Sole Desire Shoes Gallery of Fireplaces

McNaughton Media

For 33 years, Sole Desire Shoes has been selling stylishly comfortable women’s footwear. Brothers David and Dan Astobiza are second-generation business owners, taking over their parents’ three-store operation and growing it to now nine locations throughout Northern California.

With both parents completely out of the business for more than 10 years, David and Dan have tried to give their customers unique stylish products and brands while staying true to their roots, ensuring all shoes have comfort features built right in.

Dan’s wife Anicia is in charge of HR, accounting and office operations. Michele, David’s wife, is in charge of social media, email marketing and the website. Jen Cala manages hiring, running the Sacramento district and overseeing the Davis location.

Sole Desire offers a unique footwear selection for women, giving them both comfort and style, allowing them to move effortlessly at work, at play and everyday. The business bring brands to them that are hard to find and at times made specifically for its stores. Sole Desire features brands like Biza, Anesha, Venus, INca, ON and Arcopedico and so many others from around the globe.

“We hope to continue to bring a strong assortment of styles and brands that our customers have come to expect from us,” Michele Astobiza said in a press release. “This year specially we are designing shoes that not only feel great but look amazing too from wedges to flats and everything in between, we’ll have something for everyone.”

What makes the business unique is that it is also in wholesale, manufacturing shoes for the stores and other family shoe stores

Sole Desire Shoes

801 Second St., Davis 530-554-2856 https://soledesire.com/

McNaughton Media

Greg and Debra Schulze are fired up about having worked together for 31 years. The married couple owns Gallery of Fireplaces, 385 Merchant St. in Vacaville, a one-stop shop for heater-rated fireplaces and inserts, grills, fire pits, sun shades and awnings.

Greg oversees shop operations and construction crews as well as creating design concepts for future jobs, while Debra takes care of all finance and accounting. Their son Brandon is head of operations. Greg and Brandon, when not in the field, along with the store staff, Jason and Chris, take on sales in the store. Their daughter Kelley recently joined the family business in office administration, and just added another family member to the tree.

Along with sales, Gallery of Fireplaces offers design and installation of high efficiency fireplaces, stoves and inserts. They also install fire pits, sunshades, outdoor kitchen components, mantels, gas lines, electrical, and decorative stone and tile.

Gallery of Fireplaces

385 Merchant St., Vacaville 707-446-9008 galleryoffireplaces.com across the country with customers throughout Canada and the United States. This allows them to create the products they want and give customers something truly unique that they can’t find everywhere.

“Retail is always changing, adopting and growing,” Michele said. “Over COVID we noticed a huge trend towards web shopping and we adopted by getting a better website, and putting our efforts towards this. However, people truly need to try shoes on, they all fit so differently and who really wants to deal with returns?

“Did you know over 50% of shoes purchased online will be returned? We train our associates on how to properly fit footwear so there’s no need to have to return shoes. We also love to introduce customers to new brands and styles, getting them to try something that they never would have and then having it become their new favorite shoe/brand is always so exciting! So although the internet has made shoe shopping easier, we feel strongly that there will always be a need to have a local shoe store there to help people who have a hard time with shoes. Over the next five years we hope to be able to offer an excellent experience both online and in stores and we truly hope to be able to continue to do what we love for many years to come.”

“We are a full-service hearth and patio shop — from the design process to finish,” said Greg Schulze. “Let us help you transform your existing fireplace or create a beautiful new fireplace from scratch in your home or outdoor patio.

“Your fireplace is the perfect spot to gather around with family and friends. After all, fire is the original social media,” Schulze said.