Bombshell clips of Harley-Davidson’s boss calling himself the ‘Taliban of sustainability’ return to hang-out him as petrol-heads ditch his bikes

Harley-Davidson’s CEO Jochen Zeitz is underneath strain to step down this week after footage emerged of him calling himself the ‘Taliban of sustainability’ in a collection of statements at odds with the beloved bike model.

In rediscovered video clips, the German is seen complaining concerning the agency’s weak environmental document earlier than he joined its board and set about attempting to ‘redefine’ the model regardless of ‘skepticism’ from colleagues.

The footage has added to issues amongst indignant bikers, who’re turning their backs on Harley-Davidson over Zeitz’s help for essential race principle, local weather change and variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI) efforts.

The rising motion is spearheaded by conservative influencer Robby Starbuck, who shared the movies on X, accusing one other all-American model of abandoning its clients.

The $6 billion-a-year firm, which relies in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, didn’t reply the Mail’s request for remark.

The clips seem to point out Zeitz’s speeches on the Zermatt Summit, in Switzerland, in 2014, and at one other company gabfest in South Africa two years later, referred to as the We Are Africa summit.

In them, Zeitz complains that ‘there actually wasn’t something sustainable about Harley on the time,’ he joined the corporate in 2007 as its ‘first ever non-American board member.’

‘I used to be greeted with skepticism after I knocked on the door in Milwaukee,’ he stated.

Zeitz acknowledged that he had his work minimize out attempting to persuade others on the century-old agency to fight emissions of planet-heating gases.

The identical went for its legion of biker clients, together with card-carrying members of the Harley House owners Group (HOG), he stated.

‘Harley is all concerning the sound and the scent of the Harley-Davidson,’ Zeitz stated.

‘So I turned the Taliban, once more, in a sustainable method.’

Zeitz, who beforehand led luxurious model Kering and Puma, described making a ‘sustainability committee’ to alter the agency.

It ‘went about redefining the HD model and attempt to translate sustainability to one thing that would really be embraced by the HOG proprietor,’ he stated.

There’s nothing uncommon about executives attempting to make their merchandise greener, however Zeitz’s feedback heighten issues that his management is at odds together with his clients’ values.

Harley-Davidson house owners have posted on social media that they are going to now not experience their bikes, with many switching for Indian Bike, one other long-standing all-American model.

Starbuck, 35, now desires the corporate to drop its CEO – and is rallying bike lovers to his trigger on the largest bikers’ occasion on the planet, this week’s 84th Sturgis Bike Rally in South Dakota.

Zeitz ‘shouldn’t be merely a CEO that received sucked right into a DEI plan by their HR crew of PR individuals,’ says Starbuck.

‘He’s a real believer. An architect of utilizing company energy and tradition to advance wokeness.’

The Harley-Davidson space at Sturgis was emptier than in earlier years, in keeping with studies, as festival-goers complained about Zeitz.

One in contrast the part to how the ‘Bud Gentle tent was final 12 months,’ referencing the conservative boycott of the beer-maker over a tie-up with a transgender influencer, in keeping with USA Right now.

‘It is branding suicide,’ Vinny Terranova, the proprietor of Pappy’s Classic Cycles in Sturgis, advised Fox Information Digital.

‘Loads of bikers are switching over to Indian,’ he stated. ‘They killed Harley. It breaks my coronary heart.’

They be a part of a rising listing of lovers and celebrities who’re turning on the model.

Nation music star Travis Tritt has referred to as the accusations towards Zeitz ‘disturbing.

‘I severely doubt that pushing a DEI agenda will probably be very fashionable with any of the HOG members I do know,’ he wrote.

Sean Strickland, former Final Preventing Championship middleweight champion and a longtime Harley fanatic, additionally shared a video to X saying he now not helps the corporate.

‘I’ve owned Harleys most of my life, however I’ll by no means personal a Harley once more,’ he stated within the video, calling Zeitz a ‘zealot.’ 

‘If you happen to love America, you’ll not personal a Harley,’ he stated.

In a subsequent put up, Strickland polled his greater than 600,000 followers on whether or not he ought to promote his bike or destroy it.

‘Ought to I promote my Harley or blow it up with a machine gun?!?!’ he requested.

 

Amid the uproar, Starbuck says the strain is mounting on the Harley-Davidson board of administrators to fireplace Zeitz.

‘I’ll by no means experience Harley once more until they repent, which they will not,’ the previous UFC champ added. 

‘If I promote my Harley, I am simply collaborating on this woke freedom-hating anti-American agenda.’

Greater than 80 p.c of respondents voted that he ought to blow it up. 

Starbuck had accused Zeitz in a virtually 10-minute-long video of getting a ‘whole dedication’ to DEI insurance policies in Harley-Davidson places of work and the factories that make its trademark heavyweight bikes, that are designed for cruising on the highways.

This consists of funding a latest Delight occasion in Pennsylvania, with face-painting and balloon twisting occasions for kids, in addition to a ‘rage room’ the place adults may ‘let off steam,’ he says.

The bike-maker has additionally partnered with political teams that push hard-left concepts, together with the Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce, United Method and the Human Rights Marketing campaign, he says.

Harley-Davidson cash has due to this fact promoted sex-change procedures on youngsters and anti-racism efforts towards ‘whiteness’ and ‘Christian privilege,’ Starbuck alleges.

He went on to say that DEI efforts have modified life inside the corporate of some 6,400 individuals.

Some 1,800 workers had been skilled on methods to change into an ‘LGBTQ+ ally,’ he stated, whereas some periods singled out white males for particular diversity-training.

The corporate additionally launched worker useful resource teams (ERGs), which separate workers alongside racial, gender and sexual id strains.

Moreover, Starbuck stated the bike firm is regularly slicing its variety of white workers, suppliers, and sellers.

Beneath Zeitz, the corporate additionally signed onto a Human Rights Marketing campaign letter that Starbuck stated ‘was meant to scare states away from passing legal guidelines that ban intercourse adjustments for youths and ban males from with the ability to comply with women into bogs.’ 

‘Harley-Davidson appears to have forgotten who their core clients are,’ Starbuck, a filmmaker who was additionally a 2022 Republican Home candidate for Tennessee, stated.

‘I do not assume the values at company replicate the values of practically any Harley-Davidson bikers.’

Starbuck added: ‘Do Harley riders need the cash they spend at Harley for use later by company to push an ideology that is diametrically against their very own values?’

The 121-year-old firm, which is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, didn’t reply DailyMail.com’s request for remark.

However Zeitz, who was employed in 2020 after efficiently turning round athletic shoe firm Puma, has stated Harley-Davidson wants to alter to draw youthful clients.

‘We care concerning the planet as a result of we experience in nature,’ he stated in a Q&A with Morgan Stanley in April 2023.

‘And if you wish to achieve success, it’s a must to assume long-term.’

With that in thoughts, Zeitz has charted a course for Harley-Davidson based mostly on sustainability.

It launched its LiveWire model of electrical bikes 5 years in the past, and Zeitz has set a aim to make all of its automobiles run on electrical energy by 2030.  

Many Harley-Davidson clients now enhance their bikes with rainbow flags, they usually make frequent appearances at Delight occasions, ridden by such teams as Dykes on Bikes. 

The enduring agency was established by childhood pals William Harley and Arthur Davidson, with the manufacturing of their first bike in a small picket shed in Milwaukee in 1903.

It grew its affect in American society by gaining contracts with the US Postal Service and police departments between 1910 – 1960, and the riders’ use of lengthy boots and saddlebags made it slot in with the imagery of the American West.