New shows, new products, new woods, new images, but committed to the same gaming excellence.
2025 marks the end of Silverwood Wood Design’s 5th year in operation, and the journey has been remarkable. As many of you may not know, before 2021, I travelled around attending literary-themed events promoting my book series. Starting in 2021, we began our exploration into the world of wood-crafted gaming accessories and there appears no going back.
Here’s some quick stats of our journeys.
- Shows Booked This year 18 (87 in total since 2021)
- Unique Shows Attended to date 54
- Miles Travelled This Year 7,200+ (33.4K+ since 2021)
- Farthest West Show This Year: Kansas City, MO – New Record (Previously West Plains, MO)
- Farthest East Show This Year: Washington, DC still holding the record
- Farthest North Show This Year: Cleveland, OH – (Current Record Holder: Milwaukee WI )
- Farthest South Show This Year: Lexington, KY – (Current Record Holder: Tampa Bay, FL)
Winners and Losers
Most of our repeat shows this year saw modest gains year over year. Some notables in the loser category which will most likely fall off our touring schedule. Cincy Con, a neat little war gaming/miniature themed show in the Hamilton area around Cincinnati was a repeat show for us this year. This late winter show sports a convenient location and excellent convention food for the price. The show is very well run, so there is no beef there, but unfortunately, the revenue for the show is simply not there.
Next on the chopping block was a new show, and quite frankly, a last-minute invite: KC Retro Con. As the name implies, this show is way out in Kansas City. This show is focused primarily on Console Video Games with a dash of toys and collectibles. We have learned over the last several years that these types of shows do not perform well for us. We went into this show ill-informed and thought it was a broader gaming show, much like Midwest Gaming Classic or Southern Fried Gaming Expo. The show runner and staff were friendly, and we found some great food nearby, but the show’s performance was the worst of the year for us, and we experienced one of our firsts. Read on.
The last show that we are at least calling a temporary hiatus to is one of the tougher ones to say goodbye to, Awesome Con in Washington DC. This show sports one of our largest attended shows, but even with a slight rebound from last year’s poor performance, rising costs, and the overall time commitment, plus one of the worst load-out experiences ever, has caused us to leave it off our show calendar this year.
Let’s switch gears to some of the year’s highlighted shows. Our second year at GenCon’s Maker’s Market (5th year overall) saw our biggest sales to date of any show – hands down. We took over 1,600 items and sold around 761 items. Our ScoreKeeper line, which we launched in 2024, blew away our expectations with 260 units moved. This was in part due to the launch of the new Starfinder 2e at Gencon, and the help we got in specializing a board for the Pathfinder/Starfinder community.
The show that unofficially launched Silverwood Wood Designs continues to perform well for us, and that is the Indiana Comic Con. As this was our 5th year, plus our first of 3 shows in Indianapolis, saturation is always a concern. We don’t exactly specialize in what one would call a consumable product. Our dice towers are designed to be around for a while. This year we posted our largest sales to date for this show. Our biggest concern going forward with ICC is the continued rising costs and shift management at the show. ICC has seen some big changes over the last 3 years. 2026 could be a watershed year for us or it could be the beginning of the end of a beautiful relationship.
Two more shows to highlight would be our newcomer for the year, the long-awaited Origins Game Fair, in Columbus, OH. This is a show that has avoided us for some time, but we finally made it in this year, and we experienced some very good vibes. This should probably go in the “Highlights” of the year, but we had two celebrities stop by and look at/play with our giant dice tower. Shout out to Dr. Who, Sylvester McCroy, and Dice Tower’s very own Tom Vassel. We look forward to returning this summer.
Lastly, and certainly not least, is our very own local show, the Indiana Toy and Comic Expo here in Bloomington, Indiana. I’ve been vending at ITCE since 2018, and this year seemd to be a breakout year for us. Billy and the gang run a bang-up show. Traditionally, we do not do well at Toy and Collectible shows, which there is a lot of at ITCE. This show is definitely the exception to the rule, and one we will continue to attend as long as we are lucky enough to get selected.
