52 Years, One Family, A Lot of Shoes: The Vida Shoes Story

Some families chase trends. This one sets them.

For more than half a century, Solomon Dabah's family has been one of the quietest powerhouses in footwear. As president of Vida Shoes International, Solomon helps run a company that designs, sources, and sells shoes across women's, men's, and children's categories, and regularly launches new brands and concepts of its own. If you've ever bought a pair from names like Kenneth Cole, Stride Rite, Carter's, or Bruno Magli, there's a good chance Vida was behind them.

But the story didn't start in a Manhattan showroom. It started in a basement.

It started in a basement

"My dad started out of the basement of his house," Solomon says. That was 1973. His father, Victor Dabah, was one of the first Western businessmen doing shoe deals in China, back when shoes hung on hangers in the hosiery aisle and got treated as an accessory.

"My dad started out of the basement of his house."

It worked. Within a couple of years, Victor had outgrown the basement and moved the company into its first real office: the 78th floor of the Empire State Building. Not a bad upgrade for a business that started next to the water heater.

A family company, generation after generation

Fifty-two years later, Vida is still family. Solomon runs it alongside his cousin Gabriel Safdeye, and together they've spent decades building the company. And the next generation is already here. "We have our children that are working in the business," Solomon says.

That kind of continuity is rare. Brands come and go, retail shifts, whole channels rise and fall, but the people at the center of Vida have stayed the same. It's why the company can take real swings on new footwear concepts and emerging brands. When the same family has been reading this market for three generations, you learn to trust your gut.

Going all-in on ecommerce

The shoe business Solomon runs today looks nothing like the one his dad started. Vida now does millions of dollars a year through ecommerce, selling direct to customers alongside its retail partners.

That growth comes with a catch. More online business means more spend on the back end: travel to meet partners and factories, logistics, and all the everyday costs of running a modern footwear operation. And as Solomon puts it plainly, "the finances have gotten a lot tighter out there." Margins matter more than ever, which means finding ways to stretch every dollar isn't a nice-to-have. It's the job.

Making every dollar work harder

That's where Fluz comes in. Vida uses it to earn cashback on the spending the business already has to do, turning ordinary expenses into real savings.

"We work with a company that's allowed us to be able to purchase airplane tickets, rent the cars, and utilize some of the credits that we have within hotels," Solomon says. Flights, rental cars, hotels, the unavoidable costs of keeping a national business moving, all become a little cheaper. "That's been a very big help," he adds, "as we have to find ways to maximize our financial spend."

"We have to find ways to maximize our financial spend."

It's a small shift that adds up. For a company protecting its margins in a tough retail climate, cashback on travel and everyday spend is found money, and found money goes straight back into the work.

Still exploring, after all these years

More than fifty years in, the thing that started Vida is still driving it: curiosity, a willingness to bet on the next idea, and a family that genuinely likes building together. From a basement to the Empire State Building to a multimillion-dollar ecommerce business, the spirit hasn't changed.

"This is Solomon Dabah, and this is my money adventure."