Spin it to win it
Greg Hakanson, 20, used to “sign” (an informal term for standing on corner and holding and advertising sign for a local business or service) for a nutritional supplement company. About a year ago, he heard about AArrow Advertising, a firm that teaches people tricks to spin and flip signs, and started coming to weekly practices to “be the best.”
“It’s more like our little culture, sign spinning,” Hakanson said. “Everyone outside of sign spinning are like, ‘Whoa, those guys are really serious about sign spinning.’ And it’s kind of something ridiculous to get paid for so we love every second of it.”
Started in Ocean Beach by college students in 2002, AArrow Advertising grew in the mid-2000s, became a franchise last year and has expanded to nearly 30 cities nationwide, as well as Canada, Puerto Rico and South Korea.
Today, more than 500 Americans and 750 people worldwide spin the 6-foot signs for AArrow, mostly men between the ages of 18 and 25, who, along with AArrow, claim the talent necessary to spin a sign is actually a sport.
The economic downturn hit the young company particularly hard, since 85 percent of their advertising sales were to real estate developers, said company spokeswoman Sarah Frye.
“When the real estate market declined, so did we,” she said. “We really had to shift our focus towards sports and entertainment.”
AArrow has since rebounded, with franchises set to open in the next two weeks in Dallas, Chicago and Cincinnati. The company was recently nominated by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as one of the top small businesses in the western United States.
The business is run like a sports league, Frye said, where pay — starting at $10 an hour — is based on performance to spur competition between spinners and give them the chance to be a “spinstructor” in emerging markets.
As the company has grown, so too have its regional and national competitions. This year was the first for international competition, with Ray Rivera of Washington, D.C., taking home first place.
AArow claims more than 450 tricks or combinations can be made up, all part of the company’s “tricktionary.”
Sport or not, many of the best are here in the company’s hometown. Spinners compare their job to skateboarding, because of the number of tricks and combinations possible, and many are in fact named after skating tricks.
Robert Sizemore, who placed sixth at the national championships held Super Bowl weekend in Miami, runs a weekly practice at Northmont Park in La Mesa along with Teddy Hale, the 2009 national champion. Both were raised in the East County and have been spinning since they were 14.
“It’s just like any other sport. If you’re going to be a soccer player, you start in AYSO (American Youth Soccer Association),” said John Bowerman, 18, a spinner who also grew up in the East County.
Training is unpaid, and at least two practices are necessary to get started. It took Bowerman three months to be a sufficient sign spinner, he said. He now spends more than 40 hours a week spinning, some on the corner and some practicing behind his apartment building in Santee. He says it’s definitely a sport because of the amount of physical ability required. Bowerman added he plans to be doing it when he’s 50.
“Best sign spinner around… oldest,” he said.
Hakanson plans on spinning the next five years or until he gets out of college.
“I’ve worked food services, construction, manual labor, I’ve worked office jobs and nothing compares to just going out on a corner and expressing yourself eight hours a day,” he said. 
As part of hired spinning campaigns and teaching others how to spin, Hakanson has made trips to Dallas, Las Vegas and, within the past two weeks, Canada and the Bay Area.
Though San Diego spinners are sent out to teach across the country, so are other top spinners, and new talent and distinct styles are emerging in different regions.
“They all spin the same, but they use a different set of tricks and a different set of swagger,” Hakanson said. “Like the east coast spins like Justin Brown and DiJon [Rice], but the west coast spins like Matt Doolan and Robert Sizemore.”
DiJon Rice is from Las Vegas but currently spins and teaches in the Washington D.C. Area, while Justin Brown is from Raleigh has appeared on “America’s Got Talent” and CNBC. Both Doolan and Sizemore are from San Diego.
All those interviewed agreed that if they weren’t sign spinning, they would likely be working minimum wage in retail or flipping burgers — and hating it. But depending on the gig, spinners make around $10 an hour. Even for arguably the world’s best like Teddy Hale, someone who claims to have created many sign spinning tricks and techniques, it’s not always enough to make a living.
“If I’m working full time, I would have more than enough to pay bills, but since I’m not working full-time it’s cutting right on the edge.”
AArrow Advertising has made appearances on late night television, at sporting events, and in TV commercials and music videos. Hale, the 2009 national champion, and four other spinners were in a music video for the band 311 last year. He has also done spinning gigs or training around the country, and hopes to spin in Australia or Europe someday or travel the world, which he feels is a certainty with the company’s plans of expansion.
Fun and carefree as Hakanson and Bowerman make it sound, there are a few drawbacks.
Aside from hecklers telling him to “get a real job,” Hakanson said there are injuries. Spinning can make the body and wrist tendons sore. He has torn muscles, and a few months ago broke his foot during practice.
“Spinjuries” are more common in East Coast winters or hot Phoenix or Las Vegas summers.
Hale said he fractured his skull on the sidewalk trying to do a flip on a corner in Point Loma and spent two days in the hospital.
“I blacked out for a minute and woke up in an ambulance,” he said. But in true tough guy style, was back out on the corner within a week, he said.
Maybe these guys are athletes after all.
AWESOME!