Engineering a Killer Brand can certainly be a puzzle, but Stave, a company in Vermont has proved that a “puzzle can be a Killer Brand.”

Stave Puzzles are known within their target audience of puzzle junkies as the highest quality, most interesting and most difficult puzzles of all times. In this case, Stave Puzzles represent an excellent example of a “difference in degree” so great that it has become a “difference in kind.”

Stave Puzzles are hand-crafted of cherry wood so they never really wear out. The company was named for the founders, Steve and Dave. Steve now runs the company with the title of Chief Tormentor, and is known for designing new kinds of puzzle shapes that are fiendishly difficult. He is the originator of the false edge piece which looks like it should be on the outside of the puzzle but is not. They even have puzzles with spaces between the pieces (kind of like lace). How would you like to try to solve and assemble one of these?

The puzzle boxes themselves show no photo or likeness of the finished puzzle so you figure it out as you go. One year they put out a new puzzle on April’s Fool that actually had no solution even though a solver could get close. It ended up infuriating the target audience, proving that even the creator of a Killer Brand can go wrong every now and then.

How much does this craftmanship and challenge buy them? Well, Stave Puzzles start at $125 and range up to $500. Plus virtually every owner has more than one. And every owner expects them to be priceless collector’s items one day in the future. And the company is healthier than ever. This difference in degree has helped them stave off the competition for 33 years. (Sorry, I could not help that!)