In 2014 the entire lighting world only had one focus: racing to produce the cheapest
LED light bulbs.
And that’s what lighting was: Bulbs.
But Nanoleaf’s founders came together on a mission to “Rethink What’s Possible”,
and create lighting that broke those boundaries, and went...beyond the Bulb.
After seeing the Northern Lights in real life for the first time, they were inspired to
create a product that would capture the light and beauty of the sky above us, with its sunrises,
sunsets, starry nights, and other magical moments, and bring it inside to deliver a
truly transformative experience to our spaces.
And by 2016 this dream became a reality, with Nanoleaf Light Panels.
Light Panels were the first of their kind in the smart lighting game, going beyond the
genres of lighting and decor.
But that groundbreaking impact on the industry didn’t stop there.
Within a year of launch, Light Panels moved to #2 in smart lighting on Amazon, and received
a CES 2017 Innovation Award.
Suddenly, you couldn’t browse the internet without seeing these triangular lights in
the background of Twitch streams, YouTube videos, and Instagram setups everywhere.
Everyone from huge streamers to world renowned DJs fell in love with our Light Panels.
Ultra thin and ultra bright, they were unlike anything anyone had seen before, inspiring
a wave of innovation in their wake that changed the smart lighting world forever.
Well, innovation, and...imitation, the sincerest form of flattery.
That’s when we knew we had something good.
Not only were they huge for smart lighting, but also for Nanoleaf as a company.
These amazing panels let us grow from a small startup of only 10 people to a thriving global
team of over 100, with our product in over 200 retailers across over 100 countries.
They also allowed us to build an incredible community of millions of users, who took them
to new heights that we never imagined possible with their endless creativity.
All of this was accomplished because of the love and support that you showed our Light
Panels, and without you, none of it would have been possible.
But as we continued to grow and to innovate, we took all the feedback and input from you
in the community and from our team and used it to create a product that took the original
Light Panel experience to the next level: Nanoleaf Shapes.
We improved the existing hardware, with a snap-on mounting system and Linkers, smaller
corners for a larger illuminated surface area, and an updated Controller with additional
buttons, a built-in Rhythm music visualizer, and NFC tap for easy pairing.
Then we added new features like Touch Reactivity for Touch Gestures, Touch Games, and Touch
Actions.
The Thread network protocol stepped into the industry, so we made the Shapes Controller
double as a Thread border router to provide fast and reliable control to Thread-enabled
devices.
And biggest of all, and most highly requested, we developed a technology called Connect+
that allowed these new panels to connect not only to each other, but to other shapes,
like Hexagon and Mini Triangles, for even more design freedom.
But where did that leave our OG Light Panels?
As the years ticked on and our technology improved they still held their own...and looked
pretty good while doing it
But at last, today on the day of their retirement, the time has finally come to say goodbye to
the OG, the original, our day 1; Light Panels.
Well... goodbye in some ways.
Think of it as 50% retirement, 50% graduation, and 100% …AND I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU!
Retirement: After all their years of hard work, and after
finally finding a suitable successor, we’ll no longer be selling the original Light Panels
Smarter Kits.
You can imagine instead that they’ve hopped off the store shelves and moved to a condo
in Florida to play shuffleboard and sip mojitos on the beach all day.
What a life.
Graduation: While they may be gone, they’ll certainly
not be forgotten.
Rather than disappearing, Light Panels will be graduating to a Legacy product.
That means that if you already have a set of original Light Panels you own a piece of history, and you’ll be able
to continue using them with the Nanoleaf app.
Forever.
As in we’re never going to remove support for them.
You’ll even be able to use them with the Group Scene feature, so you can control them
collectively with your other current and future Nanoleaf lights, and sync the colors and
Scenes across all of your devices.
And now, let’s take a trip down Light Panel memory lane to laugh, cry, and smile at all
the good times and sweet memories we had together.
We genuinely want to thank you all for how much support you’ve shown for Light Panels.
They’ll always be a part of our history, and we’re excited to continue to grow
to see where we go next, so we hope you’ll come along with us for the ride.