One of the first things you learn about business blogging is that it allows you to put your company’s personality on display. Why would a business like Mustang Motorcycle Seats choose to do something like that? Because unlike businesses in other verticals (think bottle manufacturing, for example), the motorcycle aftermarket parts & accessories industry was spawned by the very same people who ride bikes, and for most of them – in addition to the great products they made – it was their personalities that made them mainstays in the space. In other words, motorcycle people tend to work at motorcycle companies, and we’ve all got a story to tell!
Today we’re pleased to introduce you to Mustang’s leading personality – our founder and president, Al Simmons.
I was put on the road selling seats to dealers in most of the states east of the Mississippi, driving hundreds of thousands of miles in order to do so. After about three years, I was promoted to Sales Manager and traded my van for a real office.
In 1980, things changed at Corbin-Gentry; Mike sold his interest in the company and moved to California. I started my own business, becoming one of their distributors as well as a supplier of die-cast chrome replacement Harley components. (Interesting story that I’ll save for another time, but I partnered for a few years with a fellow who owned a casting company and a World War II fighter plane, a P-51 Mustang.)
In less than a year, supply problems forced me to become a seat manufacturer myself. I bought a two-person, custom seat operation in Massachusetts, and the rest – some 30 years later – is as they say history. A lot of hard work, borrowed money, many new employees and good luck led to a full line of “Mustang” seats in time for the 1982 Cincinnati Dealer Show.
