The Story of Sterling

Sterling Lighting was started to solve a problem. I already owned a local installation company, and had been installing lights for over a decade prior to 2011, but I didn’t trust the light fixtures my company was installing. Initially, I had found an LED manufacturing “expert" that ordered premium fixtures out of California with a 20-year warranty on their products.

We were on a roll with installations for Enlightened Lighting, when our worst nightmare happened—our lights started failing. After 12 months and 700+ fixtures, we had a 50 percent failure rate and warranty claims were taking four to six months to be fulfilled. We went into panic mode. How could we focus on our beautiful lighting systems when we spent most of our time repairing the lights we’d already installed? This not only cost us time and money, but also cost us the chance to build trusting relationships with our customers. So, my business partner, Damien Sanchez, and I set out on a mission to find the best fixtures, which led us to found Sterling Lighting.

Sterling Lighting's Founders: Josh Palmer, Damien Sanchez, and Patrick Harders

To begin, we researched our options and found that even the largest manufacturers were having major issues with LED. Since we couldn’t trust the products currently on the market, we started working with a group of engineers to solve the LED’s technical problems.

We kept our first design line simple. We used the retro LED bulbs, but also built heat sinking materials into the fixture. These design changes gave us enough confidence in our product to replace all the faulty fixtures we had previously installed and to begin growing our new company.

In order to satisfy our commitment to offer our customers the best fixtures available, every day we implemented small improvements and tracked our development. We were shocked by how much progress we made. Soon we exhausted our possibilities with retro LED bulbs, so we began designing an integrated LED with the proper heat dissipation. Our goal was to design a light that gave the heat sink of an integrated LED with the ease of service of a drop in bulb. Our new light design had five brightness settings and four different beam patterns—all in a single fixture.

Soon enough we finally had a premium-quality LED fixture that could be installed without having to worry about it failing. We continue to keep testing our fixtures and keep our hands in the dirt so we can continue to innovate and improve. At Sterling Lighting, we are committed to developing beautiful new fixtures, while improving the quality and performance of our current line, and selling our products directly to you—no middleman involved. Our goal is to help your business become more successful, so you can have more time to focus on the important things in life.

-Patrick Harders - Co-Owner