History & Origin of Indoor Playground Equipment

But where did the notion of indoor playgrounds result from? How did indoor playground equipment develop or go to be? Let's have a look at the historical past of indoor playground equipment.

The very first indoor playground is most likely a great deal over the age of you might expect. The first recorded indoor playground could be traced returning to a gymnasium in Germany in the 1920s, where ropes, bars, and ladders were set up for the kids to climb on.

Kids being kids, they loved crawling, climbing, and exploring and jumped right in. The achievements of this might result in the idea spreading across Europe.

This trend was mostly a European idea prior to making its approach to america within the 1950s with the opening from the Adventure Playground in California, recognized for its wooden structures and open-ended play.

However, the concept didn't catch on as fast as many thought it might.

However it wasn't before the 1980s that indoor playground equipment really took off, thanks in large part into a company called SoftPlay, founded by Bill Kitchen. SoftPlay was one of the primary companies to produce modular soft playground equipment, bringing their products to malls across America and popularizing the very idea of indoor playgrounds.

From the late 1990s, a whole new trend in indoor playgrounds emerged: soft play structures. This shift was largely affected by a combination of safety concerns and advances in technology that allowed for the creation of large, colorful, and dynamic soft play structures.

These playgrounds often feature different themed areas, from pirate ships to castles, with slides, ball pits, and climbing structures. The mix of safer spaces that have been padded and made kids significantly less vulnerable to injury along with the bright colors and imaginary themes made them incredibly loved by kids and parents alike.

Today, indoor playgrounds consistently evolve and give new and exciting ways for kids to perform and explore inside a safe environment. Since malls are more uncommon in many places, as is at-work daycare, the demand isn't quite as high as these was previously.

Most of the same structures or designs are employed for "Sheltered Outdoor Play Spaces" where rubber padding takes the spot of gravel or sand with outdoor playgrounds that increasingly have these set up underneath shaded areas to supply shelter from heat and sun.

These blurred lines may be the way forward for "indoor" playground equipment, but there's no doubt it can consistently find its niche.

Today, indoor playground equipment consistently evolve with advancements in safety and design, offering endless opportunities for imaginative play. So next time you have your children with an indoor playground, take into account the background and evolution that generated those colorful structures and slides.

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