Avontuur: The New Homewood Shop You Need to Know
In a world built for disposability, Avontuur chooses permanence — creating refined, heirloom-quality pieces meant to gather stories, age beautifully, and be handed down generation by generation. Image: Facebook / Avontuur
Homewood’s newest specialty shop has a pretty bold goal: to gently but firmly wreck your relationship with disposable stuff. Avontuur, which opened on 18th Avenue South in November of last year, is the brainchild of partners Luke Kolbie and Andrew Adams. And if you ask Andrew, the “damage” started long before the doors officially opened.
“I really have been ruined,” Andrew tells us. “Whenever I think about purchasing anything, I gotta know its story. I gotta know where it was made, and who it was made by.”
That shift didn’t happen overnight. Spending time with legacy goods made by people who actually care about what they’re producing has a way of rewiring your brain. Once you’ve handled something crafted with intention and meant to last, the flimsy, race-to-the-bottom approach of modern mass manufacturing just doesn’t land the same. For Andrew, there was no going back, and Avontuur is built for anyone ready to have the same problem.
At its core, Avontuur is a love letter to craftsmanship. The showroom is devoted to makers who obsess over quality, functionality, and care, creating goods meant to be used, loved, and kept around for a long time. The collection cuts across categories and departments, bringing together heirloom-level pieces you’re simply not going to stumble across in a big-box store or an endless online scroll.
We caught up with Andrew to talk about how Avontuur came to life and the legacy-minded brands that line the shelves.
“The Highest Form of Elegance is Intentionality”
Before Avontuur, Luke Kolbie was already running his own specialty craftsman brand, Kingfisher Leatherworks. Luke designs and handcrafts every Kingfisher prototype himself, working with materials and techniques chosen not just for how they look, but for how they hold up over time. At the heart of the brand is the belief that “the highest form of elegance is intentionality,” an idea that runs through everything Kingfisher creates and, fittingly, through every brand represented at Avontuur.
Andrew came on board at Kingfisher just after Luke took ownership of the legendary W.C. Russell Moccasin Company, a bootmaker that’s been around since 1898. Known for its patented hand-sewn stitch, Russell boots are built for serious water resistance and durability, with construction methods that haven’t been rushed or watered down over time. The result is footwear that can quite literally last 50 years or more, the kind of longevity that tends to change how you think about buying shoes in the first place.
Avontuur is now the headquarters for Kingfisher Leatherworks, offering on-site personalization and repairs. It also serves as a fitting location for Russell Moccasin.
Luke and Andrew had talked for a while about opening a storefront, but when the former Homewood Sporting Goods space became available, reality kicked in. They loved the location, but they also knew they didn’t need that much room for just two brands. Instead of forcing it, they saw an opportunity.
That’s where the idea for Avontuur really took shape: a shared space where premium, small-batch brands and obsessively detail-driven makers could live under one roof, each one chosen for the same commitment to quality and longevity.
“We had all these great friends that we’ve made throughout the years, doing shows and collaborations. And they all have the same kind of brand ethos that we do — that products be made the best way possible,” Andrew says.
Andrew explains that the challenge with many of these brands is simply logistical. They are small operations, often in rural areas, without a sellable market or the margins to go wholesale, yet their products are top-notch. “But we have this relationship with them, and we can make it work for everybody. That’s what Avontuur is for,” he says.
Exquisite Craftsmanship To Ruin Throwaway Shopping For Good
Many of the brands you’ll find at Avontuur are part of the Conservation through Craftsmanship Coalition (CCC), a guild of elite craftsmen and women founded by Luke. The group brings together makers who share a common set of principles and hold themselves to intentionally high standards when it comes to both craftsmanship and business practices.
The CCC believes that when a product is made with the best materials and craftsmanship and designed for functionality over cost-savings and corner-cutting, the result is more than a premium product. As its website states, “the effect is a proactive conservation of materials, labor, and energy that compounds with time.”
At the heart of it, these makers are pushing back against a consumer culture that’s more about quantity than quality. We’re all used to being bombarded with products that are cheaply made and easy to replace, but they’re betting on something different. Once you’ve owned something crafted without shortcuts, something built to last and get better with age, it becomes pretty hard to go back to the disposable version.
That same intentionality and commitment to thoughtful conservation show up all over Avontuur’s storefront, starting with the vintage Land Rover Defender parked right at the center of the shop. It’s quickly become a downtown Homewood landmark. The Defender comes from Adventure Motor Cars, a Homewood-based dealer known for buying, selling, and meticulously refurbishing Land Rover Defenders, and yes, it’s for sale. According to Andrew, it’s “ready to roll out the back.” It’s just one more way Avontuur is putting local, specialized workmanship on center stage.
But don’t let the Land Rover and the sportsman safari vibes fool you into thinking Avontuur is all about the outdoors. What ties Avontuur brands together is their commitment to craftsmanship, not a shopping category. “When you’re talking about things being made the best way they can, that extends to every aspect of life,” Andrew says.
In the showroom, you’ll see cast-iron skillets from Smithey Ironware (based in South Carolina), linens from Red Land Cotton (made with cotton grown and ginned in Alabama), and women’s jewelry and accessories from Norton + Hodges (based in North Carolina and created in partnership with artisans in Africa).
You’ll also find Williams Knives (headquartered on Morris Avenue in Downtown Birmingham), bespoke four-poster bed frames from Reid Classics (based in Dothan, Alabama), and custom stationery from Ancesserie Letterpress (made with 19th-century letterpresses by the owner, whose family has the longest-running newspaper in South Carolina).
Behind every brand are personal stories of how a maker became obsessed with crafting the single-best product they could, and is fiercely committed to keeping it that way.
Avontuur is dedicated to spotlighting premium craftsmanship even if the storefront isn’t quite right for a brand, which is where their pop-ups and special events come into play. On February 7, Avontuur will host Van Zyl Safaris, a company offering guided tours on a family-owned property in Namibia. They’ll be serving up safari-themed cocktails, and attendees are invited to wear their best safari gear. Rumor has it they’ll even be raffling off a free safari trip!
Andrew says knowing the makers and experiencing firsthand the difference in the highest-quality craftsmanship is what will ultimately change the way we consume.
Andrew explains, “We think the best way to stop the trend of everything being made to throw away is to use products that are meant to last for generations — products that have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years or more. And even then, they can be repaired. These products are made in a very intentional way, the very best way they can be made.”
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Katie Leigh Matthews
A Birmingham native, Katie is a lifelong waterfall chaser and is passionate about the outdoors. She also loves connecting with remarkable women in the Birmingham community and bringing their stories to life. Katie has been writing professionally for over six years; you can find more of her work at Moms.com and Islands.com.