Matt Chambers
President, Confederate Motorcycles
North America's most significant natural disaster thus far in the 21st century had a devastating impact on the residents of New Orleans, as well as on the Crescent City's businesses that employed them, of which Confederate Motorcycles was one. Matt Chambers was forced to watch the terrible force of nature represented by Hurricane Katrina unfolding at long distance, then cope with its aftermath. Here's how, in his own words.
"When Katrina hit, thank heavens the prototype Wraith was away from New Orleans, safe and sound on display in New York. But J.T. Nesbitt and I were in the Middle East, talking to one of our customers who was interested in investing in the company. I'm not at liberty to tell you his name, but he was - is - a very significant personage in a country that's a good friend of America's, and a satisfied Confederate customer who'd invited me over to discuss this business opportunity. J.T. was going to do some work on his Hellcat, while the investor and myself talked business, and around 11 a.m. on August 27, a Saturday, we shook hands on a deal that gave me what I was looking for, with the assurance there was up to four times more money available as and when we presented a case for needing it. You find your angel based on the caliber of your product, and this particular person unquestionably has every single spectacular motorcycle available today, as well as many cars - yet he told me that when he wants to unwind, his favorite machine that he takes out to ride is the Hellcat!
Confederate factory before hurricane Katrina.
"We wanted to hit the town that night, and celebrate coming to an agreement which would significantly strengthen Confederate's position, without however any change in ownership; it's still an American-owned company. This gentleman can't really go out and do stuff like that, because of the kind of celebrity he is, but he insisted we go out to rip it up with his friends instead. So we went out that night to this outstanding Lebanese restaurant, and then some other places, and I'm learning so much about this part of the world and having a great time doing so. Other than fantastic moments with my family, I had more fun that night than I've ever had. It's such a relief after so long fighting against the odds to get Confederate established, to have someone come aboard whom I believe to be the perfect partner for this venture, who understands where we're coming from, is a satisfied customer and wants to help us expand the company. I can't tell you what a release from anxiety it was, because what this relationship did was to give us seven times more liquid working capital than I have ever had before, at the moment we most needed it, to take Confederate to the next level.
"So, after this great night out I get back to our luxurious bungalow in the palace grounds around 2.30 a.m., grab a beer and light up a cigarette, and switch on the TV. It goes straight to CNN, and I remember being rooted to the spot, unable to move. The Gulf of Texas is this enormous great swirl of red, and what started out as a lil' ol' tropical storm is now a Category Four hurricane headed straight at my hometown - at my family, my friends and my factory. I get this flood of emotion like I've never felt before: panic, fear, concern, frustration that I'm here and it's happening there, all of that. I understand at once the way things are in my hometown, and I know there are a lot of people that aren't going to make it out. Of course, half a day ahead because of the different time zones, I made contact with my family right away, and I knew they were going to be OK, living up on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and I was in touch with everyone in the company through my manager Karen. But we did not have time to evacuate any of the contents of the Confederate factory. I don't know what I could have done more had I been there, but on Saturday New Orleans time they built like a pyramid structure inside the factory to try to stop things from getting wet. We were more worried about flooding than anything else, in case the levees broke, which seemed probable. It wasn't projected in anybody's mind that the building would come down.
Confederate factory after hurricane Katrina.
"Katrina hit on Monday morning, while I was still in the Middle East. It was such a roller coaster of emotion, going from such a zealous high to such an anxious low in the space of just a few hours. I saw my investor that next day, and told him I didn't think we should proceed any further because it didn't look like I had a business any more for him to invest in. We hadn't signed a written contract, so he was within his rights to terminate. He looked me full in the eyes and told me that when he shook hands on a deal, his word was his bond, and that as far as he was concerned, the arrangement still stood. He said he knew we would survive and grow strong again, and he wanted to be a part of a renovated Confederate. That's the word he used, and that's the name we've given to our new generation motorcycle: the Renovatio.
"It took about a week to consummate the deal with lawyers and paperwork, and another four days to get home. But on the seventh day I was with my family again on the North Shore, and on the 10th day we had a meeting there with all the employees of Confederate, save a couple who were still stranded in the city. At that stage we still did not know what had happened at the factory, because there was no way of getting into New Orleans; we tried to get a picture from some of the aerial shots on the TV, but it wasn't close enough to see anything. We decided to send J.T. and his colleague Edward Jacobs to our development associate Brian Case's shop in Pittsburgh to finalize the production Wraith, and since it was evident we'd have to relocate away from New Orleans, and four out of our nine employees who owned a house were on the North Shore which wasn't wiped out, it was a no-brainer to relocate there. Even so, when I got back home, North Shore was so much worse than I thought, if only in the short term. It was set up to have 100,000 residents and now it had more than 300,000. Everywhere's a bottleneck, there's no food, you can't get a cup of coffee or groceries, you have to wait in line for hours for gas, debris is everywhere, you get a nail in your tire every day ... it was just a mess, but infinitely better off than New Orleans, where people were living in penury, waiting to be rescued.