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In 2021, we have seen a clear trend of other manufacturers taking inspiration, to say the least, of GAN and the design of their speed cubes, in particular their 3x3s. Let's unpack why GAN's design has become so prevalent throughout the speed cube market in 2021 - and why exactly everyone is "copying GAN".
To be clear, we are not accusing any manufacturer of blatantly copying GAN and its designs - we are discussing the similarities and trends in modern cubing hardware that GAN has been the forerunner of through the late 2010s and into the early 2020s.
Read more about the History of GAN releases here.
Characteristics of GAN Speed Cubes
Modern GAN cubes have a couple of common characteristics
- Stickerless designs with primary or black internals through a capped design
- Spring adjustment systems, first introduced in the GAN Air SM
- Adjustable magnets (in flagship puzzles)
- Different stickerless finishes, commonly a frosted finish
- Quiet, buttery-smooth turning
- Top performance
The primary or black internals are certainly the characteristic that makes GAN puzzles highly recognizable, which began with GAN 249 and 249 V2 2x2s, which had a capped stickerless design with black or primary internals respectively.
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This was continued with the iconic GAN 356 X, with vibrant stickerless shades and black internal pieces - GAN's 2018 flagship.
Their latest iteration of this design is with their 2020 and 2021 flagships, with the GAN 11 M Pro and GAN 12 M, replacing the black internals for a primary plastic.
Split Piece vs Capped Design
There have been two prevalent ways to design speed cubes pieces:
Split Piece Design
Split piece design is where corner and edge pieces are made up of four or three pieces respectively, with corner pieces consisting of three interlocking pieces that form around a corner stalk. These three pieces come to form the stickerless sides of a corner on a stickerless puzzle. Similarly, an edge piece has two pieces that interlock together to house an edge stalk.
Many manufactures have used this design successfully, notably QiYi with their Valk 3 line and MoYu with their WeiLong line of puzzles at the flagship end, and budget puzzles such as the MoFang JiaoShi RS3 series and the Yuxin Little Magic 3x3s.
Source: moyucube.com
Capped Design
Capped designs consist of pieces that have a single mold for both the main contact surface and the inner stalk as a singular piece made with a single mold, and caps that clip into the main piece that can form stickerless or stickered exteriors.
This enables the manufacturer to mass-produce the actual cube mechanism and the external color or finish separately, something of which GAN has explored through their UV, frosted and soft finishes on their flagship GAN 11 and 12 3x3s.
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| Source: Gancube.com | Source: MoYu Facebook |
This piece design and method of manufacturing also allows for flexibility in internal color, as seen in the MoYu WR M 2021 variants and the new special edition of the YJ MGC EVO which was teased by YJ recently.
Source: YJ Instagram
GAN is also well known for releasing many special or limited edition version of their puzzles over the years, most recently being the GAN 12 MagLev Limited Edition in a "peacock" or "emerald" colorway.
Why are manufacturers copying GAN?
GAN has seen immense success in the cubing space, with world-class speedcubers using their flagships to set record after record, particularly for the famous 3x3. GAN has been known for their innovation in the cubing space, being a fore-runner in the emergence of magnetic puzzles in the GAN 356 Air UM and their adjustable spring tensioning systems that have carried through since the original GAN 356 Air. Importantly, GAN has gradually increased their pricing over the years, where cubes such as the GAN 356 S (Standard) from 2015 was available for $22.95 at SpeedCubeShop.com, whilst GAN flagships in 2021 are priced at over $60 USD.
Thanks to GAN's heavy sponsorship in the world class speed cubing space, GAN continue to dominate in brand perception, with many top solvers opting to use their puzzles. The 3x3 world record average and single have been broken numerous times over the past 5 year period with GAN flagships, which makes for an extremely enticing product, something of which GAN has certainly capitalized on in their marketing.
Source: https://www.gancube.com/gan-gurus
Other companies may be looking to find similar success in the speed cube market, and may think that by taking inspiration from GAN's design language that they may be able to find similar success that GAN has enjoyed.
[basic stats on GAN sales at scs]
Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal
- Pablo Picasso*
GAN is often called the "Apple of cubing", often selling their products at a premium price point, similarly to that of the tech conglomerate - and even copying the same naming convention with the 356 X similar to the Apple iPhone X, and the 356 XS similar to that of the iPhone XS.
