Ryan Jaunzemis (born February 5, 1980,

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city had a population of 107,762. ...

), is an American

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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 professional rollerblader, and is most known for being sponsored by

Soap Shoes Soap was a brand of athletic shoes designed specifically for grinding, similar in concept to aggressive inline skating. The shoes were introduced in 1996 by Chris Morris of Artemis Innovations Inc. under the brand name "Soap." They featured a pl ...

Early career

Jaunzemis rose to prominence in 1997 after being signed onto the fledgling "grind shoe" company,

. He became known after being featured in sales commercials for Soap Shoes depicting Jaunzemis grinding down a 5-stair handrail, which went viral on the internet and America Online in 1998. He was described by ''

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'' as being the "poster boy for the 90s fad". These commercials were also played in retail stores such as

Journeys (company) Journeys is a specialty chain retailer, owned by Genesco, of branded fashion footwear and accessories with approximately 1,200 stores nationwide. Journeys operates five retail concepts across North America including ''Journeys'', ''Journeys Kidz ...

, Pacific Sunwear (now

PacSun Pacific Sunwear of California, LLC, commonly known as PacSun, is an American retail clothing brand. The company sells lifestyle apparel, along with swim, footwear and accessories designed for teens and young adults. As of 2022, the company operate ...

Gadzooks (retailer) Gadzooks, Inc. was a mall-based teenage clothing retailer. It was acquired by Forever 21 in 2005 and then shut down. Gadzooks stores had a life-size version of part of a Volkswagen Beetle inside. Dozens of the cars were sawed in half for use as ...

, and many other national & local retailers throughout the country. He was also featured in Relate Video Productions' famous full-length Soap videos, "oNe" & "tWo". Jaunzemis toured with Soap Shoes on their 1997, ‘98, & ‘99 US demo tours. This earned Jaunzemis the title, "Best Soaper In The World" by the website, "SoapShoe.com". In 1999 Jaunzemis was fired from Soap Shoes by then CEO, Chris Morris, after Jaunzemis mis-sent an expletive & insult filled E-mail; describing his personal issues with the company, and with the owner. On December 31, 1999, Jaunzemis went to

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to celebrate the

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. Jaunzemis was the subject of a documentary, ''Soap Or Die'' in 2016. He was also a major character in the film, ''Lords of Soaptown'',

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaunzemis, Ryan 1980 births Living people People from Inglewood, California American skaters