West Coast Choppers

So Jesse James used to get his motorcycle engines at a place called Merch Engines in Red Deer, Alberta, which is, again, just north of Montana.

And my brother was at a swap meet, and they were selling the West Coast Choppers t-shirts with the Iron Cross on the back.

made famous on Fast and Furious 2.

Anyway,

So then that's why I started Buffalo Airwear, which is the Buffalo Airways clothing company.

Because now if you're wearing a Buffalo Airways t-shirt and there's a fan of the show and it happens worldwide, people will stop you and be like, oh, hey, do you work at Buffalo? And I love hearing those stories.

And that stems all the way back to my brother's interactions from West Coast Choppers.

Flash forward like three months later, West Coast Choppers had pallets of t-shirts at Walmart and no one ever, You would never guess that, you know, somebody who's wearing like a Duck Dynasty shirt, you'd be like, oh, you know those guys? Buffalo is niche enough still that if you see a Buffalo shirt, it makes that connection.

I've spent time with Sharon Stone.

I've spent time, one of my good friends is Jesse James of West Coast Chopper.

I have a ball.

A year ago, I spent the day with Jesse James and his wife.

That reminded me because they make like a lot of old hot rods and whatever.

And he got his start in like West Coast Choppers, I think.

And then I think he got like excommunicated from that or bought out or something.

And then went to Austin to form his Outlaw Garage.

I, I could tell you a story about merch.

So the reason I started it is, uh, Jesse James, a guy I look up to like crazy, uh, from West Coast Choppers, uh, he used to get his engines in a place called Burch Engines in Red Deer.

And just bef- bef- just before he blew up, he, they, they, uh, there's a trade show or, um, a swap meet in Red Deer, and they were selling T-shirts, and my brother bought one, and it, it was right the, the Iron Cross, and he was wearing it.

And people would stop him and ask him if he knew Jesse James or did he work at, at, uh, at, uh, West Coast Choppers because it w- it, it was such a inside thing at the time.

And I saw that, and it really was like, oh, my God, like you could wear something and people will think that you're a part of it.

And so I started making Buffalo gear because, you know, Buffalo was very niche before the TV show.

And you gotta wait for somebody, hopefully, to buy it, you know? Um, now, one of the things that really kind of blew me away ...

Oh, there was all these, uh, West Coast Choppers models.

Like these dolls.

Or not dolls.

And I was actually gonna move my motorcycle shop out to California at the time.

And, uh, this, you know, this is the time of West Coast Choppers and Orange County Choppers.

Yeah.

And that, that motorcycle thing was kind of, uh, uh, very popular.

... those two, by the way, which I find interesting.

So she had this iconic dating history where, in 2003, she has a godson, and she's gifted her godson what any 10-year-old boy would dream of, Zara, which is a tour of the West Coast Choppers, a motorcycle garage featured on the show Monster Garage.

Yep, and if you're wondering why we're talking about that right now, it's because-

[laughs] Yeah, it's not my cleanest segue.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, importantly, the most important fact about this is the show was hosted by a 34-year-old by the name of Jesse James, who owned West Coast Choppers, where the show was filmed.

So he hosted, he owned the place where it was filmed.

He's a very smart dude, but he still owns the biggest Walmart one-time purchase in history.

Walmart purchased West Coast Choppers merchandise over $100 million one time.

No shit.

No one else has bought one thing from a certain person $100 million right away.

the initial

stock.

And then he sold West Coast choppers for $300 million.

God damn.

Yeah.

Because that could be Nazi, or it could be West Coast Choppers.

Yeah, exactly.

That's what I'm saying.

...

if I'm motorcycles with my heavy metal buddies?

I gotta tell you, as a fat kid who shopped at, uh, exclusively at, uh, Matt Big and Tall, a West Coast Choppers shirt was sometimes the most stylish thing you were gonna get.

So I rocked iron, as a Jew, rocked the iron cross a lot.