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Deadtree

Our Story

Business is in their blood

Between them, these three have spent a lifetime in business. Chris Snr and Chris Jnr came up through a family business they built and ran for 42 years before selling it — along the way learning the import game and building the biggest online cycling store in Africa. Ryan has spent over 30 years in the restaurant industry, with quite a few restaurants to his name today. Three people who understand business from the ground up, and know exactly what a customer wants and needs.

Meet the founders

Three mates, one idea

Founded in 2023 by Chris Jnr, Ryan Richens & Chris Willemse Snr

Chris Jnr and Ryan Richens have been best mates their whole lives. Add Chris Snr — Chris Jnr’s dad, who sees Ryan as family too — and you’ve got the three who started Deadtree. It began with nothing more than a couple of imports for themselves: gear for their own camping trips and weekends out in the bush.

Soon they were bringing pieces in for mates as well — and that’s when they saw it. Once they clocked what other companies were charging, the opportunity was obvious: import the good stuff, cut out the middleman, and supply direct so everyone could enjoy quality, trusted brands at a price that’s actually fair. In 2023 that idea became a company — and once the gear was moving, they built a brand of their own: Deadtree.

Deadtree—Beyond Adventure

Where the name comes from

Deadtree — Beyond Adventure

The idea had legs, but no name. Chris Jnr was away with his brother-in-law, turning it over and coming up short — until it landed on the dead tree forests of Botswana. Out near Moremi stand the great leadwood and mopani giants: bare, weathered and timeless, trees that have held their ground through seasons of storms and silence. Hit from every side by years of brutal weather, and still standing.

That was it — a brand built to take everything the wild throws at it and keep going, over the roughest terrain an adventure can find. The rest arrived on a beach. Sitting with his brother-in-law, a boat drifted past with “Beyond Adventure” on the hull, and it fit like it was meant to: not just an adventure brand, but one made to carry you a step past it.