True South Puzzles Wholesale

The Full Line

The True South catalog is organized around beloved places, activities, animals, and people. That means a retailer can merchandise the line by customer story instead of treating puzzles as a generic game category.

New for 2026: Welcome to Tennessee, by Jennifer Savage. True South’s newest artist, debuting on what is also the first True South puzzle ever to use a white border, cut on a different die than the catalog standard. The art hides purple irises (state flower), mules for Mule Day, Tennessee flags, and national parks icons across the image. Susan’s framing: “a love letter to Tennessee.” The headline for any TN gift store in 2026.

New for 2026: American Originals. Uniquely American inventions and creations, Ben Franklin, the Model T, with quirky callouts from each state. Tied to the U.S. 250th anniversary in 2026 but designed deliberately not to be locked to that anniversary. Susan calls it “a love letter and a history lesson in one.”

New for 2026: Tennessee Matchbooks (TSDTS99). A full-size puzzle made of vintage Tennessee matchbook cover art, Loveless, Gatlinburg, and the iconography of the whole state. Pairs on the shelf with the Tennessee Boxed Matches set (TSMB99) for a one-two cross-merch story.

State puzzles. The Tennessee map puzzle, the Kentucky map puzzle, state-specific designs in the states True South is carried. Tennessee and Kentucky each sell every season in their home state.

Regional series. Great Smoky Mountains, Appalachian Trail, Nashville, SEC Tailgating. True South’s own positioning: “beloved places, activities, animals and people.” The Appalachian Trail puzzle is an especially clear regional fit, with elevated interest around the AT Conservancy’s 2025 centennial.

National Parks. The single-panoramic America’s National Parks, individual-park puzzles, and the Park Collector series (Bison, Eagle, Moose, Wolf, twelve parks per animal border).

Caught and Collared. The dog-and-cat mugshot series, illustrated pet portraits designed to read as the family pet’s first arrest. The customer who picks one up laughs out loud in the store, which is the tell.

100-piece minis. Launched late 2025. A smaller format for add-on gifts, stocking stuffers, travel bags, care packages, and customers who want the True South art experience without committing to a full-size puzzle.

Seasonal and limited-edition drops. Holiday puzzles (Santa in the City, Nutcrackers, Christmas minis), bundle offers around Q4 (sixteen-for-the-price-of-fourteen historical pattern), and occasional limited-edition drops including the retired Dolly series.

New designs every year. From True South’s About page: “She continues to support independent artists by getting their artwork in the public eye with a host of new designs every year.” The catalog refreshes itself without abandoning the anchors, National Parks, state puzzles, Appalachian Trail stay carried while new artists keep the assortment fresh.

How True South is made

The founding purpose. When I asked Susan how she introduces True South to someone who’d never heard of it, this is what she said: “Independent woman-owned company started by looking for more interesting images and trying to protect mom-and-pop bricks-and-mortar stores. There are bulk producers out there that are not paying attention to imagery, and we wanted things… It’s a Southern roots company. We attack the South with the love of our history and our roots, and at the same time, the things that make us a little quirky and a little different and a little fun.” Susan didn’t lead with the product. She led with the principle. That principle is the brand.

Turned away Amazon. Turned away big box. In Susan’s words: “We have turned away Amazon. We have turned away big boxes. Probably to our own detriment. We are champions of brick and mortar, mom and pops, and of our communities.” That isn’t a tagline. It’s a real moat. Most American-made puzzle brands sell on Amazon. True South doesn’t. The whole company is engineered to live on an independent retailer’s shelf.

The artist program. Susan commissions independent artists, pays them for the right to use a single image on a puzzle, and lets the artist keep ownership of the artwork to sell anywhere else they want, on prints, mugs, totes, their own shop. Mutual lift: True South gets unique imagery no other puzzle brand carries, and the artist gets exposure plus a new revenue channel. Jennifer Savage is the program’s newest example, debuting on Welcome to Tennessee in 2026 and the Visit Knoxville cylinder mini that opens the College Towns series. Every puzzle is credited to its artist on the box.

