PHOENIX – Steele Indian School Park was desolate on a 100-degree Tuesday morning. But Charles Kundelius still showed up at 11:30 a.m., placing his collection of signs under a tree and cranking his speaker to play Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” as he tossed the sign in the air. The star of the show wasn’t his sign, which began flying so fast that the words were barely legible— it was his freestyle moves, broadcasted live on TikTok.
Kundelius hosts daily livestreams on his TikTok, @charleskundelius with the nickname OGSpinz. Sometimes he’ll film himself flipping signs on the road. In today’s stream, he was training a young man to become a sign spinner.
Sign spinning was originally Kundelius’s part-time gig. Now, he’s doing backflips and cartwheels on the sidewalk — and training others to do the same — for 40 hours a week.
Kundelius found the company he spins for, AArrow Sign Spinners, on the job site Indeed.com two and a half years ago. His manager trained him, and about a year later, Kundelius was promoted to general manager. Kundelius does regular trainings at Steele Indian School Park for future AArrow employees who get the job after a successful session.
“I just like sign spinning so much,” Kundelius said. “Of course, I need money, but I’ve been working, being consistent and I’ve been getting raises … and I make my own schedule, and that freedom is nice.”
Kundelius’ mom, Leah Kundelius, was excited by her son’s success and often accompanies him on his spins. She made her own TikTok account, @princess.leah_5, where she nicknamed herself “Mamaspinz.”
Leah has been his wingman throughout the entire process, accompanying him on his sign flipping street sessions, driving him to training events and supporting him at sign flipping competitions. Since he started two years ago, she’s watched him lose 100 pounds.
“Doing this, it just gives him peace,” Leah said. “It has been so therapeutic … and as a mother, it’s just so wonderful to see that he can have some of that.”
As her son did his training, Kundelius sat on a bench and propped up a tripod to begin her own livestream. “He has almost 40K followers!” she called to the young man training with Kundelius and his work partner, Shariff Jones. She cracked open her soda and beamed with pride as her son did cartwheels and backflips.
Kundelius’ rise to fame comes at a time where manual labor can still become an online act. Sign spinning serves as a cross-section between the physical and the virtual, said Nancy Gray, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Marketing at the W.P Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. While sign spinning has historically had geographical limitation, she explained, his street corner now serves as a content studio.
“From a marketing perspective, the sign spinner is a celebrity, and then the advertising business has now become the supporting character,” Gray said.
Marketers are constantly trying to compete for an audience’s attention, Gray said. But Kundelius’ work is a break from the oversaturated internet; it brings passers-by an escape from the internet into the real world, instead of vice versa.
“Sign spinning works because human perception is highly sensitive to movement,” Gray said. “Most roadside advertising is static, so when Charles is out there performing his tricks with the sign, you’ve got novelty, you’ve got motion … that interrupts the habitual.”
Part of what makes Kundelius’ performance so striking is that it persists in the Arizona summer. His face gets red, sweat dripping down his face as he chugs from a public water fountain. But his passion for the craft is the most visible as he stays outside for up to six hours doing spins and somersaults.
Kundelius’ authenticity is the key to his success, says John Nicoletti, a professor of practice at Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
“Authenticity is crucial because of artificial intelligence,” Nicoletti said. “When people are not afraid to lean into who they are as people and what they do, it gives us all a sense of realism.”
AArrow’s website includes testimonials that reflect the sign spinners’ personalities, not just their work – complimenting spinners on their “great attitude” and “solid personality.” If online testimonials are any indication, it seems to be working. One 5 star review for Posh Puppy Co, a store Kundelius spins for, notes Kundelius’ performance led them to the business. “His impressive moves that caught our attention and led us here,” read one review.
That is exactly what sign spinners are trying to do. According to their website, the company’s sign spinners have a “signature” way of grabbing attention that includes eye contact, smiling and tricks.
For Kundelius, TikTok is just another tool to showcase that prowess and grow his own brand. His social media platform lets him express himself and have fans resonate with that authenticity, Nicoletti said.
“I think the interesting thing about social media nowadays is gives you the opportunity to be truly authentic with a worldwide audience,” Nicoletti said. “Social media gives us all a platform to make ourselves and our brands bigger.”
Kundelius’ work has propelled him into a community of dedicated fans, some who have even become friends.
He’s met people who want to meet up with him in person, like a duo from Oregon who drove 20 hours to attend a training session after memorizing his livestream schedule. “I haven’t asked anyone for anything, I just have been transparent with my journey,” Kundelius said. They surprised him with the phone he still uses today, and they still pay for his phone bill.
“This community is really cool, because it’s about being positive and not about judging people,” Kundelius said. “Doesn’t matter where you come from, what you believe, it matters about how you treat other people, what you put out there.”
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