Canada
Hacksmith Industries is the YouTube channel of James Hobson, a Canadian engineer based in Kitchener, Ontario, who left a conventional product-development…
Total Followers -0.6%
18.2M
Across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok
Primary Platform
YouTube
15.3M followers · 84% of audience
Engagement
4.1%
vs. 1.5% category median
Sponsorship Tier
Mega
Est. $15K–$34K / IG post
Hacksmith Industries launched a 21-in-1 titanium multi-tool on Kickstarter, targeting CA$250K. The campaign closed with over CA$15.36M pledged from 38,323 backers, marking a massive product-business milestone for the channel.
The channel's builds — including a real-life John Wick bulletproof suit and real Mario Karts — are now packaged as a TV-PG reality series on free streaming platform Tubi, expanding their distribution beyond YouTube.
Dassault Systèmes' official SOLIDWORKS blog profiled lead designer Ben McDonnell, detailing the CAD-to-production pipeline behind the Smith Blade as the team ramped up manufacturing.
The editorial piece covered Hacksmith's pivot into physical consumer products, framing the Smith Blade as a serious attempt to disrupt the multi-tool market from a YouTube-native brand.
Hacksmith's official store page shows active mass production of the Smith Blade Pro, with over 43,600 total units sold and a live fulfillment tracker updated daily — a notable creator-to-commerce operation at scale.
| Window | YouTube | TikTok | Combined | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last 7 days | +0 +0.0% | +0 +0.0% | +0 +0.0% | +0 |
| Last 30 days | -99450 -0.7% | -3799 -0.4% | +0 +0.0% | -103249 |
| Last 90 days | -99450 -0.7% | -15195 -1.6% | +0 +0.0% | -114645 |
| Last 365 days | -99450 -0.7% | -15195 -1.6% | +0 +0.0% | -114645 |
Daily follower snapshots from CreatorDB's longitudinal index.
| Brand | Type | Platform | Date | Performance vs. baseline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eufy Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Nov 2025 | — |
| Prime Video Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Sep 2025 | — |
| Aiper Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Sep 2025 | — |
| DELMIAWorks Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Sep 2025 | — |
| Dnsys Sponsorship | Sponsored content | YouTube | Jul 2025 | — |
| Eight Sleep Sleep Tech / Wellness | Channel sponsor | YouTube | Long-term | — |
| Varla Electric Vehicles / Mobility | Sponsored content | YouTube | 2023–2024 | — |
| Lionsgate Entertainment / Film | Sponsored content | YouTube | 2023 | — |
| HoYoverse (Genshin Impact) Gaming | Sponsored content | YouTube | 2023–2024 | — |
| Viking Rise Mobile Gaming | Sponsored content | YouTube | 2023–2024 | — |
Hacksmith Industries is the YouTube channel of James Hobson, a Canadian engineer based in Kitchener, Ontario, who left a conventional product-development career to build real-world prototypes of technology from fiction — lightsabers, power armor, Iron Man suits, Batman gadgets, and more. Operating under the longtime tagline 'Make It Real,' the channel documents the full engineering process from concept and CAD design through fabrication and testing, making the build journey as central as the finished product. What started as a solo passion project has grown into a small industrial studio with a dedicated team, a physical workshop, and a consumer products arm through the Hacksmith Store. The channel gained significant mainstream attention through projects like a plasma-based lightsaber capable of cutting through steel — a video that drew widespread press coverage and demonstrated the channel's knack for translating fan-favorite fictional concepts into credible, functional hardware.
The audience skews heavily male and young-adult, with the 18-to-34 bracket accounting for well over half of viewers — a profile that reflects both the engineering-curious demographic and the gaming and pop-culture fanbase that gravitates toward builds tied to franchises like Genshin Impact, John Wick, and Marvel properties. That franchise alignment has made Hacksmith Industries an attractive partner for entertainment studios seeking technical credibility alongside promotional reach, as seen in Lionsgate tie-ins, while the sponsor mix — spanning smart home hardware, robotics, and manufacturing software — signals positioning at the intersection of consumer tech and professional engineering. With engagement rates comfortably above category norms and a content format that scales naturally across serialized build arcs, the channel is well placed to deepen relationships with technology and defense-adjacent brands as the power-armor and advanced-materials projects continue to escalate in ambition and production scale.
Hacksmith Industries reaches an audience concentrated in Canada primarily through YouTube, and is best activated via long-form YouTube integrations, Instagram Reels and Stories, TikTok branded content. Their sponsorship history skews toward Sleep Tech / Wellness, Electric Vehicles / Mobility, Entertainment / Film, a clear signal of fit for brands in those categories. Demonstrated partners include Eufy and Prime Video. Engagement on YouTube runs around 4.1%, pointing to an audience suited to category-relevant, mid-funnel brand campaigns rather than pure-reach buys.
Benchmark estimates for a creator at Hacksmith Industries's tier (Mega, 18.2M combined followers, Canada). Pulled from CreatorDB's category benchmarks.
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The Hacksmith's real name is James Hobson. He founded Hacksmith Industries and built the channel around his background as a professional engineer and product developer, turning fictional technology from movies, games, and comics into working real-world prototypes.
Yes — Hacksmith Industries built a plasma-based retractable lightsaber that became one of the most-watched engineering projects on YouTube. The build used a high-temperature plasma stream to replicate the appearance and cutting ability of the Star Wars prop, and the video went massively viral across the internet.
Yes. James Hobson describes leaving his full-time career as an engineer and product developer specifically to build fictional technology prototypes on YouTube full-time. That decision became the founding story of Hacksmith Industries as it grew from a solo creator project into a full engineering studio.
Yes — a working Iron Man suit is one of Hacksmith Industries' most recognized long-running projects. The team engineered a wearable powered suit with functional components inspired directly by the Marvel films and documented the entire multi-year build process on YouTube.
The Real Life Power Armor is a multi-part series where the Hacksmith Industries team engineers a full wearable powered exosuit inspired by fictional armor from games and films. The project exceeded its original planned scope — the series ran to at least a seventh installment even after being labeled complete at part six, suggesting the engineering challenges kept expanding.
Yes. Hacksmith Industries ran a branded campaign with Lionsgate around John Wick: Chapter 4, tagged explicitly as a Lionsgate partner collaboration. Bulletproof-related engineering content was produced to tie into the film's marketing.
Hacksmith.store is the official product shop for Hacksmith Industries, selling engineering-inspired products and branded merchandise. James Hobson actively promotes it across his social channels as a direct revenue arm of the brand separate from sponsorship income.
Hacksmith Industries takes fictional inventions from blockbuster films, video games, and comics and engineers real working prototypes — things like plasma lightsabers, Iron Man suits, eye-controlled laser systems, and knives capable of cutting through nearly anything. Every build documents the full engineering process, with an explicit goal of inspiring viewers toward STEAM careers.
Hacksmith Industries has been posting engineering and invention content since 2013, giving the channel well over a decade of history. That longevity helped it grow into a Mega-tier channel with over 15 million YouTube subscribers and a catalog of some of the most ambitious DIY engineering projects on the platform.
Recent Hacksmith Industries sponsors include Prime Video, Eufy, Aiper, DELMIAWorks, and Dnsys, all placed through YouTube. The channel's overwhelmingly tech-savvy, engineering-curious male audience makes it a strong fit for consumer technology and innovation-focused brands.
Stats (followers, engagement, audience demographics, growth) are pulled live from the CreatorDB API covering YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Bio and FAQ content is AI-assisted; news items are sourced from cited public press at generation time. Read the full methodology →
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