The long road to making our puzzles in the USA

If you've been following our journey, then you may know Puzzery started as a simple DIY gift for friends that quickly turned into something bigger. Five puzzle cutters, four facilities, three countries, and countless late nights later, we're ready to share the unfiltered story of how we got here. Let's get into it.

How it all began

It all started with a simple problem: finding a meaningful gift for close friends. Gift cards felt impersonal, and we wanted something that showed we really cared - something screen-free that wouldn't just collect dust (or worse, end up in a landfill).

Feeling inspired, we decided we'd try to make custom puzzles with pictures of their (adorable) pets. Using some basic iron-on sublimation materials I got online, we created our first puzzles on cheap, foam-like boards. The quality really wasn't great, but the reaction was incredible. Our friends absolutely loved them 💚

Then something unexpected happened. We started getting unsolicited emails from their friends, asking if we could make puzzles for them too. With my background in entrepreneurship, I couldn't help but wonder if something like this would be helpful for others.

In the evenings after work, I started exploring what it would take to actually make our own puzzles from scratch.

Our kitchen table operation

With enthusiasm outweighing experience, we officially launched Puzzery in January 2021. The production facility? Our kitchen table. The warehouse? The living room. The salary? Snacks from Bulk Barn.

Every evening after work, I'd transform our kitchen into a mini puzzle workshop. Print the images, seal them, cut them, and package them - all in the same small space. Our dog, Reginald, oversaw the whole operation each night.

As orders increased, the living room began slowly disappeared under a blanket of curing puzzles and sticky notes with order information. Bless my amazing wife, Elizabeth, for supporting my weird pursuits.

Despite the chaos, those early days were really fun. Every puzzle had its own story.

We started Puzzery because meaningful, personalized gifts outshine generic ones every time. When someone matters to you, a gift card just won't cut it.

Taking back our living room

By mid-2022, my wife and I were ready to see the living room floor again. We missed being able to sit on the couch, having storage, and overall being able to put things down on horizontal surfaces. Something had to give.

So, we partnered with a local print shop to print on pre-cut puzzles. This meant I could focus on packaging and shipping in the evenings after my "real" job and we could have our apartment back 😂

This partnership worked beautifully. We continued refining our process, trying new suppliers, and learning what our customers loved most about our puzzles.

Then came the news: the print shop owner was retiring, and the shop was closing. Just as we were hitting our stride, we needed to find a new solution – and fast.

Lessons learned from overseas production

With our local printing partner closing shop, we faced a critical decision. If no local print shops could help us, then what about ones further away? I started researching where most puzzles are made. The answer? Hong Kong, where roughly 90% of the world's puzzles are created.

In 2023, we set up our facility in an area of Hong Kong that housed some of the largest puzzle manufacturs. This forced us to graduate from sticky notes on printers, to proper systems and workflows. We learned about industrial-grade materials, precision cutting, and the complexities of international shipping.

The good news? We could produce many more puzzles than before. The bad news? Quality control became a major, ongoing challenge, especially during holiday rushes. Despite our best efforts, some puzzles that were shipped simply didn't meet our standards.

We'd get heartbreaking emails from customers about blurry images, missing pieces, and in some extreme cases, receiving someone else's puzzle! These are issues that never happened when we were making puzzles at our kitchen table.

Each complaint hurt, as these folks were trusting us with these beautiful, amazing, meaningful gifts meant for loved ones.

After three months of working with the facility, we made the difficult decision to look for alternatives. Sadly, even with professional help, it was just different flavors of the same problem elsewhere. In the end we knew that if we wanted true control over our puzzles, that we needed to bring production back to North America. The scary part? The only way to do it in a cost effective way was for us to do it ourselves.

The Lethbridge heartbreak

It's worth noting that the decision to bring production back to North America wasn't just about quality control – it was about getting back to who we were. We wanted to create puzzles with the same care and attention we had at our kitchen table, just on a larger scale.

We set our sights on Lethbridge, Canada, and poured everything into making it work. Over 14 months, we invested more than $100,000 in machinery alone. We added exciting new features like varied puzzle piece shapes and custom notes on puzzle boxes. We tested, iterated, and sometimes often failed spectacularly (did I mention that we're on our fifth puzzle cutter?).

After countless late nights and problem-solving sessions, we were finally ready. The equipment was installed, the processes were nailed down, and we were days away from shipping our first batch of puzzles.

Then the tariffs hit.

We held our breath, hoping for clarity on costs from US suppliers. But as weeks turned into months, it became clear: we were going to have to shut down our Lethbridge facility before it had shipped a single puzzle.

All that work, all that investment, all that time. I'll be honest: we were gutted, as this also meant we likely would need to shut Puzzery down for at least six months while we figured out what was next.

Our new Colorado facility

After a week away, we got back to the search. If Lethbridge won't work, then where?

In early 2025, we found a shared manufacturing space in Colorado that checked all our boxes. It was close enough to visit regularly, had the infrastructure that we needed, and most importantly, eliminated the tariff concerns that had derailed our Canadian plans.

We carefully transported our equipment across the border, rebuilt our production line, and trained a team. In April, 2025 we shipped our first puzzle from our Colorado facility. This moment was the culmination of a four-year journey, and I knew in that moment, that all the time spent working on this was worth it.

The puzzles we're making now are the result of over a year of testing – varied piece shapes that make solving more engaging, premium materials that feel substantial in your hands, vibrant printing that brings images to life, and boxes that feel special from the moment you receive them.

Nearly five years later, and we're finally making the puzzles that we always wanted to.

Whatever the case, we're not pretending the journey is over. We're still learning, still improving, and still making mistakes. But now we have the control to fix issues quickly, the capacity to innovate, and the joy of knowing exactly who made each puzzle that leaves our facility.

A special thank you

This adventure has been a wild one - but like any good puzzle, the satisfaction comes from seeing all the pieces finally come together.

Which is why I want to highlight that we wouldn't be here without you. The folks who were willing to give us a try when our puzzles were cut on a kitchen table, who gave us feedback when things weren't perfect, and who shared our creations with friends and family.

Whatever happens next, we promise to keep making puzzles that turn special moments into hours of fun – now proudly made in the USA, with all the care and attention that they deserve.

Happy puzzling! 🧩