New Products
We’re always trying to find new ways to add to our repertoire of products without compromising our emphasis on value. This means coming up with designs and features that require minimal time and/or materials. Our ScoreKeeper line of score/stat cards continues to grow. We are now up to 27 different designs for various games, ranging from Euchre and Rummy to Dungeons and Dragons and Ticket to Ride. Our DnD Character ScoreKeeper leads the pack with 159 units moved this year out of 267 units.
New ScoreKeepers this year include:
- Pathfinder/Starfinder 2e
- Magic the Gathering Commander Zone
- Hero Quest
- Miniature DnD Character Sheet
- Lorcana Duel Tracker
- Cascadia Rolling Hills/River
Probably one of our biggest surprises (and it shouldn’t be really) was our Deluxe Deck Vault, as inspired by some of our biggest fans — you know who you are. This large capacity deck storage box sold very well overall, but it was a curious beast. Shows that you would have bet that it would do well, it wouldn’t sell, and then shows that had no bearing on card games, it would sell like crazy.
Dice storage was a big focus for us this year. Unfortunately, we had several misstarts as we tried to figure out the best design/value proposition. Our first major product release, which was also a fan-recommended design, is what we call a Dice Rack. This product is meant to be paired with our standard dice tray so that you have a dice storage container and rolling in one piece. We think this has a lot of potential, but we still need to try and figure out the best way to market at our shows, as the rack consistently gets lost in the shuffle, and it is not readily apparent what it is or how it functions.
Our next big dice storage option came at the very end of the year, and it only had some brief exposure before the Christmas season. The product is called our Dice Cabinet. It is, as the name implies a brick-like cabinet with 4 magnetically closed drawers that can store 8 sets of dice per drawer. The concept is to offer multiple types of drawers so that you can have dice storage, dice tray, figurine trays all in one cabinet. The core challenge with this product is cost/value. Because of the amount of time and materials in this product, we are not able to produce this as effectively as most of our other products. This is going to force it into a different market. The plan is to keep one or two on hand for shows as a “Centerpiece” and take custom orders when pricing is not a concern.
Our last major product release for the year was the Scorecard Case that pairs with our small ScoreKeeper trackers. This is one of those no-brainer ideas that, in concept, is fantastic, but in practice, is harder than it looks. Keeping in mind that all our products are cut by hand, making sure that the design is consistent enough to support any of our smaller ScoreKeepers proved to be a hit, but sometimes a miss, proposition. Overall, it has been very well received, and we are looking to innovate and expand that product in new ways.
Highlights and Firsts
No year in review would be complete without a list of Highlights and Firsts. I’ve already listed for you some of the first appearances of products, so I won’t repeat myself here.
I guess the most critical highlight would be that our year-over-year sales were up to our highest level in 5 years. We love what we do, but if we can’t pay for it and make a little on the side, I’m sure I can find other things to do with my voluminous spare time (hint: large amounts of sarcasm implied).
Marketing-wise, we added an LED Sign to the top of our giant dice tower. You can now see our booth from far far away.
We had our first noticeable theft. I say noticeable because I’m sure we’ve had things lifted in the past, but we’ve never observed it. This event occurred before the show even started, after we’d just set up the booth and left for the evening. Fortunately, the product was recovered, and the culprit was caught on video.
I don’t know about you, but I love good BBQ. Whenever we’re travelling to a show, we always like to keep an eye out for localized BBQ. I’m not sure how localized it was, but while we were in KC this year we hit Jack Stack’s Freighthouse BBQ. This was, as the young people say, “off the chain” or maybe “sick”!
We added some new shows that we plan on returning to next year. As already mentioned, Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio, will be an exciting recurring addition to our show schedule. The Cleveland Gaming Expo also surpassed expectations. We seem to do well at shows that have a broad mixture of gaming. Having done KC Retro earlier in the year, which was all video gaming, this one struck a good balance of board gaming, video gaming, classic computer gaming, and pinball machines.
The last highlight of the year would be the improved performance of our online sales. This has been an area that, quite frankly, has been a point of major discouragement for me. I spend so much time on the Silverwood Wood Designs website, and it has shown very little until this year. Maybe the word is spreading. While I don’t see us giving up the travel and shows, I would like to get to a more stable schedule and be able to rely on online sales a little more. In time, maybe.
Up Next, 2026, what to expect.
