Jesse Gregory James (born April 19, 1969) is an American entrepreneur, automotive mechanic, and television personality. He is the founder of West Coast Choppers and former partner of Austin Speed Shop and current CEO of Jesse James Firearms Unlimited, both based in Austin, Texas. He was the focus of a show chronicling some of the custom motorcycle builds in his TV series Jesse James: Monster Garage, which ran a shortened single season in 2012 on the Discovery Channel before being canceled.
In 1992, James opened West Coast Choppers in his mother’s garage. James has also built and is racing an off-road Trophy Truck and a Figure-8 race car.
James was the owner of the Cisco Burger restaurant, which opened on April 28, 2006, across the street from West Coast Choppers. It has officially closed. James also had partial ownership in Austin Speed Shop in Austin, Texas, which he left in 2013 to focus on the re-opening of West Coast Choppers in Austin.
Other business ventures include the Chopperdogs fan club and the Jesse’s Girl clothing line. James published the now-defunct Garage magazine.
In November 2013, Jesse James Firearms Unlimited unveiled its first two firearms, a 1911 pistol and AR-15 rifle. His first rifle-caliber suppressor was a basic reworking of an original Maxim design that he claimed could impossibly bend the laws of physics by offering a 78 dB rating at the muzzle, lower than even what the De Lisle carbine achieved in testing; although James was careful to note that it only achieved that number with subsonic ammunition that does not produce a sonic boom.
As of 2020, James lives in Austin, Texas, operates Jesse James Fire Arms Unlimited, and manages the intellectual properties of West Coast Choppers.
