Unbox Therapy

Unbox Therapy is a Canadian unboxing and technology YouTube channel produced by Lewis George Hilsenteger (born May 6, 1985)[1][2] and Jack McCann. Hilsenteger is the channel's host and McCann is the videographer. The channel has 17.8 million subscribers and its videos have received over three billion views.

Unbox Therapy
Personal information
BornLewis George Hilsenteger
(1985-05-06) May 6, 1985
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
NationalityCanadian
EducationToronto School of Art
OccupationFilmmaker, tech reviewer, producer, comedian, podcaster
Websiteunboxtherapy.com
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2010–present
Subscribers17.8 million
Total views3.9 billion
100,000 subscribers 2014
1,000,000 subscribers 2014
10,000,000 subscribers 2018
Updated: October 5, 2020

In September of 2014, Unbox Therapy uploaded a video in which Hilsenteger used only his hands to bend his iPhone 6 Plus. The video is recognized as launching Apple's "Bendgate" controversy in which people could bend their phones in their pockets.

Personal life

Lewis George Hilsenteger was born on May 6, 1985.[1][2][3] He lives in Newmarket, Ontario, in the Greater Toronto Area.[4] Hilsenteger attended the Toronto School of Art where he studied Digital Arts Photography and Video Editing.[3] Hilsenteger owned an Apple repair store close to Ryerson University.[5] He is married and has a son.[3][6]

YouTube channel

Hilsenteger and Jack McCann created the unboxing YouTube channel Unbox Therapy in December 2010.[7] Hilsenteger decided to create the channel after discovering he enjoyed watching unboxing videos.[6] Unbox Therapy allows viewers to experience the pleasure of opening the newest technological items and not having to spend money on purchasing those items.[8] Two items he unboxed were a breathalyzer that integrated with a smartphone and an "unspillable cup" that he tried to push down.[5] Unbox Therapy uploads several videos per week.[9] The channel's videos routinely get a million views each.[8] The average view of his videos is around 3.7 million as of March 2020.[10] The channel's total number of views has exceeded one billion.[7] Hilsenteger runs another YouTube channel called Lew Later.[11] In May 2019, Unbox Therapy and Lew Later had 19.3 million subscribers combined.[11]

In 2014, Unbox Therapy uploaded a YouTube video titled "iPhone 6 Plus Bend Test" that stoked debate about whether it was likely for people's iPhone 6 Plus to bend in their pockets.[12] In the video, Hilsenteger used only his hands to bend his iPhone 6 Plus.[5] The video in several days was watched tens of millions of times.[13] It became the "fifth highest-trending upload to YouTube".[5] It is Unbox Therapy's most watched video and received 71 million views by August 2019.[5] Although he purchased the phone himself, Hilsenteger was unafraid of demolishing it because he expected to generate sufficient YouTube advertising revenue from the video to buy a new phone.[14] Inverse's Catie Keck called the video "a pretty damning illustration of" the bending was "a refresher on how bad this really looked for Apple".[15] Polygon's Julia Alexander said Unbox Therapy's video is "largely credited for leading to Apple's 'Bendgate' fiasco with the iPhone 6".[7]

Hilsenteger co-created the YouTube channel with Jack McCann,[16] a videographer who at the channel's beginning was simply known as "Jack" and whose face did not appear in any of the videos.[7] Jack's identity was under much speculation and discussion over several years. Hilsenteger pledged to show who Jack was once the channel reached 10 million subscribers. Unbox Therapy uploaded the face reveal in a YouTube video titled "Jack" in February 2018. Polygon's Julia Alexander wrote, "It's a well-executed video that goes over the past and present of Jack's life, finally lending shape to the man who people only knew as Hilsenteger's most trusted friend and the person behind the camera".[7]

The Outline's Andrew Paul reviewed Unbox Therapy's seven-minute video titled "The ULTIMATE $30,000 Gaming PC Setup".[17] Paul noted that the video has "a dizzying flurry of quick cuts" that are "typifying the frenetic editing motif that's popular among those who create content for the attention-fried". Resembling a cockpit's style, the setup has four computer monitors, a foot massager, a recliner, expensive headphones, an "adjustable weighted" computer mouse, and an M750 keyboard. Paul concluded, "Maybe it's the snack crate stocked with Kettle Chips and Christie Collection's Pirate Cookies, or Hilsenteger's shilling of special edition Unbox Therapy Coke-a-Cola [sic] bottles, but on the whole, the thirty-grand rig seems like a little much."[17]

References
  1. Hilsenteger, Lew (November 6, 2019). Apple Is No Longer A Growth Company (video). Lew Later. Quote occurs from 37:58 to 38:05. Archived from the original on February 10, 2020. Retrieved February 10, 2020 – via YouTube. Everybody knows Blockbuster is gone. It was founded in the year 1985, the year I was born, by the way.
  2. Hilsenteger, Lew (December 14, 2016). Will This Be Your First Smartwatch (video). Unbox Therapy. Event occurs at 2:58. Archived from the original on March 2, 2020. Retrieved March 2, 2020 – via YouTube.
  3. Kruse, Björn (October 27, 2017). ""Where Products Get Naked" – The Success Story of Unbox Therapy". Le Buzz. Archived from the original on June 30, 2019. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  4. Bogart, Nicole (December 9, 2014). "Who made the list of Canada's top trending YouTube videos of 2014?". Global News. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  5. Vendeville, Geoffrey (August 21, 2016). "Toronto 'unboxing' pioneer a YouTube celebrity". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  6. Italie, Leanne (December 2, 2014). "Happy Unboxing Day: videos of a big reveal go crazy". The Seattle Times. Associated Press. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  7. Alexander, Julia (February 23, 2018). "YouTube community celebrates the face reveal of one beloved creator". Polygon. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  8. Kyncl, Robert; Peyvan, Maany (2017). Streampunks: YouTube and the Rebels Remaking Media. New York: HarperBusiness. ISBN 978-0-06-265774-9. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  9. Ha, Louisa, ed. (2018). The Audience and Business of YouTube and Online Videos. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. p. 147. ISBN 978-1-4985-7649-9. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  10. "Unbox Therapy's YouTube Channel Analytics". SocialBook. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  11. Crighton, Kendra (May 21, 2019). "Canada's top 10 influencers have a following more than four times Canada's population". Black Press. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  12. Ulanoff, Lance (September 25, 2014). "Apple on 'BendGate': A Bend in an iPhone Is Extremely Rare". Mashable. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  13. Kahney, Leander (2019). Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level. New York: Penguin Random House. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-525-53761-8. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  14. Oliveira, Michael (December 9, 2014). "Canadian-made video testing iPhone's bendability makes YouTube's year-end list". Times Colonist. The Canadian Press. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  15. Keck, Catie (May 24, 2018). "Bendgate: Apple Knew About iPhone 6 Issues Before Release, Documents Claim". Inverse. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  16. "Jack". YouTube. Unbox Therapy. February 21, 2018. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  17. Paul, Andrew (June 2, 2018). "The elaborate PC gaming rigs that foreshadow our dystopia". The Outline. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
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