For the longest time, Firefox was known for the iconic, nameless red panda wrapped around a globe. Now, Mozilla has decided that it's time for a true mascot, one that brings you "some warmth and familiarity when you're browsing with Firefox." This new mascot is simply named "Kit."
In the browser, Kit can be found in places like the onboarding screen when you first install Firefox, pop-ups that introduce a new feature, or little confirmations you see after successfully changing a setting. Kit also appears outside the browser on the product website, the company's blog, and across its social media channels.
Kit is neither a red panda nor a fox, but simply a Firefox. When designing it, Mozilla (in partnership with creative agency JKR and illustrator Marco Palmieri) said it gave Kit no mouth because the team wanted to avoid creating a "talking cartoon" and that it's better for the character to lean into its eyes and body language instead.
Of course, the tail got some attention as well, with the team calling it a "signature detail" built to "carry motion and emotion even in still moments."
If you're wondering which pronouns to use for Kit, Mozilla provided a list of acceptable options: he/him, they/them, she/her, and it.
Kit (he/she/they/them/it) is the user’s constant companion. Wherever they choose to roam, Kit will accompany and guide them with clever, playful encouragement and support — giving the user the confidence to run free.
The name "Kit" might remind you of "Renardo," the baby fox character created by Mozilla's Sean Martell, back in 2006, for developer events:
The developer community affectionately nicknamed him "Kit" (the term for a baby fox), and he was mostly used in developer campaigns (like the "Don't hurt the web" campaign).
Mozilla said that this new Kit was generated by humans (not AI) through hundreds of small choices, including tail flicks, textures, gradients, and proportions, and that you should not see Kit as a chatbot or AI assistant.