How a Lighting Company Is Making Cordless Designer Lamps That Actually Work

Gantri, a lighting maker in the Bay Area, has released a new line of battery-powered lamps designed together with Ammunition, a design studio also based in San Francisco. The lamps run for over 10 hours on a single charge and come in floor models, table models, and handheld versions, according to Wired.

The Partnership

Gantri specializes in making lamps using 3D printers — a manufacturing technique that lets designers create complex shapes that would be expensive or impossible with traditional factory methods. Ammunition is a thirty-person design firm founded in 2007 by Robert Brunner and Matt Rolandson. The firm has won major design awards, including the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award and five spots on Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in Design list.

Together, the two companies created several lamp models. Some are inspired by pier structures around San Francisco, which is where both companies are based. The designs include the Pier Small Wireless Task Light and the Drift Small Wireless Task Light.

How the Lamps Work

These lamps use rechargeable batteries instead of power cords. A full charge gives you over 10 hours of light — roughly a full day of use for most people.

One trade-off: the lamps come with their own proprietary charging cables. They do not use the common USB-C connector that most phones and tablets use. This means you will need to keep the manufacturer's cable handy.

Gantri says the lamps will eventually work with Matter, a new smart home standard that lets devices from different companies talk to each other. This means you could eventually control these lamps through Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant, the same way you might control other smart home devices.

Why This Matters Now

This trend — moving from corded to cordless — is not new to technology. Over the past few decades, we have seen phones, headphones, speakers, and even vacuum cleaners gradually become wireless. The pattern is always the same: early cordless versions work okay but not quite as well as the plugged-in versions. Then batteries get better, the devices improve, and eventually wireless becomes the standard choice.

The broader context here is that battery technology has genuinely improved in recent years. Modern lithium batteries hold more power, and LED light bulbs use less electricity than older bulbs. Those two changes together make it practical to build lamps that can run all day on a charge.

Why Gantri Is Making This Move

3D printing gives Gantri an advantage over traditional lamp makers. The company can create unusual shapes and customized designs more easily than factories using older manufacturing methods. Adding wireless capability is a natural next step — it lets customers place lamps anywhere in a room without worrying about cord length or outlet location.

For Ammunition, partnering with Gantri lets the design firm build more ambitious products. For Gantri, working with Ammunition's award-winning team gives the company credibility in high-end design markets.

What You Can Buy Now

Some of these wireless lamps are already available, according to Gantri's website. The Wireless Reserve lamp was scheduled to ship in fall 2024. The companies plan to release more wireless models. Gantri typically prices its lamps at the premium end of the market, so these cordless versions are likely to cost more than budget lighting options.

The Bigger Picture

As homes and offices become more flexible — people rearrange rooms more often, work from different places — lighting that does not require a cord becomes useful. You can move a wireless lamp anywhere without calling an electrician to install new outlets.

The decision to use the Matter standard also tells you something about how the industry is thinking. Companies used to bet everything on a single smart home system — Amazon's Alexa or Apple's HomeKit. Now they are building products that work with all of them, because they know most people will end up mixing devices from different brands in their homes.

This partnership shows how two smaller, specialized companies can compete with larger manufacturers. Gantri brings advanced manufacturing technology. Ammunition brings design expertise. Together, they can create products that larger, older lighting companies would struggle to make.