Harley-Davidson CEO Jochen Zeitz was a budding German corporate wunderkind when he bought Puma in the 1990s.
Lately, he’s been faced with questions and concerns from American bikers and jaded consumers.
Zeitz is seen as an advocate of far-left ideology and some critics say he has tarnished the reputation of the legendary all-American Harley-Davidson brand since taking over the company in 2020.
“They’ve become dehumanized, that’s the best way to describe it,” Johnny “Horseshoe” Hennings, a longtime Harley-Davidson rider, told Fox News Digital at the end of last week’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.
“Harley was like a brother to me… now he’s just a ghost.”
But Zeitz’s supporters see it differently.
They say claims about Harley’s demise have been exaggerated by older riders.
The Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker reported revenue of $5.4 billion in 2019, part of a decade-long downward trend.
Revenue last year reached $5.8 billion, marking the third consecutive year of growth under the German-born CEO.
“He’s a smart guy and Harley has been making more money for investors since he took over,” the general manager of a Texas dealership told Fox News Digital.
“It’s that simple.”
But Harley’s iconic image has drawn attention amid what could be called a culture clash.
The American riders of yore who championed and supported Harley-Davidson’s rugged, flag-waving, powerful image of American independence are at odds with the globetrotting European riders who have famous friends, left-leaning goals and who now lead the brand.
“He’s just obsessed with being a New World Order globalist,” Vinnie Terranova, owner of Pappy’s Vintage Cycles in Sturgis, South Dakota, told Fox News Digital.
“He brought in accountants and minions from Europe, but they don’t care where the Harleys come from, their history. There’s no more service, no more interaction with customers.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Harley-Davidson, Zeitz and members of the company’s board of directors for comment.
Frustration that Harley-Davidson is alienating its core customers has come to a head in recent weeks, with Seitz’s “woke” policies becoming the center of social media and consumer anger.
“We are challenging traditional capitalism and trying to redefine it,” Zeitz said from behind the wheel of a Harley-Davidson at a conference in Switzerland in 2020.
The video was brought to light last week by anti-woke social media warrior Robbie Starbuck.
Zeitz also made a startling reference to terrorism, adding that he was a “sustainable Taliban.”
Harley-Davidson reversed course amid public outrage earlier this week, announcing it would scale back some of its controversial programs and refocus on its core consumers.
All this raises questions about who is behind the plan.
Successes so far
Glowing tributes to Mr. Zeitz in various media outlets have described his success at Puma and in the playground of the rich and famous.
“Jochen Zeitz saved Puma. Now he’s trying to turn around the global business,” read a celebratory headline from Wired magazine in 2018.
Zeitz launched Puma Ocean Racing in 2008, with Selma Hayek christening the first boat in Boston. In 2013, he co-founded The B-Team with Richard Branson, a London and New York City-based company with a mission to define business through social issues, and in 2017 opened the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art in South Africa.
While his professional career has been publicly praised, little is known about Zeitz’s family history.
He grew up in Heidelberg, Germany, to parents who worked in medicine, according to rare information from profiles in Women’s Wear Daily and other publications found online.
Little else is publicly known about his family.
A search of records and archives in the United States and Germany turned up no mention of the family’s history.
what teeth What we do know is that he was just 30 when he took over at the helm of Puma in 1993, making him, by some reports, the youngest CEO of a publicly listed company in German history.
He transformed the discount sneaker brand into a high-end fashion house and cemented his place in the global couture world as a director at Kering, the French parent company of luxury brands such as Bottega Veneta, Gucci, Puma and Saint Laurent.
Regardless of the mystery or history, the Zeitz has angered some of Harley’s most loyal customers in recent years.
“Harley-Davidson was our god and we were his disciples,” Mark Wilson of Colorado, a longtime Harley-Davidson rider who worked at a Harley-Davidson dealership for 21 years, told Fox News Digital.
“And then the god we worshipped failed us,” he said, referring both to the company’s recent awakening and how some customers feel about the way they’ve been treated by the company.
