Founded in 1979 by designer Leon Max, Pasadena, CA-based Maxstudio offers leading-edge, superior quality clothing and accessories for today’s modern woman. Sold through Maxstudio stores, boutiques, web, and major department stores around the world, Maxstudio focuses on head-turning shapes and silhouettes that create distinguished looks for every occasion, as well as aesthetically-pleasing stores that help draw attention to the company’s innovative fabrics, cutting-edge designs, and fashion-forward brand. And thanks to a recent lighting upgrade involving elite, specification-grade LED lamps from Solais Lighting, Maxstudio will continue to succeed in spotlighting its trend-setting styles, clean lines, and modern concepts in the most high-performing and environmentally-responsible fashion.
“A decade ago, we moved to ceramic metal halide technology, which had good color rendition but which burned out within three years,” said Andrew Lindley, head of Maxstudio’s store design, construction, and maintenance, of the previous lighting configuration within the chain’s 30+, 2,500-3,000 square-foot locations. Cameron Craig, Director of National Accounts for Regency Lighting in Chatsworth, CA, Maxstudio’s distributor of record, agreed. “Maxstudio had been using ceramic metal halide for years, but found the lamps didn’t last long enough, experienced lumen maintenance issues over time, and also involved replacement of an additional ballast component, all of which increased the cost of store maintenance.”
In 2012, Maxstudio desired a new lighting approach within five newly-constructed outlet stores located in California, Georgia, Washington, and Arizona as well as an existing full-priced retail store in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Based on the fact that “our stores have a very modern concept with clean, white lines and we don’t want fixtures that stand out or are overly designed,” as Lindley explained, as well as their need for a solution that delivered high efficiency, long life, and consistent lumen maintenance, “we pursued LEDs for their life and ability to significantly reduce our maintenance costs,” and selected 21 Watt, 1450-lumen “LR30LN” PAR30 Long Neck LED fixtures from Solais Lighting.
Featuring Solais’ exclusive Luxiance thermal management technology and long, 50,000-hour life, Solais’ LED PAR30 Long Neck lamp replacement offers the high light output, lightweight design, and full-dimming capabilities of halogen incandescent sources, resulting in a high-performing LED system perfect for retail and hospitality applications. Since the installation of 40-75 lamps into each of the upgraded store’s track fixtures beginning in Fall 2012, “the lighting looks excellent, it covers the space very well, and has a nice, bright, and appealing quality to it,” Lindley said. “The fixtures are attractively understated and the lighting really lets our merchandise pop.”
“Solais offers one of the highest-lumen packages in the LED lighting market today and the quality of their products is amazing,” Craig shared. “We love their range of black, white, and silver paint finishes, which enabled us to match the fixtures to the décor of each store and ensure that the fixtures remained unobtrusive, and the lightweight quality of Solais’ fixtures avoid the sagging-socket effect that we’ve experienced with other manufacturers’ product. In addition,” Craig noted, “Solais’ 21 Watt lamps consume almost 50% less energy than the previous 39 Watt metal halide technology Maxstudio was using, which results in attractive energy and cost savings or allows the installation of additional fixtures for even greater coverage with no incremental energy consumption or cost.”
“At Maxstudio, we always want our stores to be lit a little more brightly than other stores to attract attention, but at the same time we want to be part of the green movement and do the right thing for the environment,” Lindley shared. “Over the years, LEDs have come a long way in terms of their color quality and viability as a lighting solution for the retail sector. All together, based on their quality, high performance, outstanding efficiency, long life, and ability to reduce our maintenance costs, we feel really good about upgrading with Solais’ LED technology.”
“The lighting looks beautiful and the Maxstudio team really loves it,” Craig confirmed of the lighting upgrades completed within six of Maxstudio’s U.S. stores in 2012. With plans to upgrade another seven stores in 2013 and more in the future as they continue to construct new outlets and overhaul existing stores on a priority basis, the fashion-forward franchise can rest assured that its new LED lighting design is now positioned to the max.