Easter eggs buried in every design. Susan’s words: “We bury Easter eggs. Like all of our cities, when you look at the postmark, it’s actually the founding date of that city. They’re numbered by the number of the state of the Union. We bury Easter eggs in all of the puzzles, just because we’re nerds, we like history.” The art rewards attention twice, once putting it together, again noticing what was hidden in plain sight. Welcome to Tennessee buries the state flower (irises in purple), Mule Day mules, Tennessee flags, and national-parks icons across the image.

Four panels on every box. When you open the lid, the inside flaps and side panels carry content most puzzle companies skip: an artist bio with the artist’s own contact, a giving-back panel naming the nonprofit tied to that puzzle, a “We’ve got your back” panel with a real missing-piece replacement promise, and a puzzle trivia panel with Easter-egg facts about the subject. The Seaside box, for example, tells you Seaside helped inspire the pastel beach-town aesthetic and served as the filming location for The Truman Show. The box is part of the gift, not just packaging.

The factory, in Susan’s words. Small factory in the American Midwest. Same team has worked there for years. The puzzles are stamped through blue board on elevated machines originally built in the 1960s to stamp leather for car seat covers. Operators stand at shoulder height with OSHA wristbands tied to a strap behind them, the die slams down hard enough to take a hand. Six of those machines run in a row, slinging puzzles in like pizzas going into a pizza oven. After cutting, each puzzle hits a conveyor, slides into a chute, gets broken apart by an arm, drops into the bag, and is heat-sealed. No public tours, appointment and client status only.

Multi-generational by design. Most True South puzzles are 500 pieces on purpose. Susan: “Because they’re designed to be multi-generational. We want grandparents to work it with their grandkids, with their mom. It starts good conversation, like, Mom, what’s this about Tennessee? What is Mule Day? You end up getting stories, particularly from grandparents, that might not be shared. And those are lost to history if you don’t do that.” The piece count is the conversation starter. The Easter eggs are the prompt. That’s the product.

Thirty years of custom framing behind the quality. Susan Taylor ran a custom picture-framing shop in Nashville for three decades before she sold it to run True South full time. A framer knows what finished art looks like, how light hits a matte finish, how board weight holds up over time, whether pieces sit flush enough to frame cleanly. Every True South puzzle is engineered to be frame-worthy the day it’s finished. From True South’s own copy: “the highest quality materials to ensure that pieces fit seamlessly and last a lifetime, and create frame-worthy finished pieces of art.”

Nonprofit giving. From the About page: “A portion of the proceeds of puzzle sales support exceptional non-profits as part of True South’s mission to give back.” The nonprofit gets named on the giving-back panel of every box, so the customer knows where their dollars went the moment they unwrap it.

Retailer FAQ: True South Puzzles

Common questions from Tennessee and Kentucky retailers about carrying True South. Click any question to expand.

Outside Tennessee or Kentucky?

True South Puzzles is represented by reps across the Southeast and Southwest and reachable directly at truesouthpuzzlecompany.com/wholesale or 615-810-9179. If you’re reading this from outside TN or KY and you want to carry the line, email me, I’ll point you to the right contact.

If you reach out, tell them where you found it. One sentence, “I saw it on AmyFay Chandler’s site”, is how a page like this becomes something Tango and True South can actually see.

If True South is right for your store, these probably are too

Other lines I represent that pair well with True South on a gift-store floor:

Compendium, Inspirational children’s and gift books from the 40-year publisher now part of Penguin Random House. Named titles your customer asks for by name, the cross-generational companion to a True South puzzle.
ORI London, B Corp carryalls and totes from East London. The National Parks customer who drives to the store in a tote walks out with the puzzle and the Kickstarter-backed umbrella.
Caroline B Cook, Christian children’s books and keepsakes from Nashville. Same gift-giving customer, a faith-forward companion to the True South state-pride shelf.

See all brands I represent →