New England’s one-stop source for Park, Playground & Streetscape Solutions: 973-663-2021
Ben Shaffer Recreation works throughout New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Our local sales and design teams provide free consultations and hands-on support, making sure every project is customized to fit the vision and needs of each community.
Ben Shaffer Recreation is your one-stop source for park, playground, and streetscape solutions, with a specialty in designing inclusive outdoor spaces that bring communities together.
We emphasize multigenerational design and partner with leading USA-made brands like BCI Burke, Victor Stanley, Modern Shade, and Icon to deliver safe, dynamic, and inclusive environments.
Ben Shaffer Recreation offers commercial playground equipment, shelters, shade structures, outdoor musical instruments, site amenities, sports equipment, and safety surfacing solutions.
Our comprehensive lineup ensures communities can find everything from play and fitness equipment to benches, planters, and acoustic installations for vibrant outdoor environments.
Our commercial playground equipment, distributed exclusively from BCI Burke, delivers high-quality play structures designed for child development and community engagement.
Each playground project begins with a free site visit to assess space and community needs, followed by collaborative design, budgeting, and professional installation services.
The ELEVATE Fitness Course is a modular obstacle course featuring multiple levels of difficulty designed for ages 5–12 and 13+, offering both standalone challenges and integrated training experiences.
This fitness course encourages physical activity outdoors, promoting strength, coordination, and team-building through innovative, age-appropriate obstacles.
We offer a range of outdoor fitness equipment designed for all ages, combining cardio, strength, and flexibility stations to encourage healthy lifestyles in open-air settings.
Our fitness solutions are built to withstand outdoor conditions and can be customized to fit parks, schoolyards, and community spaces, making exercise accessible to everyone.
Our outdoor musical instruments bring interactive sound experiences to any outdoor space, inspiring creativity and sensory development through drums, chimes, and percussion installations.
These instruments are durable, weather-resistant, and designed to enhance intellectual, social, and emotional growth by integrating music into play environments.
Ben Shaffer Recreation offers a variety of shade structures and shelters, including gazebos, fabric canopies, park entryways, clock towers, and bandshells from leading manufacturers like Modern Shade and Icon Shelter Systems.
Our shade solutions provide UV protection and aesthetic focal points, creating comfortable gathering spaces and enhancing the overall park and playground experience.
We supply site amenities such as benches, game tables, litter receptacles, planters, bicycle parking solutions, and custom metal fabrication for universities, downtowns, parks, and community gathering places.
Our site furnishings are available from trusted brands like Victor Stanley and Kay Park, ensuring durability, ADA compliance, and seamless integration into any landscape.
Our field and court products include hoops, goals, nets, ADA-compliant bleachers, and spectator seating, sourced from partners like Bison Sports Equipment, Jaypro Sports and National Recreation Systems.
These products support organized sports and recreational activities, offering safe, long-lasting solutions for schools, parks, and athletic facilities.
We offer several safety surfacing options, including Burke Turf synthetic grass, rubber Burke Tiles, poured-in-place rubber surfacing, and bonded wood fiber products by Zeager.
Each surfacing solution meets CPSC, ASTM, and ADAAG standards, providing impact protection, accessibility, and low maintenance for playgrounds and fitness areas.
Our Play4Pups® dog park equipment features obstacle courses designed to promote canine fitness and community engagement in off-leash areas.
Play4Pups® installations combine agility components, tunnels, and interactive elements to create safe, fun spaces for dogs and their owners to socialize and exercise.
We serve schools, city parks, homeowners’ associations, childcare facilities, and landscape architects, providing tailored outdoor recreation solutions for each market.
Within these markets, we specialize in school and daycare playground designs, public park systems, residential community amenities, and professional landscape integration.
Our school playground services include design, equipment distribution, installation, and safety surfacing, focusing on educational play and holistic child development.
We work closely with educators and administrators to create outdoor classrooms and playgrounds that foster physical, social, and cognitive growth.
We design and supply age-appropriate daycare playground equipment for infants (6–23 months), toddlers (2–5 years), and after-school programs (5–12 years).
Our early childhood play sets emphasize safety, exploration, and socialization, ensuring structures meet developmental milestones and regulatory guidelines.
We provide innovative park playground equipment, fitness stations, shade structures, and site furnishings that encourage community interaction and outdoor activity.
Our expert team collaborates with municipal planners to design inclusive environments that enhance property values and promote healthy lifestyles.
We collaborate with landscape architects to integrate playground and recreation products into overall site designs, offering CAD drawings and specifications via CAD details.
This partnership ensures a seamless design process, aligning architectural visions with practical, safety-compliant recreational installations.
Our Catalogs page provides downloadable links to Burke Playgrounds, fitness courses, early childhood equipment, Play4Pups®, inclusive play design, ShadePlay Max, and partner catalogs.
These resources offer detailed product specifications, layout ideas, and design inspiration for planning your next outdoor space project.
Founded in 1921 as a Jersey City sporting goods store, Ben Shaffer Recreation evolved into one of New Jersey’s largest distributors of playground equipment, sports goals, and site amenities.
Over 100 years later, this family-owned company continues to uphold its legacy of service excellence celebrated for the “Ben Shaffer Difference,” a commitment to quality, thoughtful design, and a personal touch.
Clients choose Ben Shaffer Recreation for our professionalism, high-quality products, responsive customer service, and unwavering warranty support.
Testimonials from school districts, parks departments, and construction partners highlight our expertise in code compliance, installation oversight, and long-term maintenance assistance.
Visit our Gallery page to explore Signature Projects like the Mindowaskin Park Playground, browse photo galleries by category, and watch video case studies of completed installations.
These visual galleries provide inspiration and demonstrate our capabilities in creating engaging, functional outdoor environments.
You can reach us by phone at 1-973-663-2021, by mail at P.O. Box 844, Lake Hopatcong, NJ 07849-0844, or through our online contact form with project details.
Our team is available to answer inquiries, schedule site visits, and provide personalized proposals for your park, playground, or streetscape project.
We partner with leading manufacturers including BCI Burke, Victor Stanley, Modern Shade, Icon Shelter Systems, Bark Park, Bison, Kay Park, Jaypro, Bison, Dero, National Recreation Systems, Greenfields and Percussion Play.
These partnerships enable us to offer USA-made products that meet the highest standards of safety, durability, and design innovation.
Our process begins with a free site visit to evaluate space, followed by collaborative design and budgeting, manufacturer coordination, demolition and grading, professional installation, and safety surfacing.
Throughout the project, our team manages timelines and compliance, ensuring your playground is delivered on schedule and meets all safety standards.
We prioritize multigenerational and accessible design by offering ADA-compliant equipment, sensory-rich installations, and surfacing options that accommodate all abilities.
By integrating inclusive play principles, we create spaces where children, adults, and seniors can interact, learn, and enjoy outdoor activities together.