One suggestion was to create a shareable WordPress mascot for the Japanese community. At the time, Firefox<\/a>, Android<\/a> and Reddit<\/a> already had popular\u00a0mascots.<\/p>\n Matt was excited about the idea and within several weeks\u00a0Naoko Takano<\/a>, an active member of the Japanese WordPress community was hired to explore the mascot concept further.<\/p>\n Illustrator Kazuko\u00a0Kaneuchi<\/a> was then selected to design a mascot character. She was a member of the Fukuoka WordPress community and had also previously worked on OSS mascots.\u00a0Kazuko kindly designed the Wapuu<\/a> concept as a free gift to the WordPress community.<\/p>\n By May 2010, Kazuko\u2019s initial designs had been submitted, and the Wapuu we know and love today was then chosen. The official reveal took place in February 2011 at WordCamp Fukuoka<\/a>. The next step was to name the character, with a\u00a0poll launched in August 2011 for naming ideas. Within a week the winning name was announced –\u00a0Wappy<\/em>. However, due to a\u00a0trademark issue, the runner-up Wapuu<\/em> was selected. The rest as they say, is history!<\/p>\n Since being copyrighted in 2011, Wapuu has become a cultural cornerstone for WordPress. This fun little mascot brings people together, promotes the WordPress community, and takes the intimidating feeling out of web programming. While originally a mascot for the Japanese WordPress community, Wapuu has very much become a global WordPress mascot.<\/p>\n Wapuu is such a well-loved mascot that he now shows up everywhere. Wapuu is not only a staple at WordCamps<\/a> around the world, he can also be spotted on just about anything you can imagine – including mugs, toys, stress balls, stickers, magnets, pins, sweatshirts, t-shirts, and baby rompers.<\/p>\n Wapuu pins have become increasingly popular and are one of the most highly coveted swag items<\/a> at WordCamps. From an astronaut, to a pirate or punk rocker, Wapuu comes in many forms. Wapuu lovers and hobbyists all over the world collect and trade pins, some of which are highly sought-after.<\/p>\n Wapuu is distributed by GitHub<\/a> and licensed under the General Public Licence<\/a> (GNU), which is a free software license that guarantees end users the freedom to run, share and modify open source software. Anyone can access the original Wapuu files to customise the character or create new Wapuu variations. Amazing Wapuu designs are being created by the WordPress community all the time for upcoming events.<\/p>\n Each WordCamp has its own Wapuu version, with each event adding its own style to match the region. While the general character remains the same, the\u00a0mascot usually holds something that represents its\u00a0local culture. For example, the Sunshine Coast WordCamp in Australia naturally depicted a Wapuu with a surfboard.<\/p>\n Apart from the many cuddly yellow bear-like Wapuu variations, there are also a variety of other animal characters based on the Wapuu design, such as Wapee-Ew<\/a>\u00a0(a skunk) or Wapanduu<\/a> (a panda).<\/p>\n The\u00a0Wapuu Field & Trading Post<\/a>\u00a0is an online community tool for all things Wapuu. Here you can find new Wapuus and search archives. You can also explore Wapuu backstories, creative info, and events where Wapuus are spotted. Users can track Wapuus, share their favourites, and learn about\u00a0upcoming WordPress events<\/a>.<\/p>\n What do you think of Wapuu? When was the first time you notice the little WordPress mascot? Do you have any favourite Wapuu characters? We look forward to chatting with you and answering any questions, just leave a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Are you curious about the famous Wapuu character, the adorable cartoon creature that appears on WordPress swag? Where did this official WordPress mascot come from and who created him? Let us fill you in with a brief history\u2026 Where did Wapuu originate? It all started at a WordCamp Tokyo after-party in 2009, when WordPress and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":262153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[910,1247],"tags":[1597,1596,774,1598],"class_list":["post-261506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wordpress-en","category-wordpress-newbies","tag-mascot","tag-wapuu","tag-wordcamps","tag-wordpress-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elmastudio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elmastudio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elmastudio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elmastudio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elmastudio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.elmastudio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elmastudio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elmastudio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elmastudio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elmastudio.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elmastudio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wapuu-original.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elmastudio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wapuu-cake.jpg\")
Wapuu has gone global<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.elmastudio.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wapuu-mascott-international.jpg\")
\n<\/div>\nCreate your own Wapuu<\/h3>\n
Where to discover Wapuus<\/h3>\n
Tell us your Wapuu story!<\/h4>\n