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Harley-Davidson 'woke' European CEO created culture clash with US biker 'brotherhood,' say critics
Harley-Davidson’s CEO Jochen Zeitz was Germany’s fresh-faced corporate wunderkind when he took over Puma in the 1990s.
Lately, he’s faced questions and concern from bikers and woke-exhausted consumers in the U.S.
Zeitz is seen as a proponent of far-left ideology who, some critics say, has tarnished the legendary all-American Harley-Davidson brand since taking it over in 2020.
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“They lost their human touch. That’s the best way to put it,” longtime Harley-Davidson biker “Horseshoe” Johnny Hennings told Fox News Digital at the end of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota last week.
“Harley was like a brotherhood. … Now it’s just a ghost.”
Jochen Zeitz, chief executive officer of Puma AG, is shown speaking at the International Herald Tribune’s Techno Luxury conference in Berlin on Nov. 17, 2009. (Michele Tantussi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
But Zeitz’s supporters see it another way.
They say claims of Harley’s demise are vastly overstated by aging riders.
The Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker reported $5.4 billion in revenue in 2019, part of a decade-long downward trend. Revenue climbed to $5.8 billion last year, the third straight year of growth under the German-born CEO.
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“He’s a smart dude and since he’s taken over, Harley has made more money for its investors,” the general manager at a Texas dealership told Fox News Digital.
“It’s simple as that.”
“He’s just all about being a new world order globalist.”
Harley’s iconic image, however, has been under the spotlight amid what appears to be a clash of cultures.
Old-time U.S. riders who fueled and embraced Harley-Davidson’s muscular image of rugged, flag-waving American independence are pitted against the European globetrotter with famous friends and left-leaning aims who today heads the brand.
Participants in the Hamburg Harley Days Parade ride over the Köhlbrand Bridge in Hamburg, Germany, on June 30. (Georg Wendt/picture alliance/Getty Images)
“He’s just all about being a new world order globalist,” Vinny Terranova, the owner of Pappy’s Vintage Cycles in Sturgis, South Dakota, told Fox News Digital.
“He brought in bean counters and minions from Europe and they don’t care where Harley came from or the history of it. There’s no more service, no more customer interaction.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to Harley-Davidson, Zeitz and members of the company’s board of directors for comment.
The unhappiness with Harley-Davidson’s drift away from core consumers came to a head in recent weeks when Zeitz’s “woke” agenda became the center of social media and consumer outrage.
Festival participants are shown on their Harley-Davidson bikes at the big ride in Saxony, Dresden, Germany, in July 2023. (Matthias Rietschel/picture alliance/Getty Images)
“We are trying to take on traditional capitalism and trying to redefine it,” Zeitz said at a 2020 conference in Switzerland just as he was gripping the handles of Harley-Davidson.
The video was brought to daylight last week by anti-woke social-media warrior Robby Starbuck.
Zeitz also added, in a stunning reference to terrorism, that he was “the sustainable Taliban.”
Salma Hayek and Jochen Zeitz, the chair and CEO of Puma, attend the unveiling of the Puma Ocean Racing Boat on May 12, 2008, at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art. (Gail Oskin/WireImage)
Harley-Davidson changed amid public outrage earlier this week, announcing that it was scaling back some of its more controversial programs and refocusing on core consumers.
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All of this has fueled questions about the man behind the plan.
Prior successes
Sparkling tributes to Zeitz in various media outlets describe his success at Puma and jaunts across the playgrounds of the rich and famous.
“Jochen Zeitz saved Puma. Now he’s trying to fix global business,” reads the celebratory headline of a Wired magazine tribute in 2018.
Cindy Crawford sits on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle on the set of a Pepsi commercial wearing a black leather jacket surrounded by actors dressed as police officers in 1992 in Los Angeles. (Roxanne McCann)
Zeitz launched Puma Ocean Racing, with Salma Hayek christening the first boat in Boston, in 2008; founded The B Team with Richard Branson, based in London and New York City, in 2013, with a mission to define business by social agenda; and opened the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art in South Africa in 2017.
