Ramdane Touhami Has Many Talents & Making Great Hiking Boots Is One
In a time dubbed the hyphenate revolution, juggling multiple skills and careers has almost become commonplace. However, few can say they embody the term “multi-hyphenate” like Ramdane Touhami.
A businessman, a creative, and a designer, his life story reads like a piece of fiction, a long, twisted tale that includes the 49-year-old making a small fortune selling T-shirts in school (and losing it after being kidnapped), spending his first year in Paris homeless, becoming the men’s wear director at the historic London department store Liberty, and, together with his wife Victoire de Taillac-Touhami, revamping the French beauty brand Officine Universelle Buly 1803 before selling it to LVMH.
Touhami’s latest chapter sees him double down on his love of hiking and, being a relentless polymath, he’s exploring the subject from every angle. He recently designed and opened the lavish Hotel Drei Berge in the Swiss Alps, opened a Paris boutique specializing in hiking gear, launched a mountain-themed magazine, and has a collection of carabiners arriving from his self-named jewelry label.
On July 29, the next of his mountain-focused projects launches, a hiking boot brand with a staunch stance on not using synthetic materials that poison the earth. Drei Berge Mountain Shoes debuts with the Leather Tech Mönch 1, an Italian-made, rugged hiking boot with wave-shaped cutouts evocative of Nike’s Air Max 95 model.
Ahead of launching his latest project, I caught up with the multi-talented French-Morrocan entrepreneur to discuss his love of hiking, the euro-centric way mountains are perceived, and his deep hatred of polyester.
Hey Ramdane! You’re always working on so many projects, what’s at the top of your to-do list at the moment?
Ramdane Touhami: I don't know, the Drei Berge hotel is important, the print shop is important, the cafe is important too — I'm always thinking about the cafe — now I'm thinking about the big space we just bought in the Marais and which will open in September. And also the organization of my birthday, which is a round and important number.
Your recent business ventures have focused on the mountains. Have you always enjoyed hiking?
Yes! Maybe the mountains are my obsession? I've been obsessed with them since I was young and I'm always sad when I leave them. I remember the first time I felt sad after leaving them, I was 8 years old when I came back from the Pyrenees with my parents. It was like leaving friends.
What elements of Drei Berge Mountain Shoes' first hiking boot are you most proud of?
It's the contemporary walking shoe with the least amount of plastic since the ‘60s, even the sole is made from natural rubber. The inside is leather.
Then there's the design, truly the best of the city in style and the best of the mountains. I've tested them in Patagonia, the Himalayas, the Alps, Morocco, and Vietnam, they're very comfortable.
We've even revolutionized the shoebox, but you'll have to buy one to understand the idea.
Are there any hiking essentials that you can recommend?
Water, something light to eat, and a jacket that protects from the rain but is not made from plastic. I've always been obsessed with wearing only clothes without poly-something (polyester, polyamide, etc.), to be dressed in oil disturbs me, it takes two kilos of oil for a kilo of polyester to be produced... it's crazy! Then a good pair of glasses, a walking stick, and Drei Berge shoes! Oh, I forgot binoculars.
What are the benefits of hiking that you’ve discovered?
It’s not only the psychological foundations that have led me to call mountaineering the ‘sport par excellence’, it is also the healthiest [sport]. It takes the individual out of the artificial and harmful environment in which he lives and into the natural environment in which he should live and shows him the path to regeneration and health. It brings him into contact with the life-giving forces of nature. It requires only normal, natural movements while stimulating all the organs equally.
As the most complete sport, it allows for harmonious development without one part of the body predominating over another, or opposing each other, as happens in other disciplines.
It activates not only the muscles but also the functions of each organ. Not only through physical exercise but also through the influence of the altitude climate: the sunshine, the air, the atmospheric pressure, the panorama. It affects the body as much as the mind.
Finally, it's the most natural of sports. It requires no special skills or training. And, in its inexhaustible variety, it always holds secret charms in store for us.
You recently launched Useless Fighters, a magazine to highlight mountains in South America, Asia, and Africa. Why is this topic so important?
I wanted to talk about the non-white mountain. The mountains [that are always spoken about are in] Switzerland, the United States, Scandinavia… and sometimes Japan. But what do you know about mountains in South America, Africa, or Asia? Did you know that you can ski in Congo or Morocco? I wanted to show another mountain that looks more like me! And it’s also an opportunity for me to discover it.
What drives you to continue starting new projects?
Life, my friend!
I'm a UFO. I'm the son of an African worker, the grandson of immigrants. In France, people don't understand people like me. I'm here to live and do as much bullshit as possible. And if I can give hope to even one kid, I'll have won my bet!
