Eric Decker (born January 12, 1997), known online as Airrack (a

sensational spelling Sensational spelling is the deliberate spelling of a word in a non-standard way for special effect. Branding Sensational spellings are common in advertising and product placement. In particular, brand names such as Krispy Kreme Doughnuts ('' ...

of his name Eric), is an American

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

and vlogger known for his challenge and prank content, and for gaining a million subscribers in a year. He is also co-founder of Creator Now, an educational program for online

content creation Content creation or content creative is the act of producing and sharing information or media content for specific audiences, particularly in digital contexts. According to '' Dictionary.com'', content refers to "something that is to be expresse ...

Early life

According to Decker, he first discovered YouTube when he was in

fifth grade Fifth grade (also 5th Grade or Grade 5) is the fifth or sixth year of formal or compulsory education. In the United States, this is mostly the last grade of primary school, but for some states, it could be the first year of middle school. Primary ...

and was inspired to film a music video for the

Flo Rida Tramar Lacel Dillard (born September 16, 1979), known professionally as Flo Rida ( ), is an American rapper and singer. His 2007 debut and breakout single "Low (Flo Rida song), Low" was number one for 10 weeks in the United States and broke the ...

song "

Low Low or LOW or lows, may refer to: People * Low (surname), listing people surnamed Low Places * Low, Quebec, Canada * Low, Utah, United States * Lo Wu station (MTR code LOW), Hong Kong; a rail station * Salzburg Airport (ICAO airport code: LO ...

". He later went to college but dropped out to start a wedding video production company. He worked there for four years before becoming a full-time YouTuber.Decker is also a massive huge hawks fan.

YouTube career

2019–2020

Eric Decker launched his YouTube channel in July 2019. He became known for videos

gate crashing Gate crashing, gatecrashing, or party crashing is the act of entering, attending, or participating in an event without an invitation or ticket. The term has also come to be used to refer to intrusions on videographed sessions, such as intervi ...

events, including Tomorrowland music festival, the VIP section of a

Travis Scott Jacques Bermon Webster III (born April 30, 1991), known professionally as Travis Scott (formerly stylized as Travi$ Scott), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Scott has had five number-one hits on the U.S. ''Bil ...

concert, and an attempt to crash

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Regarded as a pop icon, he is recognized for his multi-genre musical performances. He was discovered by record executive Scooter Braun in 2008 and subsequently brought to the U ...

's wedding in September 2019. Creating vlogs, pranks and challenge videos, he gained 880,000 subscribers by December 2020. Aiming to reach a million subscribers by the end of the year, he partnered with creator startup Stir for a campaign for subscribers in which he stranded himself on a deserted island. Stir set up a website called Save Airrack which provided a referral system for fans to refer new subscribers to his channel for rewards such as thank you letters, the opportunity to feature in collaboration videos, and the ability to choose a design for Decker to have as a tattoo. He successfully reached a million subscribers on December 27 after having gained 250,000 subscribers within two weeks.

2021–present

Decker continued to create prank and social experiment videos into 2021, including a May video in which he hired over 50 bodyguards to convince people that he was a celebrity. In November 2021, Decker hosted a

MrBeast James Stephen "Jimmy" Donaldson (born May 7, 1998), commonly known by his online alias MrBeast, is an American YouTuber, media personality, and businessman. His YouTube videos, where he often hosts elaborate challenges and philanthropic effor ...

-inspired ping pong tournament called ''XTreme Pong'', which featured influencer competitors, a $120,000 prize and

crypto Crypto commonly refers to: * Cryptography, the practice and study of hiding information * Cryptocurrency, a type of digital currency based on cryptography Crypto or krypto may also refer to: Cryptography * Cryptanalysis, the study of methods f ...

elements including

NFT A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchai ...

s. That December he participated in the third installment of

YouTube Originals YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service that provides advertising-free streaming of all videos hosted by YouTube, offline play and background playback of videos on mobile devices, access to advertising-fr ...

show ''Creator Games'' for a prize of $1 million. Zach King won the competition but later donated $55,000 of the prize money to a charity of Decker's choice, the Atlanta Community Food Bank, after Decker agreed to eat hot wings with a heat of 3 million

Scoville units The Scoville scale is a measurement of spiciness of chili peppers and other substances, recorded in Scoville heat units (SHU). It is based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, among which capsaicin is the predominant component. The scale i ...

