West Coast Choppers – Custom Chopper Builder Jesse James
Jesse James is a bad boy — both literally and figuratively. He’s a tattooed, thrill-seeking, motorcycle enthusiast who perfectly encapsulates a certain “outlaw” archetype, especially with his name. But he’s also engaged in actual bad behavior, from petty crime as a youth to cheating on America’s sweetheart, and even assaulting paparazzi, which he freely and gleefully admits. So it’s no surprise that he was bound to flame out hard.
When the scandal over his infidelities reached a fever pitch, James not only walked away from his lucrative TV projects, he also shut down his legendary West Coast Choppers garage in Long Beach, California and left the state for good. Aside from a few interviews and the release of a tell-all book, he’s basically been a ghost since then. Here’s what happened to Jesse James…
The scandal that started it all | 0:48
The “Nazi stripper” who wouldn’t go away | 1:38
Accusations of racism | 2:52
Packing it up | 3:41
More cheating scandals | 4:26
A new career path | 5:21
Another marriage | 5:55
West Coast Choppers (WCC) is a brand that began selling screen-printed T-shirts and stickers with the company’s Iron cross/Maltese cross logo while founder and “master marketer” Jesse James was finishing high school, packaging the accoutrements of the chopper lifestyle long before any actual West Coast Choppers customs had been ordered or sold. Even after the company did begin building custom choppers, 60% of revenue still came from sales of WCC-branded marketing tie-ins such as clothing, beverages and tools. Yearly sales of approximately 12–15 motorcycles at prices of around US$150,000 each actually lost money for the company, but attracted positive attention. Publicizing the names of celebrity clients, including Shaquille O’Neal, Kid Rock, Keanu Reeves, Ty Law of the Denver Broncos, wrestling star Bill Goldberg, actor Tyson Beckford, and NFL running back Jamal Anderson, was a central feature of the WCC marketing strategy. The other key to this strategy was the star power of Jesse James, presented mainly through television on the Discovery Channel in the Motorcycle Mania series and the 2002–2006 series Monster Garage.
The Long Beach, California headquarters of West Coast Choppers shut down in 2010, but later reopened in 2013 with a new headquarters in Austin, Texas
West Coast Choppers Custom Chopper Builder Jesse James
