The Local Exchange: Washburn sewing store aims to fix more than just broken zippers

WASHBURN, WI (KBJR) - Sewing runs in Amy Trimbo’s blood.

She first made items for just her family and friends, but one stitch led to another.

“This building use to be an office, and we only took out one door, and originally when I opened my family and I lived in the back here mixed in with workspace, and so now that the business owns it it’s a lot of weird little quirky rooms, but it’s serving our purpose,” Trimbo said.

AdventureUs is an outdoor-themed sewing store in Washburn, Wisconsin.

Trimbo and her three employees make products in-house and source them from the community.

One of their most popular services is zipper repair.

“It was something that since I did love to sew and I didn’t mind doing zippers, it was easy to just start doing them and more people would bring them and more people would bring them,” Trimbo said.

Trimbo and her team can repair zippers on purses, boots, tents, and more.

People travel from all over to AdventureUs in Washburn to get their zippers fixed, but it is not just zipper repair that this store specializes in.

“Because two of us really love to quilt, too, we ran a quilting class, outdoor themed stacked stones, so we’ll still have some beginner classes, some mending, and some quilting and eventually get into some garments,” Trimbo said.

She hosts sewing classes with the goal of keeping material out of landfills.

Protecting the environment is a big motivator for this company.

“If I can’t make a business that goes to support the things that I love, if I can’t make that run, then I don’t really want to run a business that doesn’t have ethics behind it to begin with,” Trimbo said.

The goal of this sewing store is to empower people to help the planet with every stitch, so outdoor adventures can continue for generations to come.

Click here to learn more about AdventureUs.

If there is a small business that has left a big impact on your community, you can nominate them for this segment by sending an email to kjarboe@kbjr6.com.