I am a british speedcuber with multiple medals in official World Cube Association competitions and my goal is to provide excellent speedcubes to the UK and European market at reasonable prices. What I believe differentiates speedcubing.org from other cube stores is my extensive knowledge of speedcubes, I try new cubes out myself and develop an opinion on them so I can give honest recommendations based on experience. Unlike many other stores that use the .co.uk domain name to make themselves seem UK based, speedcubing.org is located in the UK and stock ships from the UK.
I created Speedcubing.org in 2019, as I wanted to run a store that could give reliable advice on products to cubers based on genuine competitve experience. I have competed in many official WCA competitions and came 2nd in the UK championships 2019 for 7x7x7. I believe that it is best for cube stores to be run by fast speedcubers because otherwise how can they know what cube is best for other cubers?
I started cubing in 2012 with a horrible store-bought cube, I got my times down to around 1:20 within a few months but had very little knowledge of the speedcubing community or the existence of speedcubes. In 2014 when I moved to secondary school I met other speedcubers and learnt about speedcubes and various techniques to improve, I then got a speedcube in October 2014 and my first solve was 42 seconds, about half what I used to average!
The group of speedcubers started a cubing club. While everyone else left, I kept at it and found myself leading cubing club for the next five years with a new cohort of students every year. After seeing how students would buy rubbish overpriced cubes each year, I felt I could offer something better so I began selling 3x3x3s at £5, initially the MF3RS, later the YuXin Little Magic and eventually the Meilong. My speedcubes would often become very popular all of a sudden in October and I found myself at one point having to organise a pre-order service because I didn't have enough stock to keep up. At one point I had 10 people trusting me with a pre-order they had paid for! They all got their cubes in the end. Now having left my secondary school I estimate that 20% of students there still own a cube originally bought off me. Hopefully some are still being used!
Cubing club 2018 poster:
House cubing 2020 poster (unfortunately it was never finished):
In 2019, my local bookshop suggested I try selling some cubes outside their shop. It was in a reasonably good location for the public to see so I gave it a go. I would ask people walking by to scramble my cube for me, solve it in 10-15 seconds and then offer speedcubes with their solution guides. They were brilliant and flexible and even allowed me to leave a few cubes in their store, although they only ever seemed to sell when I was there.
My cubes are just about visible in this tweet of theirs:
And here I am on their twitter page doing my first full day,s trading
Unfortunately Bookpotato closed down at the end of 2019 (otherwise I would link their website)
I quickly saw the opportunity and started looking for other markets. It was a bit more difficult since other markets would charge a fixed price while Bookpotato just charged me a percentage of sales, which was a lot more risky but I still gave it a go and within 3 months found myself at the NMTF national young traders final in Stratford Upon Avon
I am pretty sure that was my stall there but you can't really see anything unfortunately:
I kept doing these market stalls every so often and I took the opportunity to make this video at my school Christmas fair in 2019:
In late 2019 I began to create the website, originally Speedcubing.org.uk and later in October 2019 I got the Speedcubing.org domain. I switched over to Shopify and began to build my store, originally with a small range of products but I was determined to get all new cubes as they came out. This meant I soon built up the range of products and grew the store. I also began selling cubes on Ebay, although I have to charge higher prices there.
When lockdown was announced in March 2020, the market stalls had to stop. I did run a few stalls when it was allowed but this meant I was forced to build my online business. Now everything reopened I still do market stalls but I do them far less frequently than before.
In 2022 cubing competitions finally resumed in the UK and I was determined to sponsor one. At Weston Super Mare Spring 2022, Stevenage Spring 2022, Wakefield Spring 2022 and Chester Spring 2022 I brought a giant rucksack full of cubes for people to try out whilst I was there competing and left a note saying: "I run speedcubing.org but I am not allowed to sell any cubes at this competition." In June 2022 all my work paid off as I was able to sponsor Cheltenham Summer 2022 and to this day that stall is still the best performing market stall I have ever done. I continue to sponsor many official WCA competitions around the UK and often have a stall full of cubes for people to try but I also continue nurture my passion and compete.
I have now finished my degree in politics so I am now able to focus on speedcubing.org as my full time job, I now have a warehouse located in Peterborough and aim to continue providing excellent speedcubes throughout the UK.
Cubing as a whole has grown massively in the past few years and I don't see this growth stopping. Despite all the competitions being available to register for, Stevange January still filled 200 competitors in a few minutes! I hope to continue supporting the speedcubing community and providing all the best speedcubes at reasonable prices.
