After studying design in college, he brought in 2016 his expertise to YouTube with sneaker reviews. He talks in his videos about the quality of a shoe, its materials, comfort, price tag, sizing, and more.
He decided in 2018 to focus full-time on the self-titled channel after being laid off from his day job at a dog toy company.
Fowler had around 150,000 YouTube subscribers at that point. Last November, he hit 1 million.
“It made me feel justified,” he told Insider, “like all these years of doing YouTube wasn’t for nothing.”
The YouTube channel, now with 1.1 million subscribers, brought in about $485,000 in gross revenue from advertising and sponsorship deals last year.
But Fowler doesn’t just stick to YouTube — his budding business empire also includes sales on the live-shopping platform Whatnot and his own apparel company.
Fowler cofounded in 2020 Apthcry in an effort to “make the best socks ever,” he said. The company has been entirely bootstrapped and is debt-free, he said.
Apthcry generated in 2022 roughly $900,000 in direct sales, Insider verified with documentation, but sales through Whatnot, SneakerCon, and Takout NY pushed the revenue over $1 million, Fowler said. This year, he said he’s reinvested those dollars back into the company rather than take a paycheck. Apthcry in 2023 has almost $800,000 in sales so far, Insider confirmed.
Monetizing a love for sneakers
One major learning moment for Fowler came when he realized he was under-charging sponsors for ads read during videos with tens of thousands of views. He had been charging a $200 fee earlier in his career when his videos were getting around 30,000 views apiece, and other sneaker YouTubers told him that price tag could be raised to a couple thousand dollars.
Now with managers and a larger audience (Fowler has 155,000 Instagram followers and nearly 50,000 followers on both TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter), the creator typically earns between $5,000 and $10,000 for an ad read, Insider confirmed. Some of his sponsors include Whatnot, the online therapy platform BetterHelp, and Sole Premise, which designs travel bags for sneakers.
Fowler in 2022 made $192,200 in revenue from about 35 sponsorship deals, and took home about $153,800 of that after paying his managers, video editors, and other expenses, Insider confirmed.
This year, Fowler said he’s worked with about 20 different brands as sponsors.
“Whenever a brand like Adidas reaches out, or New Balance or Jordan brand, to do some sort of sponsored content, it’s always sick,” Fowler said, “because I’m like, ‘Wow, I was going to review this product anyway. And now you’re paying me to do it, so this is awesome.'”
While some companies will send him shoes, he said that most times he goes out and buys them himself, which leads to more genuine reviews.
“As time’s gone on, I’ve realized that brands will send you stuff, brands won’t send you stuff, and it really doesn’t even really matter what you’re doing on your channel that much,” Fowler said. “So I’ve always been very honest about my reviews.”
The larger portion of Fowler’s YouTube revenue comes from ads, which brought in an estimated $292,500 in 2022, Insider verified with documentation of the earnings. This year, he’s made about $178,500 from YouTube ads as of early October, Insider confirmed.
Christmastime is always a big period for Fowler, making him $30,000 in ad revenue last December. September 2022 was his biggest month to date with $38,000 in earnings, though this September was noticeably slower, Insider confirmed.
“I try and save as much as I can, just so that if a bad month comes along, it’s not detrimental,” Fowler said.
Expanding beyond sneaker reviews
The live-shopping app Whatnot has become a favorite of Fowler’s to buy and sell sneakers, beyond the sponsored content he creates with the company. He has about 20,000 followers on the platform, where he also holds sneaker giveaways.
Fowler is following his interests into new areas, as well, like his videos about thrifting finds and his tech YouTube channel with 85,000 subscribers where he reviews iPhones, Apple watches, and PlayStations.
He’s also leaned into new technologies and platforms, from 3D printing to YouTube Shorts, to expand his audience. Not everything clicks or sticks — Yeezy reviews consistently brought in large audiences, Fowler said, but after Adidas dropped Ye and stopped new production of the shoes, he was forced to try other kinds of content.
Seeing the other side of influencer marketing
Apthcry, which has 35,000 Instagram followers, has focused on marketing through Facebook and Google ads and trying to get into retailers to grow the business. Fowler said the company is looking more into collaborating with influencers, too.
As a creator himself, Fowler has first-hand experience with influencer marketing. But as a small business owner, putting money toward influencer marketing can be worrisome.
“I know that from the influencer side, there are some ad reads that I’ll try my best, I’ll try and give it the best position possible, but it just won’t hit,” Fowler said. “It’s scary from the business side.”
Apthcry has worked on sock collections with influencers, including fellow sneakerhead Qias Omar and artist Amber Vittoria.
But expanding Apthcry’s collaborations with influencers would be a big investment for a small business like his. At the same time, he knows marketing through these creators could hit the right audience of sneakerheads.
“I know what I get paid from the influencer side, and it’s tough for me from the business side to want to pay that,” he said with a laugh.
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