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Stave Puzzles drive customers to distraction, writes ART PETROSEMOLO
Stave Puzzles has amassed a devoted following thanks to its innovative brainteasers.
The designers and woodcrafters at Stave Puzzles Inc. can be devious, often taking behind-the-scenes pleasure in driving their customers to distraction. Surprisingly, the customers would have it no other way.
“It’s what we have been doing for 45 years,” says founder — at times referred to as the chief tormentor — Steve Richardson, who still plays an active role in the Norwich, Vt., company. Now semi-retired, Mr. Richardson and the Stave staff continue to design devilishly hard puzzles — some with missing pieces or other tricks — for loyal customers, many of whom have been completing or trying to complete these creations for years.
Building a brand
Stave Puzzles had a quiet start some four decades ago when Mr. Richardson and his friend Dave Tibbetts were downsized from a local computer firm and, over a beer, came up with an idea to start a game company that also would include small puzzles. They called the company “Stave,” a blending of their first names or, as Mr. Richardson describes it, two puzzle pieces. Mr. Richardson and Mr. Tibbetts had some early success, including a game purchased by the National Football League that was rolled out as a placemat activity by IHOP restaurants.
Mr. Richardson was the first puzzle cutter, using his father-inlaw’s scroll saw in his garage. Mr. Tibbetts soon began cutting puzzles at home as well. Mr. Richardson and wife, Martha, became sole owners of Stave in 1976 after Mr. Tibbetts moved on to start another small children’s game and puzzle business.
More people jumped on board shortly thereafter to help expand the operation. Jennifer Lennox joined the company in 1987 as a cutter and is now one of the company owners. Dianna Rowell joined Stave in 1988, also as a cutter, and has worked in the position ever since. (She has cut most of the company’s puzzles, including a creation of 10,000 pieces for a wealthy Texas woman.)
Mr. Richardson is currently transitioning the business to two longtime employees, Ms. Lennox and Paula Tardie. Mr. Richardson agreed to help in the transition and the three combine their talents to continue to build the business.
Mr. Richardson, who recently turned 80, is almost as active — and certainly as enthusiastic — today as he was 40 years ago. When discussing the company’s early years, he explains the profits from its
NFL game success were reinvested in the puzzle business as Stave attracted new customers on the way to what has became a unique, successful, specialty puzzle company.
The company still makes its products the old-fashioned way — one challenging puzzle piece at a time. All Stave puzzles are made of a five-layer laminate of cherrywood-backed plywood that Mr. Richardson first purchased from a veneer company a few miles up the Connecticut River in Bradford, Vt.
The Stave logo is a clown that Mr. Tibbetts, a graphic designer by trade, came up with their first year. It adorns puzzle boxes and is a piece in every puzzle. “It is just the right symbol,” Mr. Richardson says, “as it might be laughing at you as you struggle to complete the puzzle challenge.” The puzzle cutter initials the back of the clown as the last step in the production process, before the pieces are broken apart, boxed and sent to the customer. Some longtime customers even make special requests to have a specific cutter work on their orders. They actually can tell the difference.
Even an experienced puzzle cutter, many of whom have been with the company for years, can take three days or more to complete an intricate design. Mr. Richardson explains it can take up to six months to train a new puzzle cutter before he or she (the majority of Stave’s cutters are women) is able to work alone on a project.
Innovation in challenge
Stave puzzles can be categorized several ways. “Treat” puzzles have no tricks but are challenging. “Tidbit” puzzles are small with 50 pieces. “Trick” puzzles are just that, and can have missing pieces or pieces that fit in more than one spot. Puzzles also can be handpainted original art, come with a riddle to solve in the process or have a double-decker structure.
Stave has introduced numerous puzzle innovations, including three-dimensional puzzles and puzzles that might be able to be assembled several ways but with only one correct solution. Stave’s most difficult puzzles are called “bolt puzzles,” which the company will not sell to a customer until he or she has completed one of the company’s less-challenging trick puzzles — no easy feat.
These inventive creations have earned the company tens of thousands of customers, with buyers in all 50 states and at least 10 foreign countries.
