNBA games are being shown on a huge screen before Friday's game. Outside, flocks of Valkyries fans mingle hours before tip off, eager to be a part of history. Advertisement Fans like Teresa Guillen and Diane Rosen, Gen Xers who live in San Francisco and have had ties to the Warriors since the 70s, now have a top-shelf women's team to root for. Former high school players like Yolanda Shavies, who grew up across the Bay Bridge in Oakland and once had aspirations of playing professionally. These are the fans who the team represents; and they certainly didn't disappoint when they showed up for game number one. 'We've been waiting a long time for this,' says Shavies, who crafted a Valkyries-emblazoned sword, which she carried around as an accessory to complement her violet shirt and color-coordinated Nikes. 'I've been waiting a long time for this.' 'We've found the finishing piece to what the Bay Area was missing,' DJShellheart says. 'Adding the WNBA is like finishing that thousand-piece puzzle. It's an image and color we could never fully see until now.'
The Guardian
21-05-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Ride of the Valkyries: how the WNBA finally found a home in the Bay Area
Purple-dyed ponytails and sequin jackets glittering in shades of black and violet. Fans are decked out in sports logos and LGBTQ rainbows while Black Box's Everybody Everybody – a queer dance club classic – booms from the speakers. Ali Wong is playfully dancing on the Jumbotron. There's no misinterpreting it: the WNBA has arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Golden State Valkyries – who are owned by Golden State Warriors tech mogul Joe Lacob, and housed with their sibling franchise at Chase Center in San Francisco – were announced in 2023 (their name was confirmed in 2024) as the first WNBA expansion team since 2008. Last Friday, the team made their WNBA debut, against the Los Angeles Sparks, in front of a sellout crowd of 18,064. As local reporter Randy Dumalig said on KCBS, 'it felt like everyone and their mom was there.' The energy in and around the arena was electric. A diverse, intergenerational crowd that skewed noticeably more female than those at most Bay Area sporting events gathered from all over the region to celebrate the WNBA's splashy and long overdue arrival. With local celebrities such as Steve Kerr, Jonathan Kuminga and Brandi Chastain also in attendance, WNBA games are suddenly a real Bay Area attraction. But it has taken the WNBA a long time to arrive. When the 'W' started play in 1997, the San Francisco Bay was surprisingly excluded, despite its sports pedigree. Sacramento, roughly two hours away, was given its own team, the Monarchs, but they folded in 2009. Meanwhile, an opportunity for women's basketball had been steadily accruing in the Bay Area. The franchise has already made history by becoming the first in the WNBA to surpass 10,000 season-ticket holders, a feat that was declared mid-game against the Sparks, who ultimately defeated the still-inexperienced Valkyries 84-67 on Friday. Chants of 'GSV' and 'Let's Go Valkyries' broke out throughout the night at decibels that longtime Bay Area fans may recall from the days when the Golden State Warriors played at Oracle Arena. With the Valkyries' practice facility and headquarters located in the previously vacant Oracle in East Oakland, they're sure to appeal to fans from all over the Bay's shoreline, too. 'There was nothing like this for a long time,' says Mickey, a 74-year-old who made the commute from Silicon Valley during rush hour for the inaugural Valkyries game (she requested not to publish her full name). Before tip off, she sat in front of the arena in an electric wheelchair wearing her Valkyries gear, soaking it all in. 'I used to go to Sacramento to watch the WNBA; I didn't miss a single playoff game [during the team's championship season] in 2005. I've been waiting for a WNBA team in the Bay Area for over 27 years.' The air seems noticeably fresher in town with the WNBA – a league known for its social justice efforts, gender and labor equity advocacy, and its appeal to queer and non-traditional fans. Enthusiasts like Mickey abound here and are a reminder of the many dimensions of sports fandom that can thrive in a place like the Bay Area. And yet, Ballhalla (a de facto nickname for the Valkyries' home court, and a playful ode to Valhalla, the mythic hall of fallen warriors in Nordic myth) wasn't built overnight. Women's basketball has had a rich, if not overlooked legacy in the Bay. And its phalanx of supporters, in tandem with the Bay Area's vibrant arts and culture scenes, have been ready for their big shot. In 1969, Lew Alcindor – later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – was the No 1 overall pick in the NBA draft; he went on to become a dominant Hall of Fame force who would change the sport. Yet, a far lesser known prospect was drafted that very same night. She who would have just as profound effect on the sport by becoming the first hooper to break the league's gender barrier. Denise Long was selected by the then-San Francisco Warriors in the 13th round with the 175th pick, becoming the only female player to be picked in the NBA draft. This was nearly 30 years before the formation of the WNBA. Long's tenure as a professional basketballer in San Francisco didn't last. The league's commissioner, Walter Kennedy, immediately annulled the move, citing her status as a high schooler and gender. Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli, a bombastic Bay Area entrepreneur, had another gameplan – launching a women's basketball league in nearby Daly City. Long, who had scored more than 100 points in a single game three times in high school, would go on to headline the nascent, local women's circuit (Mieuli gave his young star a purple Jaguar to show his esteem for her skills). That season, four women's teams competed before every Warriors home game. But the league folded after one campaign, and Long moved back to her home state of Iowa to lead a quiet life away from basketball. Pro women's basketball wouldn't renew itself until 1979, when the San Francisco Pioneers of the Women's Professional Basketball League made Oakland native Anna Johnson the first professional women's player from the Bay Area. Like the Warriors' upstart efforts, however, it proved too difficult to maintain a professional women's franchise in the area. The San Jose Lasers (also funded by Lacob) would make an attempt in 1996, along with the San Jose Spiders, but both failed. And though the Stanford Cardinal assembled an college dynasty in Palo Alto, winning three national titles, the professional women's game never caught a break in the Bay Area. Until now. Michelle Miller has worked for the Golden State Warriors, Bay Area Panthers and California Golden Bears. Better known as DJShellheart, she keeps the energy high at Bay Area sporting events. As a Black, queer woman rooted in the local hip-hop scene, she says nothing feels quite like working with the Valkyries as one of the team's DJs. 