While his professional career has been publicly celebrated, Zeitz’s family history is largely unknown.
Little is publicly known about the CEO’s family.
He was raised in Heidelberg, Germany, to parents in the medical profession, according to rare bits of information from profiles, including in Women’s Wear Daily and other publications, found online. Little else is publicly known about his family.
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A search of records and archives in the U.S. and Germany found no mention of family history.
What is known is that he was just 30 when he took the reins of Puma in 1993, the youngest CEO of a publicly traded company in Germany’s history, according to several reports.
Puma Ocean Racing powered by BERG, skippered by Ken Read from the USA, is followed by a spectator fleet into Itajai in the final miles of leg 5 from Auckland, New Zealand, to Itajai, Brazil, during the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 on April 6, 2012. (Paul Todd/Volvo Ocean Race via Getty Images)
He turned the discount sneaker brand into a high-priced fashion statement, and cemented his status in global couture as a board member of Kering, the French parent company of luxury brands Bottega Veneta, Gucci, Puma and Saint Laurent, among others.
Regardless of mystery or history, Zeitz has rubbed some of Harley’s most loyal consumers the wrong way in recent years.
Jochen Zeitz, CEO of Puma, in Nuremberg, Germany, in 2008. (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
“Harley-Davidson was our God and we were its disciples,” Marc Wilson of Colorado, a longtime Harley-Davidson rider who worked for one of its dealerships for 21 years, told Fox News Digital.
“Then that God we worshiped stabbed us in the back,” he said — a reference to both the company’s wokeness in recent years and the way some customers feel the company has treated them.
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By my live charting, Maye had five plus-plays to three minus throws. Those are the ups and downs of a 21-year-old rookie, but his talent is evident. Maye made decisive decisions, maneuvered the pocket well with good poise, and flashed his big play ability in and out of structure. If it wasn’t for the eighth penalty of the half on the O-Line, we would’ve seen the off-script playmaking Maye brings to the table on a 48-yard touchdown to KJ Osborn.
Maye’s physical tools are all over his film in the last two preseason games. The strides he’s making with his footwork and timing should get him on the field soon. At this point, it’s a matter of whether Maye can protect himself well enough by rearranging the chessboard before the snap. If he can, he should play because he’s injecting the difference-making energy into the offense.
3. Starting QB Jacoby Brissett Plays Eight Snaps, Takes a Big Hit to Right Shoulder on Sack
The Patriots current starter played one series and the offense moved the ball into Washington territory. However, a first-down sack derailed the drive and caused some damage to Brissett’s right shoulder. In his post-game press conference, Coach Mayo said Brissett could’ve returned to the game if it was the regular season.
As for his performance, Brissett took advantage of a busted coverage by the Commanders to convert on third down by finding RB Antonio Gibson in the flat. He also threw a catchable deep ball to KJ Osborn late in the down that should’ve been a big play on third-and-11. Brissett’s preseason stats remain pedestrian, but he also had significant offensive line issues. Brissett’s availability is a major storyline heading into the regular season.
4. Reconfigured Starting Five Doesn’t Solve Patriots O-Line Issues
The Patriots rolled with the starting five we’d project to play in Week 1 vs. the Bengals: LT Chuks Okorafor, LG Sidy Sow, C Nick Leverett, RG Layden Robinson, and RT Mike Onwenu. Obviously, captain David Andrews, who had the night off vs. the Commanders, will take Leverett’s place in the starting lineup when we do this for real in Cincy.
New England’s goal to find their “best five” along the offensive line in camp hit a turning point when fourth-rounder Layden Robinson was elevated to the starting five. Robinson had a strong summer, showing off excellent power and good initial burst out of his stance. Onwenu kicks outside to right tackle to accommodate Robinson, which is a question mark seeing that it’s not Onwenu’s best position, but big Mike has proven to be an above-average right tackle.
