Sneaker Rivals: Valkyries and Dream Face Off in the 2026 WNBA Finals

After a prolonged wait thanks to back-to-back sweeps that left the WNBA calendar without any playoff games for over a week, the Finals are set to crown a first-time champion between the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream. The Valkyries are already vying for a championship in their second season in existence, while the Dream are looking to actually win one game after being swept in their three previous appearances.

Golden State will be led by Jordan Brand athlete Gabby Williams and one of the deepest rosters in the league. While the Valkyries benefit from having a different player emerge and take over every night, Williams has emerged as their true star after several years in the W. Her breakout performance during the 2024 Olympics, when she almost led France to a gold medal against a loaded Team USA squad, was a sign of things to come. The accolades and believers have only grown, racking up Euroleague Championships, All-Star and All-Defensive nods since her star turn. A WNBA Championship can put her in the conversation among the league’s best and someone who should be getting more consideration to be the headliner of Jordan Brand’s next women’s exclusive basketball shoe.

The most memorable WNBA season of all time (from a sneaker perspective) is coming to a conclusion with one of their biggest young stars as the headliner. Angel Reese went from people wondering if she was ever going to live up to the hype after being traded to the Chicago Sky under somewhat suspicious circumstances to winning the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year award and leading the Atlanta Dream to their first Finals since 2013.

While Reese is far from the only bona fide All-Star on the team, she has emerged as someone who can not only be the defensive and rebounding leader of a championship-caliber team, but she can also take on some of the scoring responsibility as well. One can only imagine what the narrative is going to be if Reese has a strong Finals or wins the Finals MVP award.

Golden State Valkyries (#2 Seed)

Starters: Gabby Williams (Jordan Brand), Veronica Burton (Nike), Kiah Stokes (Nike), Tiffany Hayes (Nike), Kayla Thornton (New Balance)

Sixth Player: Janelle Salaün (adidas)

During an appearance on the Club 520 podcast last year, Gabby Williams told Jeff Teague and the crew that her Jordan Brand care packages happen so frequently that she’s never short on things to wear. It’s actually reached the point where she never has to rock the same thing twice, whether it’s gear or sneakers. Thankfully, she timed her sneaker rotation for the biggest moments because she wore the Air Jordan 41 in the Amethyst colorway during Valkyries semifinal sweep of the defending champion Las Vegas Aces. Not an easy task to not only knock out last season’s champs, but the recently minted five-time WNBA MVP in A’ja Wilson.

The hope is that Williams will have a never-before-seen player exclusive that will debut during the Finals. With Jordan Brand looking to refocus and scale back on their reliance on retros, any chance that the flagship current performance model has to shine needs to be exploited by the brand.

The strength of the Valkyries throughout their entire existence of two total seasons is their depth. Featuring every player on the team who has been a key contributor during this playoff run would take up too much space, but it is a testament to how they have beaten the tried-and-true philosophy of shrinking the roster the deeper a team goes.

Kiah Stokes has an opportunity to enter rarefied air by winning a fourth WNBA championship in five seasons. After grabbing three rings alongside A’ja Wilson in Las Vegas, she has worn her former teammates’ signature kicks for most of the year along with the Nike LeBron Witness 9. Not sure if it would be proper form for Stokes to wear an A’Two PE, especially after she put on a clinic and made the MVP look a little human for once, but it would be neat to see something new in the championship round.

Veronica Burton’s has had an up-and-down playoffs as her numbers have dipped compared to the regular season. Ballhalla hopes that she’ll be able to channel that Mamba Mentality that she has been sporting this year as she wore Kobe Protros like the Kobe 6 and Kobe 9 Mambacitas. Like Stokes, Kayla Thornton will be looking to add to her championship collection, as she was on the New York Liberty that won back in 2024. Thornton has been wearing New Balance for the past few years, with the P400 being her footwear of choice during this playoff. However, in between the rotation of New Balance models, Thornton wore the Nike GT Cut 3 during her first All-Star appearance last season.

Janelle Salaün has not had the best postseason so far despite winning the league’s Sixth Player of the Year award. As the main adidas athlete in the Valkyries playoff rotation, she has been representing the brand with various colorways of the Harden Vol. 10, like the Northern Lights colorway. Tiffany Hayes has picked up some of the slack and upped her production in the playoffs while wearing the Nike Kobe 9 EM Protro on her way to facing off against the team that she spent most of her career in Atlanta. It will be interesting to see how Atlanta treats one of their legends as she tries to cap off a solid career with a ring.

Atlanta Dream (#4 Seed)

Starters: Angel Reese (Reebok), Jordin Canada (Jordan Brand), Allisha Gray (Nike), Rhyne Howard (Jordan Brand), DeWanna Bonner (Nike)

Sixth Player: Naz Hilmon (Nike)

This is the first time Reebok Basketball has had a signature athlete in a championship round since their President and Vice President, Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson, were in their primes. So it has been a minute. What has also taken a minute is the reveal of the Reebok Angel Reese 2. There has not been a leak, a hint, or a confirmation from Angel or Reebok that the second signature is on the way. At the same time, when they talked about the Angel Reese 1, they hinted that the shoe would release in 2026 before shocking everybody with an NBA 2K25 reveal on the cover and then proceeded to sell the shoe shortly thereafter. So could Reebok shock us again with an Angel Reese 2 surprise in the Finals? Would not put it past Shaq’s galaxy brain to come up with that scheme.

Allisha Gray and DeWanna Bonner are part of the privileged few in the W who regularly receive player exclusives of signature shoes that everybody would love to see drop at retail. Unfortunately, Gray’s status is up in the air as she hurt her left ring finger in the previous round against the Liberty. Hopefully she’ll be available later in the series, and we get to see some A’Two PEs courtesy of her old college teammate A’ja Wilson. Bonner has been the recipient of the best Nike Book 1 and Book 2 PE this side of Devin Booker, as she played for the Phoenix Mercury for over a decade and won championships alongside Diana Taurasi.

Jordan Brand is going to have plenty of representation in the Finals between Jordin Canada and Rhyne Howard. Canada has yet to wear the Air Jordan 41 as her sneaker of choice has been the Air Jordan 4028, while Howard has alternated between the 4028 and the Jordan Heir 2 in the playoffs. Earlier this year, Howard made sneaker headlines with her touching Jordan Tatum 4 PE that paid homage to her friends.

Historical Matchup: 2013 WNBA Finals (Atlanta Dream vs. Minnesota Lynx)

One of the big storylines heading into the Finals is former Dream star Tiffany Hayes now returning as a member of the Valkyries. Hayes was a key member of the team, coming off the bench as the Dream emerged from the East to take on the Minnesota Lynx. Unfortunately for Hayes, the Lynx had a future Hall of Fame duo in Maya Moore and Seimone Augustus. The Lynx would go on to sweep the Dream, never returning to the big stage until this year.

While Moore was famously Jordan Brand’s top women’s hooper at the time, she opted to wear an orange colorway of the Jordan Aero Mania instead of the flagship Air Jordan XX9 (although she did wear them in warm-ups). Hayes was a little more discreet as she wore the Nike Hyperquickness but with the Swoosh taped over. It’s a practice Hayes followed for a few years before going with the full Swoosh in 2015.

Juan Martinez

From video game journalism to veteran of the sneaker blog era to podcasting about well, everything, Juan is smiling through it all and can't believe this is his life. His current hot take is that people are really underrating the Psyduck trading card market. Email: juan@soleretriever.com Instagram | Twitter | Bluesky | Threads : @ezyville