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Unbox Therapy
Personal information
Born
Lewis George Hilsenteger

(1985-05-06) May 6, 1985 (age 39)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
EducationToronto School of Art
Occupations
  • Filmmaker
  • tech reviewer
  • producer
  • comedian
  • podcaster
Websiteunboxtherapy.com
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2010–present
Genres
Subscribers24.8 million[1]
Total views4.72 billion[1]
100,000 subscribers2014
1,000,000 subscribers2014
10,000,000 subscribers2018
Last updated: 20 October 2023

Lewis George Hilsenteger (born May 6, 1985), known professionally as Unbox Therapy, is a Canadian unboxing and technology YouTuber.[2][3] As of October 2023, The channel has 21.2 million subscribers, and its videos have received over 4.56 billion views.

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.

Early life

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Hilsenteger was born on May 6, 1985.[2][3][4] He lives in Newmarket, Ontario, in the Greater Toronto Area.[5] Hilsenteger attended the Toronto School of Art where he studied Digital Arts Photography and Video Editing.[4]

Career

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Hilsenteger and Jack McCann created the unboxing YouTube channel Unbox Therapy in December 2010.[6] Hilsenteger decided to create the channel after discovering he enjoyed watching unboxing videos.[7] 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 early items he unboxed were a breathalyzer that integrated with a smartphone and an "unspillable cup" that he tried to push down.[9] Unbox Therapy uploads several videos per week.[10] The channel's videos routinely get a million views or more each.[8] The average view count of his videos is more than 2 million as of April 2023, and he is ranked 7th in the tech category, according to Social Blade.[11] The channel's total number of views had exceeded one billion views by February 2018; it exceeded 4 billion by April 2021.[6] Hilsenteger runs another YouTube channel called Lew Later.[12] As of August 2023, Unbox Therapy and Lew Later had more than 19 million subscribers combined.[13][14]

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.[15] In the video, Hilsenteger used only his hands to bend his iPhone 6 Plus.[9] The video in several days was watched tens of millions of times.[16] It became the "fifth highest-trending upload to YouTube".[9] It is Unbox Therapy's most watched video and received 71 million views by August 2019.[9] 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.[17] 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".[18] Polygon's Julia Alexander said Unbox Therapy's video is "largely credited for leading to Apple's 'Bendgate' fiasco with the iPhone 6".[6]

Hilsenteger co-created the YouTube channel with Jack McCann,[19] a videographer who at the channel's beginning was simply known as "Jack" and whose face did not appear in any of the videos.[6] 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".[6]

In 2018, Unbox Therapy's video titled "The ULTIMATE $30,000 Gaming PC Setup" features a computer setup resembling an airline cockpit, with four monitors, a foot massager, a recliner, expensive headphones, an adjustable weighted mouse, and a SteelSeries keyboard. The Outline's Andrew Paul wrote that the seven-minute video contained "a dizzying flurry of quick cuts" that has become common among "those who create content for the attention-fried". 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."[20]

In March 2020, Hilsenteger's integrity was put into question when he left an apparently positive review for the Escobar Fold 2, which was simply a rebadged Galaxy Fold with poorly added Escobar branding.[21][22] Many customers, when ordering the phones, said that they never received them, with only tech influencers actually receiving products.[23][24] It has also been alleged that Escobar Inc sent bogus product orders consisting of a book, allowing Escobar Inc to claim the phone had been shipped out.[23] In May 2020, the company released a refurbished version of the iPhone 11 Pro and allegedly sued Apple for $2.6 billion.[24] Escobar Inc is known for its association with Roberto de Jesús Escobar Gaviria, the brother of Pablo Escobar,[25] and various scams.[24][26] Hilsenteger defended his original video by claiming he had no connection to Escobar Inc, nor that he knew anything about the product he was reviewing prior to his appraisal. The like–dislike ratio on his defence of the original video was split 31:27 as of April 2023.[27] The original video review was made unlisted, although Hilsenteger's true rationale for its deletion are unknown.[28]

Personal life

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Hilsenteger owned an Apple repair store close to Ryerson University.[9] He is married and has two sons.[4][7]

References

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  1. ^ a b "About Unbox Therapy". YouTube.
  2. ^ a b 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.
  3. ^ a b 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.
  4. ^ a b c 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.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ a b c d e 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.
  7. ^ a b 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.
  8. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c d e 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.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ "Lew Later's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile)". Social Blade. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ "Unbox Therapy's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile)". Social Blade. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
  14. ^ "Lew Later's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile)". Social Blade. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ "Jack". YouTube. Unbox Therapy. February 21, 2018. Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ Smith, Chris (March 12, 2020). "The $399 Escobar Fold is actually a Samsung Galaxy Fold with a sticker". BGR. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  22. ^ Brownlee, Marques (March 10, 2020). "The Truth About the Escobar Folding Phones!". YouTube. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  23. ^ a b Kan, Michael (April 17, 2020). "Please Stop Buying the Foldable Phone From Pablo Escobar's Brother". PCMag UK. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
  24. ^ a b c "Pablo Escobar's brother is trying to sell refurbished iPhone 11 Pros for $499". Engadget. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  25. ^ Anderson, Jon Lee (February 26, 2018). "The Afterlife of Pablo Escobar". The New Yorker. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  26. ^ "Pablo Escobar's Brother May Be Scamming Users With Foldable Phones". PCMAG. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  27. ^ Responding to this Escobar Fold Situation..., retrieved January 6, 2023
  28. ^ "YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
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