About Us

History

U. “Rick” Henke, founder and president of Goric Marketing Group USA, Inc., has been dedicated to providing children with the most innovative play equipment since 1977. He is still a key figure in developing exciting and challenging play spaces accommodating children to freely grow and develop physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually.

Pioneering the design of accessible outdoor play equipment for children of any ability, Rick was one of the creators of integrated playscapes. The founder and owner of Children’s Playgrounds Inc., he was instrumental in developing safety standards and guidelines for public playgrounds in Canada (CSA). In 1994, he introduced and promoted cable net structures to the commercial U.S. playgrounds market which are now considered mainstream. He continues to bring ideas and designs from the European playground industry and integrate them into the North American market.

Rick has an engineering background and vast knowledge of American and Canadian standards. His compassion for children’s needs, his connection to European play equipment manufacturers, along with the support of great sales consultants and designers form the foundation of Goric’s success story.

We welcomed a new President and owner of Goric, Laura Guscott, in January 2021

After an early career with Challenge and Fun Inc., a supplier of natural children’s products, Laura joined Goric in 2004. Over the next decade she worked at almost every job in the company, before becoming chief executive officer in 2012. Laura’s leadership at Goric is colored by her interest and educational focus in child development, with her Bachelor’s degree in psychology, from Huron at Western University, Ontario, Canada. Besides her broad industry experience, as a mother with two active youngsters – a daughter 10 and a son 4 — she knows first-hand the importance of play.

“Rick has been my step-dad since I was 12 years old, but more than that, he’s my mentor and biggest cheerleader. We’ve had an incredible journey together, finding new and innovative play equipment that would be different than what was already available on the American market. Running a small business takes a lot of work, but we’ve had a lot of fun over the years. Rick has taught us that playground equipment needs to be designed for children of all abilities, that it should provide varying challenges as children grow and develop new skills and interests. As president and CEO, I will continue the Goric tradition of inclusive leadership in the playground world by pushing the boundaries of what we expect from a play space.” – Laura

About Us

Goric Playgrounds is a family-owned business that offers a portfolio of exclusive, innovative and aesthetically crafted European play equipment to designers who wish to take their playscapes to the next level. We are play enthusiasts that specialize in working with our clients from concept to completion and beyond. Our tailored approach leads to highly customized designs resulting in distinctive playgrounds.
Consider Goric your bridge to the unique world of European play equipment. All of our play pieces meet US and Canadian safety and accessibility standards and use time-tested materials (stainless and galvanized steel, timber and rubber) and are engineered to be enjoyed for generations.
Pioneering the design of accessible outdoor play equipment for children of all abilities, Goric is committed to pushing the boundaries of what we expect from a playspace. We value partnering with our clients to achieve this goal and are dedicated to the long-term success of our projects

Please note: We try our best to show pictures from American installations but we also show pictures from around the world with varying playground guidelines. We always recommend required resilient surfacing and appropriate shade for all play equipment! 

Certifications and Standards

Quality and current safety standards should always be a priority in any good playground design. Goric teams with European manufacturing partners that conform with the European safety requirements set by the latest version of EN1176. Most of the Goric staff and sales representatives are Certified Playground Safety Inspectors (CPSI). We review the items to ensure that they meet the current American safety requirements in addition to the European standards:

Our Partnerships with Landscape Architects

We value our long-term relationships with landscape architects and we are dedicated to partnering from the conceptual phase, through design and redesign, bid process, installation and beyond. We are available to discuss questions or requests that you may have by phone, email, online presentations and in person meetings. Let’s talk about your project’s site conditions, design ideas, trends, standards, hill slides, surfacing solutions, sculptural play, custom design, European playgrounds, or any other fun subject.

Take advantage of our login section to download 2D Autocad drawings, 3D Sketchup drawings, specifications and high resolution pictures. Please register for a login under “Technical Details” to access to the downloadable information. Give us a call or email if you need 3D autocad drawings or any other information that you don’t find here. We love to hear from you!

Philosophy of Play

We are play enthusiasts driven by the goal of creating play environments where children of any age and ability can play creatively and develop to their full potential.
Combining natural beauty, structural integrity, and intergenerational fun, the Goric team of play enthusiasts has provided fun experiences for children of all ages and abilities for more than 20 years.

Beauty:
Children are influenced by all aspects of their environment. Colors, textures, smells, sights, size and sounds all combined create an environment that can facilitate new understandings of the world around them. At Goric, we like to offer children the opportunity for imaginative growth by exposure to fine materials and design. When playground equipment is nondescript, the child can decide how to play and what the narrative is. As children grow and become more skillful, their play experiences change: they can climb higher, stand on the wobbly platform rather than sit, spin faster, and their internal narratives become more complex.

Intergenerational:
Playgrounds are not only built for children to develop their physical abilities but they are also the perfect place for social development and interaction between children and adults of different ages. Ideally, the playground is a place that facilitates both independent play and opportunity for child and caregiver to play together. Our hope is that the adult cannot help themselves but to take part in the fun. The playground should be a place to unplug and be offline so that children, parents, older siblings, friends and grandparents can all play together at the same level.

Structural Integrity:
We work with manufacturers that have a long history of building high quality, reliable and exciting playground equipment. Their equipment, including the exceptionally well-engineered moving parts, is long lasting and basically maintenance free for public settings. Besides outstanding functionality we think it is important that our equipment is looking good for many years and is aesthetically pleasing.