One entrepreneur involved in the corporate culture war told Fox New Digital that “elitist fools and hypocrites” at Harley-Davidson and other brands like Bud Light are to blame for the downturn that American companies have faced in recent years.
“It's Business 101,” said Jennifer Seay, a former senior marketing executive at Levi Strauss & Co. “You don't disrespect your core consumers, and you certainly don't alienate them and abandon them in your pursuit of growing and expanding elsewhere.”
Harley-Davidson's German-born CEO and board chairman Jochen Zeitz has faced sharp criticism from longtime loyal customers for attempting to recreate the motorcycle's rugged American image, with critics accusing him of pursuing a progressive agenda that conflicts with the values of its most devoted customers.
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“We’re trying to compete with traditional capitalism and redefine it,” Zeitz said addressing global leaders at a conference in Switzerland in 2020, the same year he took the helm of Harley.
In the same speech, Zeitz compared himself to the Taliban to express his commitment to “stability”.
Jennifer Sey, a former senior executive at Levi Strauss & Co, had a confrontation with authorities over Covid lockdowns in 2020. She launched XX-XY Athletics in March 2024. (XX-XY Athletics)
Brewing discontent among Harley-Davidson's loyal customers erupted into open revolt against the brand when corporate watchdog Robby Starbuck exposed Zetz's internal agenda.
“They killed Harley. It breaks my heart,” Vinny Terranova, owner of Pappy's Vintage Cycles in Sturgis, South Dakota, and a former Harley-Davidson dealership, told Fox News Digital.
“This is 'Business 101.' You don't disrespect your core consumers.”
Former Levi's executive Seay witnessed the corporate culture wars from the trenches of the boardroom battlefield. She was a C-suite celebrity in 2020, tasked with managing, polishing and growing the iconic Levi's brand. Founded by German immigrant Levi Strauss in San Francisco in 1853, Levi's jeans have enjoyed a global reputation as a symbol of American culture and opportunity.
Harley-Davidson President, CEO and Chairman of the Board Jochen Zeitz attends the trading debut of electric motorcycle spinoff LiveWire on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 27, 2022. Reuters/Brendan McDermid (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
But then the “lifelong Democrat” was shaken out of his corporate comfort when he protested the city, the state of California, and his own employer’s draconian responses to COVID-19.
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“I was a leader in the community and I was demonized for speaking out against school closings,” Seay said. “I was demonized because I was concerned about keeping schools open. I mean, it was no longer a place to live for me.”
Sey will be ousted in 2022 after a 23-year career at Levi.
“San Francisco is the most aggressively conformist place you could imagine,” he said. “It's not inclusive. It's not rational. And it's not progressive.”
He claims that his position was “nullified” by corporate America, which prevented him from getting an executive-level position that would reflect his excellent credentials.
Seay moved to Colorado and in March launched performance apparel company XX-XY Athletics.
Now she's a crusader against wokeism. Her company's very name is a challenge to the notion that womanhood exists on a spectrum of types.
“The elite take all these crazy left-wing positions to assuage their guilt about having lots of money and privilege.”
“The message is that there is empirical truth. There is biology truth,” said Seay. “It's actually very simple. There is XX and there is XY. We can corrupt the truth with language as much as we want. But at the end of the day, the truth is that sex is binary.”
He believes the corruption of long-held truths and embrace of radical ideology that got him ousted from Levi's, and that has driven customers away from Harley-Davidson, Bud Light, and other iconic American brands, is the result of a number of factors.
“The elite adopt all these crazy left-wing stances to assuage their guilt about having a lot of money and privilege,” he said.
Jennifer Seay was the US national champion in all-around gymnastics in 1986. She competed at the Goodwill Games in Moscow that same year. (From XX-XY Athletics/Jennifer)
For example, corporate executives pay lip service to public education, “but they all send their kids to $60,000-a-year private schools.”
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“The other thing is that these companies are now staffed by Generation Z, who have come from a conscious education system and conscious universities, who have been brought up in a safe environment and they want you to know their pronouns,” he added.
Officials fear confrontation with the surrounding crowd, which could fuel their social media outrage, and threaten the property, privileges and benefits they pretend to deny.
“In corporate America, the prisoners are running the asylums,” Seay said.
A red, white and blue Harley Davidson motorcycle in Chicago, Illinois (Photo: Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) (Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
His career inside the “woke bubble” of high-powered corporate culture and his current struggle against it give Seay unique insight into Harley-Davidson's recent problems.
Harley CEO Zeitz gained global fame by turning discount Puma sneakers into a global fashion brand, socialized with the rich and famous, started a sailing race team, opened an art museum in South Africa in his name and included people like Richard Branson in his social circle.
Critics charged that he had nothing in common with Harley-Davidson customers and apparently did not understand the key to the motorcycle brand's global appeal: its Americanness.
Levi's enjoys a similar global reputation.
Jennifer Seay founded XX-XY Athletics in March 2024. She said the message of the brand's name “is that there is empirical truth. There is biology truth.” (XX-XY Athletics)
“What people find valuable about these brands is that they represent the best of American values,” Seay said. “They represent freedom, individualism, progress and democracy.”
He believes Harley-Davidson represents “assertive masculinity and individualism, living on your own terms.”
Seay experienced the power of American brands on the world stage while competing in gymnastics at the 1986 Goodwill Games in Moscow.
She bought 20 pairs of jeans from Macy's and took them with her to trade with Soviet and other foreign athletes. She said Levi's classic 501 jeans were worth up to $1,000 a pair on Moscow's black market in the 1980s.
“Levi's jeans represent freedom and progress,” he said.
He said today's “progressive” politics is progress in name only.
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“What they call progressive is actually incredibly regressive,” she said. “It's pushed by elitist hypocrites. I can't even be around them anymore.”