[Life Chapter 3 Companies] 'Average Age 83' Designs Corporate Goods

"In society, knowing how to be patient is also happiness for the future"

"If you keep at it consistently, a comfortable day will come"

On the 3rd, I visited the office of 'Arip & Wealip' in Gangdong-gu, Seoul. There, I met CEO Shim Hyunbo (32), who took a sticker from the bookshelf and handed it to me. The phrase written in crooked handwriting on the sticker made me nod in agreement. It is the wisdom of life offered by designers with an average age of 83.

Arip & Wealip is a social enterprise that connects project-based work to elderly people who find it difficult to sustain their livelihood. CEO Shim, who thought that collecting waste paper by pulling a heavy cart and earning little money was not a sustainable job, founded the company in 2017 with the determination to create alternative jobs.

Since its founding, Arip & Wealip has collaborated with various companies such as Kakao, Skin Food, Woowa Brothers, and Twosome Place through B2B (business-to-business) partnerships. They mainly collaborate by applying seniors' designs to corporate goods, establishing their position in the design field.

The brand name of Arip & Wealip is 'Shin-ieo Maket,' which combines 'market,' a place where various items are gathered and sold, with the word 'senior.' However, since the term 'senior' was unfamiliar to the elderly, they used 'Shin-ieo' to reflect their pronunciation. The word 'Shin' also carries meanings such as 'new (新),' 'to advance (?),’ and 'spicy (辛).'

Shim Hyunbo, CEO of Arip & Wealip, is holding the book "Just Live First, Because Life Is Mine," which is made from the stories of seniors he works with. Photo by Heo Younghan younghan@

- What kind of work does Arip & Wealip do?

▲ It is a company that applies drawings and stories created by elderly people onto physical products. It provides project-based work to seniors who have difficulty maintaining their livelihood. Royalties are paid to the seniors, and goods featuring their designs are produced.

- What did you do before starting the company? I am curious about why you started it.

▲ I worked in the education planning department at a company and then did sports marketing at an agency. Even after starting the company, I worked as a freelancer for a while to generate cash flow. Although I worked hard as an employee, I often felt like a mere accessory to the company. So, in my mid-20s, I left the company and started my own business. I majored in business administration in college and wanted to run my own business. I also wanted it to have a public interest value, which I realized through the current business model.

- Why did you come up with the idea of giving design work to seniors?

▲ To explore business models, I met many elderly people collecting waste paper and noticed a common trait of low self-esteem. I thought there needed to be a way to bring out and express their self-identity. Design is a creative field where one can express 'oneself.' That’s how the current model was born. The company name, Arip & Wealip, means 'to establish myself and to establish us.'

- Did the seniors find the design work unfamiliar?

▲ Some said it was their first time drawing in 60 to 70 years. Perhaps because of that, it was difficult to explain what our brand does. Seniors are a generation that only bought ready-made products. They couldn’t imagine that an item with their own drawing on it could be a product. It was challenging to help them understand the concept of 'custom' products. After seeing Shin-ieo Maket products sell a few times, they got the hang of it. Now, they even ask, "Isn't there a new product coming out?" (laughs)

- How many seniors have you employed? How much do you plan to increase that number?

▲ About 25 elderly people have participated in design so far. Among them, seven seniors come every Wednesday morning to work on design projects. However, I think 'number of employment instances' is more important than 'number of employees.' For example, if five seniors are needed each quarter, it is more important to meet the same five people four times than to hire different five people each quarter. The latter might show a statistic of providing jobs to 20 people a year, but my philosophy is to offer repeated work experiences to the same individuals rather than one-off jobs. Therefore, these 25 seniors have maintained a relationship with us for at least three years.

- You also employ seniors as full-time employees.

▲ We employed a 78-year-old senior as a creator. It didn’t make sense that an organization solving seniors’ issues had no seniors in it. This person originally worked part-time for three years and was hired full-time two years ago because we worked well together. At the time of hiring, the support obligation system was abolished, so this person could have become a basic livelihood security recipient. We gave them two weeks to decide because working full-time after being a part-timer is not easy, especially in their 70s. Would many people choose to work when they could receive money without working as a beneficiary? But this person said, "I have received a lot of welfare benefits. If I don’t take it, someone else can," and chose to work voluntarily. I think it was a remarkable decision.

- Do you have your own awareness of the aging society issue?

▲ I hope our society will think more practically about the aging problem. Currently, people tend to lump everyone over 65 together. But there are differences between people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. Their generation, personality, experience, and education are all different. That’s why we give seniors an ID card that looks like an employee badge when they come to work. We want them to work as individuals, not just as elderly people.

Also, we need to consider that each senior prefers different types of employment. In Korea, there is a tendency to view full-time employment as the ideal, but many seniors prefer flexible, non-regular work arrangements.

- What are your sales goals and investment plans?

▲ Our goal is to achieve 1 billion KRW in sales within five years. If we receive investment, we want it from investors interested in senior jobs or aging population solutions.

- Do you have plans for the second half of the year?

▲ We completed seven B2B projects in the first half. In the second half, we are preparing new products such as cups and plates. We are expanding our product range with items like pouches made from sock yarn.

Also, while we currently create jobs for the 70s and 80s generations, in the mid to long term, we want to develop jobs for the 60s and 70s generations as well. We are exploring a structure where seniors with production skills, such as cooking, make products themselves, and Arip & Wealip distributes them. We plan to concretize this by the first half of next year.

Shim Hyun-bo, CEO of Arip & Wealip. Photo by Huh Young-han younghan@

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.