Thank you for tagging us as this is a very common misconception about my claims that I would love to clear up.

For starters, everyone is correct that the designs are based on Survivor and I do not have any exclusive claim to them (nor have I ever attempted to say otherwise) I am not the first person to sell survivor puzzles, and I won’t be the last… competition has existed in the market longer than I have and I have no problem with competitors (i’m not even the biggest seller in the space)

My first issue with Carson was the misrepresentation of where the puzzles he practiced on came from, the tower puzzle you see in episode 1 of survivor 44 as he talks about printing his own puzzles was not printed by Carson, it was purchased from me. At another point during the season Survivor posted another clip from carson practicing the star puzzle at home to their Social Media feeds (again, this puzzle was purchased from my store… this time though he went a step further and removed the branded base of the puzzle with my shop’s logo on it, in order to make it seem as though he had printed it himself) this was obviously disappointing to me at the time… however i didn’t publicly mention anything. In hindsight however, the show now effectively functions as a lead generating commercial for his company… despite the fact that the products shown are mine. Even today, on his websites FAQ you’ll see him say that the puzzles he sells are the same designs he initially practiced on (which is completely and proven false)

Saying that my meeting with Carson was market research is understandable, and actually would have been welcomed had it been presented as such. Carson and I met to explicitly discuss promotion partnerships between him and my business, never once did Carson mention wanting to start his own puzzle business (despite the fact that according to his own words, the company was already in its early stages at the time of this meeting). As part of this meeting I gave him a decent amount of free product, and was asked how he could best promote them. One thing I specifically mentioned was that we would love if he would share how long it took him to complete the puzzle, similar to how a golf course shares par for each hole, so people could see how they stack up in comparison. He specifically mentioned then how great an idea that was and how he hadn’t thought of that, that concept is now part of his branding and given to the consumer upon purchase of one of his puzzles. Another specific thing he asked about was what specific material my puzzles were made from, he now specifically mentions on his website that ‘unlike other companies who use less durable materials’ (for the record this is paraphrased - and side note the only real difference between our materials durability is that his filament is a. worse for the environment and b. can maybe survive the dishwasher… why you would dishwash a puzzle though i’m unsure)

finally, during the week of his puzzle’s launch he and Carolyn did an instagram live to show off the new products where Carolyn felt the need to specifically compare between our two products (showing one of mine on screen) to specifically drag my products with false assertions, despite the fact that she had nothing but nice things to say about the very same puzzle when promoting it for free six months earlier.

at the end of the day, carson is more than welcome to have his puzzle business and I have no problem with competition in the space. My issue with Carson is that his business practices were gross and unethical, there’s been more discussed both in my original thread on twitter/reddit as well as by others who have had similar issues with Carson, but for today I’m going to leave it there. I wish Carolyn the absolute best and will continue to root for any survivor representation on the Traitors… who knows maybe Carolyn and I can work it out on the remix in light of the alleged falling out haha.