With a desire to have her own store filled with a ‘few of her favourite things,’ Tiffany Simard opened The Heeler in January 2019. She carries crystals, the Sid Dickens line of art tiles, natural deodorant, Moonlit Gypsy sprays made locally by Kim Weir, candles, jewellery and more at her Second Avenue shop in a space she shares with a hair salon.
Simard is also a cobbler and started repairing shoes in Williams Lake around 1989, stopping a decade later to raise children.
When Bob’s Shoes was wanting to sell its shoe repair equipment she seized the opportunity. With the help of her husband Ron she turned an old shed in their backyard into a shop.
While working at the Hobbit House with some amazing women she considered healers in their own right, she was trying to come up with a name for her shoe repair business and realized she was a ‘heeler or soles,” and decided to call her business The Heeler, a name she kept when she branched out on her own after the Hobbit House closed.
Simard’s store continues to grow with items she loves and believes in that promote wellness and happiness.
Her roots in Williams Lake go back to 1946 when her grandparents moved from Vancouver and bought the Lakeview Hotel. Her dad grew up in the hotel.
Aside from leaving to go to college for a bit, she has called the lakecity home her entire life.
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