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Bombshell clips of Harley-Davidson's boss calling himself the 'Taliban of sustainability' return to haunt him as petrol-heads ditch his motorcycles
Harley-Davidson's CEO Jochen Zeitz is under pressure to step down this week after footage emerged of him calling himself the 'Taliban of sustainability' in a series of statements at odds with the beloved motorcycle brand.
In rediscovered video clips, the German is seen complaining about the firm's weak environmental record before he joined its board and set about trying to 'redefine' the brand despite 'skepticism' from colleagues.
The footage has added to concerns among angry bikers, who are turning their backs on Harley-Davidson over Zeitz's support for critical race theory, climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
The growing movement is spearheaded by conservative influencer Robby Starbuck, who shared the videos on X, accusing another all-American brand of abandoning its customers.
The $6 billion-a-year company, which is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, did not answer the Mail's request for comment.
Harley-Davidson's CEO Jochen Zeitz is under pressure to step down after clips emerged of him calling himself the 'Taliban of sustainability.'
More and more bikers are saying they are ditching their Harley-Davidson motorcycles
The clips appear to show Zeitz's speeches at the Zermatt Summit, in Switzerland, in 2014, and at another corporate gabfest in South Africa two years later, called the We Are Africa summit.
In them, Zeitz complains that 'there really wasn't anything sustainable about Harley at the time,' he joined the company in 2007 as its 'first ever non-American board member.'
'I was greeted with skepticism when I knocked on the door in Milwaukee,' he said.
Robby Starbuck, an online influencer, says Harley riders should pressure the company about its DEI policies
Zeitz acknowledged that he had his work cut out trying to convince others at the century-old firm to combat emissions of planet-heating gases.
The same went for its legion of biker customers, including card-carrying members of the Harley Owners Group (HOG), he said.
'Harley is all about the sound and the smell of the Harley-Davidson,' Zeitz said.
'So I became the Taliban, again, in a sustainable way.'
Zeitz, who previously led luxury brand Kering and Puma, described creating a 'sustainability committee' to change the firm.
It 'went about redefining the HD brand and try to translate sustainability to something that would truly be embraced by the HOG owner,' he said.
There's nothing unusual about executives trying to make their products greener, but Zeitz's comments heighten concerns that his leadership is at odds with his customers' values.
Harley-Davidson owners have posted on social media that they will no longer ride their motorcycles, with many switching for Indian Motorcycle, another long-standing all-American brand.
Starbuck, 35, now wants the company to drop its CEO - and is rallying motorcycle enthusiasts to his cause at the largest bikers' event in the world, this week's 84th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.
Zeitz 'is not simply a CEO that got sucked into a DEI plan by their HR team of PR people,' says Starbuck.
Life at the Harley-Davidson headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has changed in the wake of Zeitz's DEI policies.
The all-American brand is famed for its large and expensive highway-cruising motorcycles.
'He is a true believer. An architect of using corporate power and culture to advance wokeness.'
The Harley-Davidson area at Sturgis was emptier than in previous years, according to reports, as festival-goers complained about Zeitz.
One compared the section to how the 'Bud Light tent was last year,' referencing the conservative boycott of the beer-maker over a tie-up with a transgender influencer, according to USA Today.
'It's branding suicide,' Vinny Terranova, the owner of Pappy's Vintage Cycles in Sturgis, told Fox News Digital.
'A lot of bikers are switching over to Indian,' he said. 'They killed Harley. It breaks my heart.'
They join a growing list of enthusiasts and celebrities who are turning on the brand.
Country music star Travis Tritt has called the accusations against Zeitz 'disturbing.
'I seriously doubt that pushing a DEI agenda will be very popular with any of the HOG members I know,' he wrote.
Sean Strickland, former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champion and a longtime Harley enthusiast, also shared a video to X saying he no longer supports the company.
'I've owned Harleys most of my life, but I will never own a Harley again,' he said in the video, calling Zeitz a 'zealot.'
'If you love America, you will not own a Harley,' he said.
In a subsequent post, Strickland polled his more than 600,000 followers on whether he should sell his bike or destroy it.
'Should I sell my Harley or blow it up with a machine gun?!?!' he asked.
Sean Strickland, former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champion and a longtime Harley enthusiast, shared a video saying he is ditching his Harley
Amid the uproar, Starbuck says the pressure is mounting on the Harley-Davidson board of directors to fire Zeitz.
'I will never ride Harley again unless they repent, which they won't,' the former UFC champ added.
'If I sell my Harley, I'm just participating in this woke freedom-hating anti-American agenda.'
More than 80 percent of respondents voted that he should blow it up.
Starbuck had accused Zeitz in a nearly 10-minute-long video of having a 'total commitment' to DEI policies in Harley-Davidson offices and the factories that make its trademark heavyweight bikes, which are designed for cruising on the highways.
This includes funding a recent Pride event in Pennsylvania, with face-painting and balloon twisting events for youngsters, as well as a 'rage room' where adults could 'let off steam,' he says.
The bike-maker has also partnered with political groups that push hard-left ideas, including the Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce, United Way and the Human Rights Campaign, he says.
Harley-Davidson money has therefore promoted sex-change procedures on children and anti-racism efforts against 'whiteness' and 'Christian privilege,' Starbuck alleges.
He went on to claim that DEI efforts have changed life inside the company of some 6,400 people.
Some 1,800 employees were trained on how to become an 'LGBTQ+ ally,' he said, while some sessions singled out white men for specific diversity-training.
The company also introduced employee resource groups (ERGs), which separate staff along racial, gender and sexual identity lines.
Additionally, Starbuck said the motorcycle company is gradually cutting its number of white employees, suppliers, and dealers.
Under Zeitz, the company also signed onto a Human Rights Campaign letter that Starbuck said 'was meant to scare states away from passing laws that ban sex changes for kids and ban men from being able to follow girls into bathrooms.'
The movement is being led by conservative influencer Robby Starbuck
'Harley-Davidson seems to have forgotten who their core customers are,' Starbuck, a filmmaker who was also a 2022 Republican House candidate for Tennessee, said.
'I don't think the values at corporate reflect the values of nearly any Harley-Davidson bikers.'
Starbuck added: 'Do Harley riders want the money they spend at Harley to be used later by corporate to push an ideology that's diametrically opposed to their own values?'
The 121-year-old company, which is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, did not answer DailyMail.com's request for comment.
Zeitz has previously said Harley-Davidson needed to change to attract younger customers
But Zeitz, who was hired in 2020 after successfully turning around athletic shoe company Puma, has said Harley-Davidson needs to change to attract younger customers.
'We care about the planet because we ride in nature,' he said in a Q&A with Morgan Stanley in April 2023.
'And if you want to be successful, you have to think long-term.'
With that in mind, Zeitz has charted a course for Harley-Davidson based on sustainability.
It launched its LiveWire brand of electric motorcycles five years ago, and Zeitz has set a goal to make all of its vehicles run on electricity by 2030.
Many Harley-Davidson customers now decorate their motorcycles with rainbow flags, and they make frequent appearances at Pride events, ridden by such groups as Dykes on Bikes.
The iconic firm was established by childhood friends William Harley and Arthur Davidson, with the production of their first motorcycle in a small wooden shed in Milwaukee in 1903.
It grew its influence in American society by gaining contracts with the US Postal Service and police departments between 1910 - 1960, and the riders' use of long boots and saddlebags made it fit in with the imagery of the American West.