About Us
WSHD&Co. cleans and restores shoes and handbags in Pittsburgh. This is the story of how it got here. Spike edit.
Where it started
Hello, my name is Dalia Mills (formerly Lopez Reyes), the founder of WSHD&Co. I grew up in a small city in Mexico called León, in the state of Guanajuato. This city is known as the Shoe Capital of the World. The city works around shoes, cowboy boots, leather tanneries, and factories. My family was always involved in this industry. My uncles started their business around 40 years ago, making dress boots and cowboy boots for men, while other members of the Familia Reyes made handbags, belts, wallets, leather, hardware; pretty much from birth it was destiny to continue in the leather market. Since I was little, I had a lot of interest in how shoes were made, the different types of leather, the process, and all the stuff I could ask my family.
Shoes, then handbags
WSHD&Co. started as an idea for a UX certification project, but the project goes back further in time, with all my family history and my hometown. As I grew up, I decided I would study industrial design (because shoes and bags were a big part of the program) to learn the whole process behind these products. After finishing my bachelor’s degree, I decided to continue to study shoe design (my biggest passion). At an early age I had already started working on my own designs, possible brand names, blogging, trends, big names, etc. And of course my first job was at a factory making shoes, interning at a factory that made the shoes for Zara, Bershka, Pull&Bear, etc. I learned so much there about the fast-paced process, trends, optimization, etc., and like that I kept moving to different shoe factories, leather goods, and other things.
I wanted to build a name on my own, and not only because my last name was Reyes and the weight this last name has. Then the opportunity of making handbags started: they gave me full control of the handbags department. I coordinated an entire production: design, trends, samples, trade shows, and more, and it was where I found my other big passion. I learned the construction, quality control, mass production, perfected patterning for complicated models, selection of material for each shape of bag, production for the US market, and many more things.
After that I got the chance to come to the US with a cultural exchange program to learn English, because my job down in León demanded a business level of English; I worked with people around the world, like China, the UK, and Brazil. And life goes as unplanned: I stayed in Pittsburgh.
WSHD&Co.
Through the years and all this knowledge and experience, I always found my way to treasures at second-hand stores, consignment stores, and traveling abroad, and with this I started fixing these bags for myself. I like shopping smart and not paying full price for designer items (girl math), and I also did it for some of my friends and my husband. But it didn’t start to feel like a business idea until I did this UX certification and needed to create an app with a “fake” business, and it all started to circle around to become a true business. In 2024 all the ideas came together, but with a full-time job it was hard to get the elements together. In 2025 I finished a contract and finally decided to put this project on wheels and keep going until it was ready to launch.
In 2026 a friend of mine encouraged me to apply to a business incubator boot camp, and yes, it was with Ascender, a place that is known for helping small ideas become reality. I signed up, and within a few weeks I got in with another 29 participants. In May of 2026 I graduated and did a presentation pitch. Since then I’ve kept pushing the project: business cards, knocking on consignment and thrift stores for projects, now looking for grants, and going to every single networking event to promote my business.
More things are coming up with the project, maybe a real location where people can see the process, but there’s still a long way to go.