Ryan Jaunzemis (born February 5, 1981,

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...

), is an American

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

and professional

rollerblader Inline skating is a multi-disciplinary sport and can refer to a number of activities practiced using inline skates. Inline skates typically have two to five polyurethane wheels depending on the style of practice, arranged in a single line by a ...

, and is most known for being sponsored by

Soap Shoes Soap was the brand name of shoes made for grinding, similar to aggressive inline skating. They were introduced by Chris Morris of Artemis Innovations Inc. with the brand name "Soap" in 1997. They have a plastic concavity in the sole, which allow ...

Early career

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

. He rose to fame after being featured in both national & international sales commercials for Soap Shoes depicting Jaunzemis grinding down a 4-stair handrail; which went viral on the internet and America Online in 1998. He was described by ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

'' 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 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 operates 325 stores in all 50 stat ...

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. Jaunzemis is the subject of the documentary, ''Soap Or Die'' in 2016. He was also a major character in the film, ''Lords of Soaptown'', also in 2016. Produced & directed by film maker, Jason Klamm.

References

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