'This is the start of something bigger, just having a safe space to go, to feel comfortable and not be scared to speak about sports with [like minded] people,' she says. 'The Valkyries coming to the Bay has shifted the energy. Since last year we've been doing community drives, girl's camps focused on mental health, things that are just bringing positivity. This is the ideal place to have a team like this.' She's just one of the Valkyries' community partners. Others include artists like Kehlani, P-Lo, E-40 – who performed for the opening game's half-time show to a raucous crowd – and Goapele, a legendary R&B singer who is appointed as one of the Valkyries' public ambassadors. In an effort to build inroads within local arts and culture, the team has also initiated its Valkyries Collective program, featuring athletes, influencers and entertainers from the area. Even the Valkyries' head coach Natalie Nakase, who became the first Asian American head coach in league history, has quasi-local roots. The Californian began her professional career as a point guard with the San Jose Spiders about an hour south of San Francisco. The organization's focus on the local area can be seen in the arena's rafters. Allison 'Hueman' Torneros is a decorated Filipina muralist from the East Bay who grew up watching the Warriors. Though she has worked with the NBA in past seasons – even designing a Nike uniform for the Dubs in 2022-23 – she is particularly excited to team up with the V's. Her work often incorporates womanhood, femininity, and Bay Area immigrant identity. So it's no surprise that she was brought on to paint a Valkyries-sponsored mural at their practice facility in Oakland. The work is sprawling, covering 200ft and unfurls elegantly across a long hallway: a surrealistic rendition of women in battle, running mid court, swords drawn, galloping towards what appears to be victory, clouded in a purplish, dreamlike haze. It is everything that a women's basketball team in the Bay Area is, and may one day yet be. Back in San Francisco inside Splash Bar – a Steph Curry-backed sports bar, in which the NBA star has expressed his support for the Valkyries – WNBA games are being shown on a huge screen before Friday's game. Outside, flocks of Valkyries fans mingle hours before tip off, eager to be a part of history. Fans like Teresa Guillen and Diane Rosen, Gen Xers who live in San Francisco and have had ties to the Warriors since the 70s, now have a top-shelf women's team to root for. Former high school players like Yolanda Shavies, who grew up across the Bay Bridge in Oakland and once had aspirations of playing professionally. These are the fans who the team represents; and they certainly didn't disappoint when they showed up for game number one. 'We've been waiting a long time for this,' says Shavies, who crafted a Valkyries-emblazoned sword, which she carried around as an accessory to complement her violet shirt and color-coordinated Nikes. 'I've been waiting a long time for this.' 'We've found the finishing piece to what the Bay Area was missing,' DJShellheart says. 'Adding the WNBA is like finishing that thousand-piece puzzle. It's an image and color we could never fully see until now.'
San Francisco Chronicle
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Ali Wong celebrates Golden State Valkyries' WNBA debut
Ali Wong showed up to Ballhalla as the Golden State Valkyries made their official WNBA franchise debut, and the crowd went wild. The San Francisco-born comedian was shown on the jumbotron at Chase Center during the Valkyries' 84-67 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks on Friday, May 16. She later reposted a 20-second clip to her Instagram story that showed her waving, blowing kisses and forming a heart with her hands as the sold-out crowd of 18,064 screamed throughout the arena. 'Congrats to @valkyries on your inaugural season opener game!!!' Wong wrote in an Instagram story she posted after the game. The accompanying photo shows her from the back wearing a No. 19 Valkyries jersey with her last name on it (no player on the roster wears that number). The Valkyries official Instagram account also shared photos of Wong sporting her jersey and posing for pictures. Wong has long touted her love of the Bay Area, and recently was seen in the city dining with her boyfriend, comedian and actor Bill Hader, in the Financial District at Vietnamese restaurant Turtle Tower. This time around, she shared a photo of Holy Prawns, a shrimp dish from Gao Viet Kitchen & Bar in the Outer Sunset. The 'Beef' and 'Always Be My Maybe' star has credited the city and the Punch Line Comedy Club for the beginnings of her success during her speech at January's Golden Globes, where she won for best stand up comedy performance for her fourth Netflix comedy special ' Single Lady.' She was back at the Punch Line in March for a string of 'Ali Wong: Work in Progress' shows. Other celebs spotted at Chase Center on Friday night were mostly from the sports world. Golden State Warriors and Valkyries co-owners Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber sat courtside, as did Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, and several Warriors players, including Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, Kevon Looney and Buddy Hield, who brought his children. Stephen Curry had planned to come, but reportedly couldn't make it 'due to a last-minute personal matter.' Also flying in for the game was Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers, who employed Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase as an assistant coach when he was head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers.
