{"id":162232,"date":"2025-08-20T22:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T22:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/162232\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T22:42:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T22:42:11","slug":"whats-up-with-app-e-espns-new-and-first-ever-mascot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/162232\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Up With App-E, ESPN\u2019s New (and First-Ever) Mascot?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTomorrow, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, will mark the launch of the new direct-to-consumer ESPN app<\/a>, named, well, ESPN<\/a>. The former(ly branded) \u201cWorldwide Leader in Sports\u201d is now all-in \u2014 and \u201cAll in One Place,\u201d as the new branding hammers home \u2014 on streaming. ESPN has also gone all-in on marketing the hell out of this thing; it better, the new app costs a not-cheap $29.99\/month.<\/p>\n

\n\tJohn Cena headlines the campaign as some sort of coach \u201cguiding fans on the new ESPN DTC<\/a> features in addition to what fans need to know about the Disney+, Hulu, ESPN Bundle,\u201d according to the announcement. Cena\u2019s tag-team partner in this endeavor is ESPN\u2019s first-ever mascot, App-E<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tApp-E is, well, a giant square with the ESPN-stylized letter \u201cE\u201d on its \u2026 torso? It\u2019s a very oversized smartphone\/tablet application button, with arms and hands poking out from the margins of the \u201cE,\u201d and eyebrows, eyes and a mouth above. There\u2019s also a not-very-nose-like pillow between App-E\u2019s eyes, which is probably what the human inside sees out of. App-E has a big red ESPN hat, and some dope ESPN kicks that appear to be modeled off the original Air Jordan sneakers. With his build, App-E is going to have a hard time getting through some doors sideways. Then again, same for Cena.<\/p>\n

\n\tApp-E made its big debut on Tuesday, Aug. 19, at Disney\u2019s New York City HQ during a press event unveiling the new ESPN app. There, the 6-foot-plus tile participated in product demonstrations, mingled and offered high fives to guests brave enough to be within a human-arm\u2019s distance.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith so much on the line for ESPN, it is understandable (I guess) that now would be the time to add a mascot, though I\u2019m not sure if App-E is that dude. From a recognizability standpoint, App-E is a home run: it is literally the ESPN app icon it sets out to promote. But it\u2019s also basic and lazy. ESPN is owned by Disney, the company with all of the characters \u2014 can we really not do a bit better?<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso, what really is \u201cApp-E\u201d? I get it. App-E is an app, and it is adorned with an \u201cE.\u201d Totally clear. But App-E is a meaningless hyphenated compound word. It is the backwards way of saying \u201cE\u201d app, of course, shorthand for the ESPN app. But App-E in that order sort of denotes that this is the fifth app, or the fifth version of the app in the development phase.<\/p>\n

\n\tFurther, \u201cApp-E\u201d is not a play on \u201chappy,\u201d The Hollywood Reporter is told. The phonetic interpretation, \u201cAppy,\u201d is a mostly meaningless non-word generally used a shortened, informal term to reference appetizers in a restaurant. Other fringe uses of \u201cappy,\u201d per the internet, include casual references to the appendix within the medical community. Finally, \u201cAppy\u201d could be a nickname for an Appaloosa horse. App-E is not a horse, but maybe that would have been a better idea?<\/p>\n

\n\tApp-E \u201cstarted as ESPN Creative Studios thinking of ways to generate awareness for the \u2018E\u2019 app logo and it turned into thinking more about it in the context of the app tile,\u201d an ESPN spokesperson told THR. They wanted someone \u2014 or something \u2014 for Cena to \u201cplay off of.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLaunching directly opposite the new ESPN app on Thursday is Fox\u2019s new app, Fox One, which will include live feeds of Fox News Channel, FS1 and the Fox broadcast channel, and costs $20 a month. On Oct. 2, streaming users will have the option to pair the ESPN app with Fox One for $39.99\/month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tFox infamously has a Fox Sports mascot, Cleatus, a robot in full football pads. Like I expect for App-E, Cleatus is almost-universally despised<\/a> \u2014 by adults, at least. Generally speaking, the Cleatus hate comes from a few places: 1) Cleatus takes up too much of the screen (both in size and screen time), 2) His pads aside, Cleatus has nothing to do with football, and 3) It is annoying that this random cyborg<\/a> needs to stretch and warm up as much as it did. But at the very least, Cleatus is a creative swing with a name that has some tethering to language: Cletus is a man\u2019s name, and cleats are a key component of football gear.<\/p>\n

\n\tApp-E is not the only (over)use of a capital \u201cE\u201d in ESPN\u2019s new campaign. On Friday, the New York City Subway system\u2019s \u201cE\u201d Train will be \u201cwrapped inside-out with ESPN branding,\u201d the company said. And at the Spring Street station platform, fans will hear special announcements from ESPN\u2019s Stephen A. Smith. Because MTA announcements needed to be more grating, I guess.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tApp-E\u2019s rival: Fox Sports\u2019 longtime mascot, Cleatus, seen in 2023 at the top of the Empire State Building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tomorrow, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, will mark the launch of the new direct-to-consumer ESPN app, named, well, ESPN.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":162233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[93867,171,5723,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-162232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-app-e","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-tv","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115063511582597640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}