Two months ago, when a video of him sipping Ocean Spray and skateboarding to work while lip-synching Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams" went viral, several brands saw 37-year-old Nathan Apodaca, better known as doggface208 on TikTok, as their next influencer star.
With more than 73 million views, the post was second in TikTok’s list of top 2020 viral videos. TikTok spun memes by Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood and lead singer Stevie Nicks into a commercial that ran during the Major League Baseball Playoffs. And Ocean Spray played into the moment by gifting the star a cranberry-red truck filled with juice, then paying for Apodaca's honeymoon.
While some influencers flame out after a viral moment, Apodaca’s fame and appeal in the eyes of brands has only grown. Apodaca has posted on behalf of brands including Xbox, LG, Raising Cane’s, ASOS, Snoop Dogg’s Indoggo gin and Idaho Potatoes. He's appeared with Snoop Dogg in an ad for smart home company Vivint, created a commercial for Idaho-based KJ’s Superstore, endorsed skateboarding brands including Sharkwheel and participated in TikTok song campaigns,
Apodaca’s largest branded collab product launch went live this past Saturday. The star—who now has more than 6 million followers on TikTok—is out with a limited-edition electronic longboard in partnership with Phoenix, Arizona-based electronic longboards brand Lux Longboards. The boards, of which only 75 are being sold, are signed by Apodaca and feature a phrase that appears in a lot of Apodaca’s TikTok posts: “Steady Vibin.”
The boards are being promoted on social, digital, a dedicated webpage on Lux Longboards’ website and Apodaca’s own online merchandise store. Ocean Spray continues to reap from the influencer’s brand collabs. In a video for the longboards shared by Apodaca to TikTok, the influencer is seen finishing off a bottle of Ocean Spray cranberry juice, only to skateboard to the store to grab another.