Almost 50 years ago, Dave Page — then a professor of American history at the University of Washington and Western Washington University — was bouldering with his girlfriend on a beach in California.

How did this business get started? Ramon Reyes, 45, is repairing soles one shoe at a time at Da Boot Shop, a full-service shoe and boot repair shop he founded in Fayetteville in 1996. “We are a family ...