However, a highly prevalent trend in the mobile phone space is the direct inspiration of product features or design choices that Apple's iPhone has had over the years, namely the infamous "notch" with the release of the iPhone X in 2017. Other design choices have been inspired or copied before and following this, notably the removal of the headphone jack and the adoption of the Qi wireless charging standard.
| Apple iPhone X (November 2017) | Huawei Mate 20 (November 2018) | Xiaomi Mi 8 (May 2018) | Google Pixel 3 XL (October 2018) |
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| Source: Apple.com |
Source: Consumer.huawei.com |
Source: GSMArena | Source: GSMArena |
This similarity in design is now ever more present in modern speed cube flagships, and even budget puzzles from competing brands.
| GAN 356 X 3x3 (2017) | X-Man Tornado V2 3x3 (2021) | QiYi MP 3x3 (2021) | Peak Cube S3R 3x3 (2021) | DianSheng Solar S 3x3 (2021) |
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Notably, these cubes all featured a stickerless capped design with black internals, with similar squared-off corners and rounded center pieces |
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| GAN 11 M Pro (September 2020) | MoYu WR M 2021 (2021) | MsCUBE Ms3-V1 M 3x3 (2021) | YJ MGC EVO 3x3 (2021) |
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| Similar to the previous, except all of these feature full primary color internals as opposed to the black internals of the GAN X and similar puzzles | |||
What's the future?
Companies will now have to find further innovations in order to make their puzzles stand out from their similar-looking competitors, especially with all of the GAN look-alikes being produced.
This may be found in new features, such as further development of the adjustable magnet and spring systems, or might be the implementation of these systems in puzzles other than 3x3 - like what we will see with MagLev being implemented in MoYu's new "Jinzita" Magnetic Pyraminx.
Source: MoYu Facebook
Other more "sideways" forms of innovation that stray away from GAN's designs might be seen in the Peak Cube S3R, from a new manufacturer, that despite looking very similar to the GAN X externally, feature interchangeable interior pieces for different turning feels.
Read more about the Peak Cube S3R here
Pricing
One thing that is to be seen is whether other competitors adopt GAN's high-end pricing, where GAN's latest flagships cost upwards of $60 USD. We are yet to see other manufacturers truly reach this price point, however, some other manufacturers have made strides to undercut the heavy price tags, as seen in the prices of MoYu, YJ, Diansheng, and MsCube for example, frequently pricing their flagship cubes at under $30.
Read more about What Speed Cube Should I Buy here.
This is very similar to the pricing of Apple iPhones in comparison to their competitors, with Apple consistently pricing their flagships upwards of $1000 whilst their Asian competitors such as Xiaomi for example price their flagship at a similar price point, and their more budget-conscious options at less than half the price.
This undercutting may be an attempt to attract the more budget-conscious, a category of which both Apple and GAN have made their own offerrings, with Apple producing products such as the iPhone XR and GAN producing the GAN 11 M, GAN 11 Air - stripped-down versions of their flagships, keeping features such as MagLev, corner-core magnetization, and adjustable magnet strength for a lower cost.
Whilst not an apples-to-apples comparison (get it?), comparing speed cube brands and trends with the mobile phone space is the closest realistic comparison available currently, and likely will be for the foreseeable future.
Conclusion and Predictions
GAN has been a forerunner in innovative designs and new technologies in flagship puzzles, especially in the 3x3 over the mid-2010s into the 2020s. Their adjustment options, and their recognizable stickerless design with black or primary internals, alongside their flagships' buttery-smooth turning have proven to be a recipe for success with high amounts of sales over the years. Thanks to this success, other manufacturers have followed suit with obvious trends in design being clearly inspired by GAN's designs, both visually and in their overall design, cementing GAN's position as the "Apple" of cubing - which is now reflected in their high-end price tag.
We may GAN create puzzles with similar designs in order to capitalize on research and development invested in their flagship puzzles - similar to Apple, where their flagship designs take a number of years before any major leaps in the overall design, such as the iPhone 5 to 8 sharing essentially the same design, before jumping to a bezel-less design in the iPhone X (there was no iPhone 9). GAN similarly took multiple years of multiple iterations of the highly similar stickerless cubes, from the GAN 356 to the GAN 356 Air SM, before making the leap to the stickerless capped design we now see today with the GAN X.
We also may see an increasing number of manufacturers adopt the capped piece design, perhaps at a lower price point to entice cubers who are looking for the same design but don't want to pay for GAN pricing.
We look forward to seeing what GAN and other manufacturers have to offer in the months and years to come, and to see which trends continue throughout cubing hardware and which will see a shorter life-span.
