About Jungle Gym
We are Jungle Gym
We are Europe’s most adventurous designer, manufacturer, and marketer of premium playground equipment. With our history, which goes back over 70 years, Jungle Gym and Hy-land can be considered as the oldest and leading brands of safe and sustainable wooden climbing frames. We achieved this position by continuously investing in innovative designs, optimized logistical solutions, and state-of-the-art marketing concepts.
Our commitment to quality has been the cornerstone of its program to provide children and their families with the safest, most reliable playsets available in the market. Over the years we have developed and introduced many unique parts and characteristic accessories. With the challenging designs and the introduction of do-it-yourself kits in home centers, hardware stores, and play set retailers across Europe we successfully achieved our vision of bringing compliant, fun and value-packed products to both the residential and commercial playground markets.
Child safety is paramount when designing all our play equipment. Our entire range of Jungle Gym Backyard
Playgrounds is thoroughly tested to meet the most up-to-date European safety insights (EN‐71). Given our
responsibility towards today’s and future customers we are proud to be an active member of the European
Committee for Safety of Toys. This EC commission works in conjunction with the ad Hoc Workgroup CEN/TC52/WG3,
assisting in developing safety standards for residential playground equipment. For general safety and quality
aspects of our production as well as our product facilities we maintain sturdy relationships with independent
test houses and local regulatory authorities.
Our collection of safe, solid professional playgrounds are especially designed for campsites, sport clubs,
restaurants, nurseries, schools, etc. The impressive Hy-land Commercial Climbing Frames are continuously tested
for safety, strength and durability. In addition, the production processes and facilities of our Certified
Climbing Frames are monitored according to the European directives and the European safety standard EN 1176;
both in our own in-house test facility and by the accredited auditor TüV Rheinland LGA Products GmbH. Our
Climbing Frames for public use are type-tested and GS certified.
Our broad expertise of plastic and metal production processes and extensive product range has been built on the legacy of Creative Playthings Ltd, founded in 1945. A primary supplier of outdoor playground equipment to schools and day care centers. After the introduction of wooden climbing structures similar to metal Jungle Gyms in the early 80’s a branch was established in Europe, which became independent in 1994. At that time the only playgrounds available for backyard play in Europe were swing sets made out of metal tubes and peeled core timbers. Nowadays we control production facilities in Asia, Belgium, Ireland, UK, Denmark, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands.
Our worldwide presence
Jungle Gym is proud to be Europe’s leading designer of safe residential wooden playground equipment &
commercial playground equipment. We are represented in many countries, through our partners, fulfillment
centers and distributors.
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Belgium
Germany
United Kingdom
Ireland
Poland
China
Our historical timeline
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1945
Our rich history is built on the legacy of Creative Playthings, that was established by Frank and Theresa Caplan in 1945 in the USA
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1969
In addition to manufacturing toys for school and home use, they developed outdoor play equipment based upon the iconic “climbing structure” of Sebastian Hinton which was patented in the 1920s
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1986
Creative Playthings introduced the brand "The Original Jungle Gym," a product line of wooden playground equipment made out of square dimensional, pressure-treated pine climbing frames
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1987
Introduction of more robust climbing frames with posts as uprights, and 145 cm play deck; Classic Swing, Maverick, Outpost Tower and its unique A-frame modular swing concept
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1988
In a joint venture with Dutch importer PWC International B.V, Creative Playthings' "The Original Jungle Gym" became available to Europe
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1990
The initial introduction of the first HDPE structural foam attachment slides in Europe
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1991
European debut on the international trade show "Spoga" in Cologne, Germany. We introduced a wide-range of wooden backyard climbing frames made of robust sanded posts, boards, and boards from the United States
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1994
Gained the exclusive distribution rights of the swing sets for the European market. We became independent from Creative Playthings and established our own brand "Jungle Gym"
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1995
Introduction of Hy-land Commercial Playground Equipment
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1996
Designed and developed moulds for robust structural foam-based slide bodies. We produced attachment slide bodies for wholesale to the entire European swing set industry
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1997
Introduction of attachment slide with car track
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1998
Introduction of patented A-frame brackets
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1999
Revolutionary cross-selling & modular retail concept in garden-centers and DIY-stores throughout Europe using their standard shelved posts, beams, and boards
Launched new products: Jungle Swing, Jungle Climber, Jungle Tower, Jungle Hut and Swing Module
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2000
Jungle Gym goes online & releases Jungle Villa, Lodge, Cabin, Castle, Peak
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2001
Jungle Gym became one of the founders and an active member of the European Commission for standardisation for the safety of activity toys (TC52 / WG 10)
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2003
Dedicated to using PEFC certified sustainable timber
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2004
Introduction of our Commercial Playgrounds on the SPOGA/GAFA in Germany & Glee. B2B customer base
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2005
We obtained our TUV/BA certificate for the entire product line. Kits without the timber
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2007
Partnered with some of the biggest renowned and acclaimed retailers
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2008
Appeared on Frankfurter Neue Presse & launched our multi add-on frame link system
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2009
We obtained our TUV/GS certificate for the entire product line
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2011
Launched our unique "Grow with me" Playhouse concept and partnered with more retailers such as Hornbach and Obi
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2012
Received MOMMY Award 2012 from Netmoms
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2013
Launched Jungle Gym's online Playground Configurator
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2015
Opened our B2C webshop and appeared in Vogue UK
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2016
Re-organized our European cross-selling infrastructure
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2020
Introduction of our state of the art 3D configurator