The cost of a Stave puzzle starts at expensive and moves to very expensive depending on size, complexity and personalization. These are not $5 mass-produced cardboard puzzles; a Stave puzzle often costs $5 per wood piece, totaling hundreds of dollars.
The company customer surveys show purchasers are looking for creativity, quality and a dedicated customer service team. Price is never an issue. Many of the Stave customers — including those with last names like Bush, Gates, Rockefeller, Mellon and Lilly — are on a first-name basis with Stave’s staff. “Our customers want to be challenged with every puzzle they buy,” Mr. Richardson stresses, “and our designers and puzzle cutters go out of their way to create unique challenges.”
Mr. Richardson credits a Boston customer with the company’s growth and interest in experimental puzzles. Early in Stave’s history, that customer asked the company to design a challenging wood puzzle. The man not only bought Stave’s first puzzle but also supported the enterprise for 20 years until his passing. He made numerous purchases each year for himself and friends, with an average annual cost of about $50,000. “We will always be grateful for his support,” Mr. Richardson says, “and although today we still have a few puzzlers who spend $50,000 yearly, we have many customers who spend between $10,000 and $20,000 yearly for us to test their wits, ingenuity and patience while they study puzzle boards late into the night.”
Ford McBeth, a Pittsburgh financial planner, is one such fan. He was introduced to puzzles by his grandfather, who was fond of hand-cut jigsaw puzzles from a New York City company that predated Stave. Mr. McBeth became one of Stave’s early customers in the 1970s. Decades later, Mr. McBeth’s extended family still enjoys Stave puzzles, especially when getting together for the holidays.
“I’m a loyal Stave fan.” Mr. McBeth says. “I did the entire sports series a few years back, but I enjoy the traditional poster and artwork puzzles the best.” For his recent 65th birthday puzzle, his family gave him an 800-piece Paris scene with multiple personalized pieces, including family names and a birthday cake. Mr. McBeth owns about 20 Stave puzzles and already is thinking about his next purchase.
Why puzzles matter
So, you ask, what’s the deal with puzzles? How and why can they be so fascinating and addicting? The jigsaw puzzle market today generates more than $600 million a year, with an estimated 60 million puzzles sold. How did the industry take off?
Jigsaw puzzles date back to the mid-1700s. They were first created by painting a picture on a flat, rectangular piece of wood, which was then cut into small pieces with handsaws. London cartographer John Pillsbury is credited with commercializing jigsaw puzzles of paintings and maps.
Puzzles soared in popularity here in the U.S. during the Great Depression, as they provided a long-lasting, recyclable form of entertainment. After World War II, machine-cut cardboard jigsaw puzzles — much less expensive to produce — became popular. At the end of the 20th century, laser-cutting of puzzle substrates allowed puzzles to be cut in any shape, any size, with any number of pieces.
Puzzles have seen another boost in popularity with the COVID-19 pandemic. Stave was overwhelmed with puzzle orders from both regular and new customers. It did its best to fill requests for several weeks before it closed for the safety of its employees. The state of Vermont considers Stave to be a nonessential business, though the company’s customers disagree.
Research shows that completing a puzzle brings on a sense of satisfaction, personal pride and happiness and is showing resurgence as individuals, couples and families look for a way to unplug and escape from the digital information overload. And, in times of turbulence, Stave has seen people turn to its puzzles as an escape.
During the 1987 recession, Stave introduced a small “teaser” puzzle to give first-time customers a taste of some of the company’s hallmark offerings. “We initially offered them at $99,” Mr. Richardson said, “with the thought it might move people to try one of our large puzzles.” What the Stave team found out was that the teasers were immensely popular in their own right, creating a new category of puzzle for the company. The recession had, in an unlikely turn of events, introduced more people to puzzles and earned Stave even more fans.
While the COVID-19 crisis is still playing out, Stave is attracting new fans, eager for an escape and brainteaser. The company’s challenging puzzles of exceptional quality continue to amaze and engage, and they will long after the country puts itself back together, one piece at a time.