‘An adventure ever since I got here’: Spokane local wins chance to move in with social media star and boxer Jake Paul

After traveling the country, advertising deodorant from a bright yellow RV with a faux urinal and sink sticking out the back, a Spokane man won the opportunity to move in with boxer and social media star Jake Paul in Puerto Rico.

An extreme-sports stuntman, Spokane-born Dylan Chamberlain began making videos for social media around 2020, inspired by other creators who were able to make a living by posting online. He recorded himself doing flips, parkour and cliff jumps.

“In the beginning, I liked doing flips. I wanted to be one of the best in the world, and there’s this competition called the GTGames, and the only way to get invited is through Instagram; you have to be noticed,” he said.

Chamberlain, now 24, has recorded himself doing front flips over his brother’s moving Mustang from a mini trampoline, quadruple backflips off of a 50-foot rope and quintuple backflips on a trampoline.

“Eventually, I realized I don’t have to just make content around flips, because as I started making videos around it, it kind of turned into work, and I realized there’s a lot of easier things I could be doing than risking my life doing all these crazy stunts,” he said. “And that’s when I switched over to just making fun and entertaining videos.”

Now, much of Chamberlain’s Instagram feed features him and friends donning black garbage bags and sliding down grassy hills, lighting dozens of fireworks at once and doing stunts in the waters of Puerto Rico.

When he saw that Jake Paul was looking for interns to advertise his men’s hygiene company, W, Chamberlain got right to work on his video application, himself and his friends dousing their trashbag garments in W products before hitting a hill, penguin style.

“(Paul) saw that the very next day, and he put it on his story, and so when he put it on his story in front of 28 million, that’s when I was like, shoot, I might actually have a chance for this,” he said. “From that point forward, I decided I’d go all out trying to get this job.”

Chamberlain was one of three to get the internship, spending two months of the summer traveling the country in Paul’s bright yellow RV, complete with a fake urinal and sink on the back and a decal of Paul, dressed as Uncle Sam, on the side. The caravan began in Florida, drove up to New York and then “zigzagged” down to California before heading back to Florida.

“We always had people coming up, knocking on the door – almost trying to get in sometimes – just being like, ‘Is Jake in there? Is Jake in there?’ ” he said.

Sometimes after coming out of Walmarts, where W is sold, a crowd would have formed around the RV. Chamberlain and the other interns would pretend to be a part of the crowd “sneaking” into the truck, only to announce they were kidding, take photos and give out product samples.

But he was the only one eventually selected to live with Paul.

Head of content at W, Mitch Lewis, said he feels “so fortunate” that Chamberlain applied for the internship and got the job.

“He’s kind of your ideal person to represent a brand, because he has so much integrity and he’s just a fun dude to hang out with; he has a good vibe,” Lewis said. “I think that both Dylan and the guys really embodied what we imagine W is, which is this kind of surprising cultural influence on young men – like, what a funny thing, to try to inspire young dudes by way of deodorant, but also like, self-care. This is good.”

Lewis, who is nearly 40, used to run the YouTube channel for “The Tonight Show” and then later worked for Comedy Central’s creative team.

“Our kind of three-pronged approach is that we want to entertain, we want to make fun, cool content that people like to watch; we want to educate – we want people to know what these products are, why they work, what the scents are; and then we want to inspire,” Lewis said. “I think Jake has a really interesting, classic American tale. Didn’t come from much in Ohio and kind of picked himself up from his bootstraps, and I think that’s a compelling story for anyone who does have a goal.”

Chamberlain said that despite a kind of “problem child personality” that Paul shows on social media, the boxer is “a lot nicer than you’d think he is” and treats him like a younger brother.

“He is always trying to help and to inspire the world to chase your dreams and work hard and to find your ‘W’,” Chamberlain said, referencing the use of ‘W’ as a slang term for the word ‘win.’ “It’s kinda our motto to chase after what you want in life.”

Working for W is “kind of a dream-come-true gig for a young content creator,” Lewis said.

That path was never something Chamberlain anticipated when he started uploading videos, though.

“I like living my life without the whole world seeing what I’m doing. It’s just kind of how I am, so I never thought I’d want to be a content creator until I realized I don’t have to show my life and the things that I’m doing if I can just make these fun videos and inspire some people in small ways.”

His new job requires him to share his life online a bit more, as his followers are curious about what Chamberlain describes as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“It’s been forcing me to be more personal and show my life a bit more, and it’s a lot easier to do because it’s not like it’s my personal life. It’s kind of like this side quest adventure that I’m on, and it’s really exciting, so people want to see it.”

Now, Chamberlain is the mind behind the official W Instagram page. With Paul preparing for a Nov. 14 match against professional boxer Gervonta “Tank” Davis, most of Chamberlain’s job is to “follow him around to make content with him.” There are around a dozen videographers, photographers, boxing trainers and others working in Paul’s immediate team alongside him.

“His team is super strong and super loyal, and they’ve been super welcoming. They are all such amazing guys,” he said. “There’s so many different people, but we all have one purpose, and that’s, you know, just to work together, to help each other grow, to prepare Jake for this fight and to look after one another, and I’ve been able to feel that with this team.”

Most recently, Chamberlain can be seen on the W Instagram in a video series of how many days he can go spraying Paul with cologne “until he gets mad.”

“I plan on being here for a while, I’m not sure how long, but it is something that I love doing and enjoy doing, and it’s been an adventure ever since I got here.”

The headline for this story has been updated to reflect that Jake Paul is a boxer rather than a wrestler.