Our Story

BE Alink is a Dutch designer, architect, humanitarian, and inventor of the Alinker.

The Alinker story started with a comment of BE’s aging mother- Antonia Esman. While passing some elderly people with walkers and scooters, she said: "over my dead body will I ever use one of those!”. BE set out to design something better for her mum, but soon realised what was truly needed was a vehicle for social change, challenging our assumptions about people with mobility challenges. After all, we are all aging, but instead of dreading what's to come, now we can stay active, be energetic, and experience freedom and joy with The Alinker!"

The Alinker was first introduced to the Dutch market via a crowdfunding campaign in 2014. In 2016, the Alinker was launched in North America through another highly successful crowdfunding campaign. The Alinker team is proud to have created something worth talking about, but most of all, the team is thankful for all the support from customers and Alinker champions in the community. The Alinker isn’t just for him or her, it’s for all of us.

We are a Certified BCorps

As a Certified B Corporation™, we use our business as a force for good, the Alinker as a vehicle for change.
We are committed to creating accessibility to all, reducing inequality, lowering levels of poverty, creating a health system that works for all, building communities, and creating high-quality jobs with dignity and purpose.
B Corp™ Certification is a highly selective status. Companies have to pass a rigorous assessment, reporting on their positive impact to qualify and undergo verification every three years to maintain their Certification.
Certified B Coporation

Our Essence

The Land we are on:

We have built the Alinker company while living and working on the stolen territories of all Indigenous Nations of Turtle Island. First Nations people were forced throughout the United States’ expansion to enter into treaties ceding some territories while retaining others. Every one of those treaties were broken by the US government, and the result is the current reservation system, with many First Nations people retaining only a tiny percentage of their traditional territories and other First Nations forcibly relocated onto lands with which they held no connection or left without any lands to call their own. A traditional territory is the geographic area identified by a First Nation as the land they and/or their ancestors traditionally occupied and used.

This land matters, and the people who tended to the land for centuries matter.

We acknowledge that we live on this stolen land as uninvited visitors. We honour indigenous people and this land by using our business as a medium to raise awareness, speak our truths, feel the unbearable injustice that was done to First Nations people, create communities based on deep values of respect and generosity, protect the wisdom of elders, hire indigenous people, build bridges, promote indigenous entrepreneurs and their businesses and do our own inner work to understand and acknowledge who we represent. We choose who we are beyond what we represent by our looks so we can build bridges toward a world for and by us all, in community for the next 7 generations.

We come through 7 generations and in our lives, live such that the next 7 generations can live healthy and together

What you can do:

  • Acknowledge the land we are on, and put it on your HOME page (text above)
  • Add indigenous ventures on your website
  • Partner with and support the LIFT initiative with monthly donations or % of your revenue
  • Hire indigenous people into your team
  • Know your history, decide who you want to be, beyond what you represent

 

Living History

Resources

Honouring Indigenous women owned ventures

We invite you to learn about these women and buy their products