Why is Harley-Davidson dropping diversity initiatives after the right-wing anti-DEI campaign?

Big noisy eyewateringly expensive machines that make senior citizens feel like it’s still 1962.

Typical Harley-Davidson customer

What is their product?

Heart Disease: What You Eat Matters More Than Cutting Carbs, Fat - Healthline

The demographics for Harley-Davidson are just as grim as their sales figures: the average Harley customer is over 50, and the average age of a registered Harley motorcycle is about 10 years.

Conservative old men who haven’t seen a movie since Dennis Hopper stopped being a leading Hollywood draw.

Harley-Davidson is facing some rather unfortunate demographic realities. If you look at their sales since the 1990s, they’re looking pretty grim:

Mysterious sphere named Teleios found floating in the Milky Way - Earth.com

Harley geezers love spreading contempt for smaller, lighter Japanese “rice burners,” after they’ve taken their Geritol and used their walkers to hobble to the front porch for another rousing afternoon of “hey you kids get off my lawn.”

Next year, things will turn around. Next year for sure. We just have to hang on until then. Next year.

They’re terrified to abandon these guys because they know these guys buy their bikes, at least until they go broke buying Trump shoes and NFTs. Millennials think Harley Davidson is a joke, mainly because Harley Davidson is a joke. Gen Z is like “Harley who? You mean the Joker’s girlfriend? Margot Robbie? Yeah, she’s hot.”

IO Interactive Reveals 007 First Light, Full Trailer Out This Week - Game Informer

What is their lifestyle?

They need new customers or they’re done. Their existing customer base is aging out and, well, dying. Millennials don’t like their motorcycles, but Harley has long been a company that flat-out refuses to change their products to match what people want; they’ve long believed they should make whatever they want to make and people should just buy that.

The Geezer Brigade starts flinging their walkers about and posting angry diatribes on AOL.

How do I complain on a boy coming to marriage with me without my involvement despite no connection with him though he had an illegal affair?

Whenever they try to get new customers, they risk pissing off the dudes who were born to ride Donald Trump, or at least fellate him.

This…is not a healthy company with a bright future ahead.

But Harley is trapped. They’re a lifestyle brand, not a motorcycle company. When you look at them as a lifestyle brand rather than a motorcycle company, a lot of things start to make sense.

Game-Changing Fossil Discovery Reveals That Reptiles Appeared on Earth Millions of Years Earlier Than Thought - SciTechDaily

If Toyota were facing demographics that grim, they’d, you know, change their lineup and try to appeal to new customers.

All their existing customers shake their canes and whine about them “selling out.”

They sell obnoxiously, stupendously overpriced bikes to old white men who wear Donald Trump jackets.

‘Strawberry Moon’ June 2025: See The Lowest Full Moon Since 2006 - Forbes

So what do you do if your existing customer base of geezers and sycophants hates the idea of you selling to a new demographic? If you’re Harley, you keep selling to the old demographic and hope for a miracle.

What happens if they build new bikes?

What happens if they try to attract new customers?

Why don't I get sleep at nights?