At left tackle, this feels like a position battle that’ll continue into the regular season between Okorafor and Vederian Lowe. Lowe is not healthy right now, so Chuks got the nod. The Pats need to survive the season at left tackle, which they’ll leave up to Lowe and Okorafor. Although that could get dicey, the other four-fifths of the line with one of their rookie draft picks emerging is the best-case scenario.
As for how they performed, frankly, the starting line was bad in the first half. It started with a sack, multiple QB pressures, and two bad snaps by Leverett, and then snowballed into eight (!) first-half penalties: false start, Okorafor lining up in the backfield at the snap three times, Onwenu committing the same penalty once, and three holds. To make matters worse, starting LG Sidy Sow (ankle) left the game due to injury.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now)—Today, we examine the DNC and speak to a member of the Wyoming Democratic delegation and House Representative Mike Yin as Democrats gathered in Chicago this week.
Yin says that he’s heard a lot of “Equality State” ideals echoed at the DNC.
“You know, I think that there are Wyoming values that are really echoed. Freedom has been a top-line measure. We talk about the restrictions to personal freedoms that the abortion bans across many red states have accomplished in reducing the amount of actual health care accessible and reducing the number of doctors that actually serve the state,” said Yin.
Wyoming delegates cast their 17 votes for the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and VP Tim Walz at the DNC this week.
Yin says the group is there to represent the interests of the state.
Wyoming delegates participated in the rural council meetings and discussed their concerns about ensuring our communities survive and thrive.
We asked Yin about the critics who say that the people did not democratically vote for Harris.
Yin says that if the shoe were on the other foot, neither party would have chosen a special election for all 50 states in the limited time left before the election.
He says the event has energized attendees as we look toward November’s election season.
“I think people really have hope and energy that the Democratic party can actually bring people’s freedoms back that the republican party has taken away,” said Yin.
Make sure to read part 2.
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Fire rips through longtime San Francisco small hardware store, owner hopes to reopen
Plywood now covers up the former glass front door to Great Wall Hardware in San Francisco’s Sunset District.
SAN FRANCISCO – A longtime San Francisco hardware store went up in flames Sunday morning, sending one person to the hospital and causing major damage.
Plywood now covers up the former glass front door to Great Wall Hardware, next to the 76 gas station on Taraval, near 29th in San Francisco’s Sunset District.
Firefighters battled the flames around 4 a.m. Sunday after a neighbor heard a startling sound.
“I was up around 4 a.m. to use the bathroom and I heard an explosion,” said Dominik Mosur, who lives across the street, “It was a really loud boom.”
Owner Albert Chow tells us the fire gutted his family business, which has served the Sunset neighborhood since 1983.
“Looks like a train wreck in there, and that’s kind of hard,” Chow told KTVU.
The fire sent smoke into the two apartments above the store, forcing three people out of their homes, including Chow’s mother, the founder of the store, who was taken to the hospital after inhaling smoke.
“But she, she’s okay,” said Chow who showed KTVU the damage inside the front of the store.
He believes the flames broke out around a now boarded-up display window, but can’t figure out how.
“You got me,” said Chow. “I don’t know.”
Chow estimates the damage at around a quarter million dollars.
“The hardware stores in the city, if you’ve been inside, they usually have lots of items piled up the aisle ways are very narrow,” said Rescue Capt. Justin Schorr of the San Francisco Fire Department.
The store supports three employees and serves countless customers, with some stopping by to console Chow after the fire.
“Oh, it’s devastating. It’s very sad to see,” said Angie Petitt. “It was really heartbreaking to get the news. He’s a very active and very involved community member.”
Chow is also a contractor, and after surveying the damage, feels confident there’s nothing inside he can’t handle fixing.
“I think Great Wall Hardware’s going to be back,” said Chow.
The fire department said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Chow said the building is still in good shape structurally.
He plans to reopen as soon as possible, but he doesn’t know how long it will take to clean up the mess.
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