. In January 2022, KTLA 5 reported on an unknown man scaling a building in

downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of the city of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents ...

dressed as

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

. Decker claimed that he had climbed the building in an attempt to gain the attention of

Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...

so they would cast him as the character in their next Spider-Man film. He told

Insider Insider(s) or The Insider(s) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics * ''Insiders'', a comic series by Mark Millar and Paul Grist, published in ''Crisis'' * The Insiders, a team of DC Comics characters in the Brainiac stories * ''I ...

that the stunt was "dead serious" and that he was "here to get a part — any part — in a Marvel movie and I will not stop until the mission is accomplished". In September 2022, Decker was a keynote speaker at the annual VidSummit conference where he spoke about the

creator economy The creator economy or also known as creator marketing and influencer economy, is a software-driven economy that is built around creators who produce and distribute content, products, or services directly to their audience, leveraging social me ...

. That same November, he was invited to join

FaZe Clan FaZe Clan, or simply FaZe, is a professional esports and entertainment brand. Founded on May 30, 2010, as FaZe Sniping, the organization has professional players and content creators from around the world, across multiple games. In October 20 ...

by MrBeast. He hosted the 12th Streamy Awards on December 4, 2022, which was livestreamed exclusively to his YouTube channel. Decker reached 10 million subscribers in 2022, hitting the milestone in under three years. In January 2023,

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut, LLC is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, by brothers Dan and Frank Carney. The chain, headquartered in Plano, Texas, operates 19,866 restaurants worldw ...

collaborated with Decker to create the world's largest pizza, breaking the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

with a 13,990-square-foot pizza. The pizza was used in Pizza Hut's

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

commercial for the return of its "Big New Yorker". He also broke the Guinness World Record for most fast food restaurants visited in 24 hours by visiting 100 pizzerias in New York City later in the year. Decker's gate crashing videos continued into 2023 with a May video in which he bypassed security at the Crypto.com Arena by impersonating Austin Reaves. In September 2023, Decker signed with

United Talent Agency United Talent Agency (UTA) is a global talent agency based in Beverly Hills, California. Established in 1991, it represents artists and other professionals across the entertainment industry. , the company has more than 1,400 global employees. ...

Creator Now

In May 2021, Decker co-founded Creator Now, an educational program for online

, with One Day Entertainment managers Zack Honarvar and Kate Ward. It raised $3 million of funding from investors including

Upfront Ventures Upfront Ventures, formerly known as GRP Partners, is a Santa Monica-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies. It is one of the largest venture capital firms in Los Angeles, with $2 billion in total raised funds. ...

Casey Neistat Casey Owen Neistat (; born March 25, 1981) is an American YouTube personality, filmmaker, vlogger and co-founder of the multimedia company Beme, which was later acquired by CNN. In 2018, he founded ''368'', a creative space for creators to ...

Justin Kan Justin Kan (born July 16, 1983) is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder of live video platforms Justin.tv and Twitch, as well as the mobile social video application Socialcam. He was also the co-founder and fo ...

, and

Jack Conte Jack Conte (; born July 12, 1984) is an American musician and co-founder and CEO of Patreon. He and his wife Nataly Dawn comprise the musical duo Pomplamoose, and he is co-leader of the band Scary Pockets and founder of the band Magaziine. Car ...

. The company was acquired by creator analytics platform VidIQ in January 2024.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

{{Commons Living people English-language YouTube channels Prank YouTubers YouTube channels launched in 2019 American YouTube vloggers 1997 births