Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson is a renowned American motorcycle manufacturer established in 1903, celebrated for its iconic motorcycles and extensive global dealership network comprising over 1,400 licensed locations. The company offers a diverse range of motorcycle families, including Touring, Dyna, Softail, Street, Sportster, and V-Rod, and has expanded its brand through merchandise such as clothing and accessories. Harley-Davidson also operates financial services and community initiatives, including the Harley Owners Group (HOG) and the Harley-Davidson Foundation, which supports various charitable efforts.
The company made its mark in the motorcycle racing scene and became synonymous with the biker culture, particularly in the mid-20th century, while evolving to appeal to a broader audience in recent decades. Harley-Davidson is recognized for its distinctive V-twin engine design, which has become a hallmark of its motorcycles. Throughout its history, the company has navigated economic challenges, including the Great Depression and changing market dynamics, to maintain its position as a leading motorcycle brand. In recent years, Harley-Davidson's financial performance remains strong, with significant revenue from both motorcycle sales and branded merchandise. The company's commitment to community engagement and social responsibility underscores its lasting influence and legacy in the motorcycle industry.
On this Page
Harley-Davidson
- Date Founded: 1903
- Industry: Automotive
- Corporate headquarters: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Type: Public
Overview
Harley-Davidson is a major American automotive manufacturer that has been producing and selling quality motorcycles since 1903. Boasting a global sales network of more than 1,400 licensed dealerships, Harley-Davidson offers a broad line of motorcycles that includes the separate Touring, Softail, Sportster, Pan American and Live Wire families. In addition to motorcycles, the company sells a variety of Harley-Davidson-themed clothing and accessories designed to increase brand awareness and loyalty among consumers. Harley-Davidson operates a finance company called Harley-Davidson Financial Services (HDFS), a charitable organization dubbed the Harley-Davidson Foundation, a sponsored community marketing club known as the Harley Owners Group (HOG), and the Harley-Davidson Riding Academy rider training program. Nevertheless, the company’s iconic motorcycles, affectionately known as "hogs," remain the centerpiece of Harley-Davidson’s business model. After first gaining popularity through their success on the motorcycle racing circuit, Harley-Davidsons quickly became the motorcycle of choice among members of outlaw biker gangs such as the Hell’s Angels before eventually evolving into high-quality bikes ridden by weekend warriors across the country.
From a design perspective, Harley-Davidson produces several types of motorcycles. The company’s Grand American Touring and Cruiser feature air-cooled twin-cylinder engines situated in a 45-degree V-shaped configuration. Harley-Davidson's lineup also includes the Revolution Max engine platform, which features liquid-cooled V-twin engines in models. In addition to these designs, Harley-Davidson produces a line of three-wheeled "trike" motorcycles and various special edition bikes for police officers and firefighters.
History
Harley-Davidson got its start when draftsman William Harley and pattern-maker Arthur Davidson came together in 1903 to make a motorized bicycle in their backyard shed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Their initial efforts led to the construction of the "Silent Gray Fellow," the first Harley-Davidson motorcycle ever produced. The company entered regular production in 1905 and incorporated in 1907. Two years later, Harley-Davidson motorcycles began to incorporate the iconic V-twin engine. Although it was actually invented by longtime rival Indian Motorcycle Company, the V-twin engine quickly became a Harley-Davidson signature design. By 1912, the company was manufacturing more than 9,500 motorcycles per year.
Much of Harley-Davidson’s early success was driven by its motorcycles’ impressive performance on the racing circuit. Motorcycle racing and the famous Harley-Davidson Wrecking Crew racing team helped establish the company’s name and reputation for quality. Through its dominance of the racing circuit in the 1910s, the Wrecking Crew effectively put Harley-Davidson on the map and earned the company many additional sales. By 1920, Harley-Davidson had both the best-selling motorcycles in the United States and active dealerships in sixty-seven countries around the world.
Although the 1929 stock market crash certainly affected the company, Harley-Davidson managed to survive the Great Depression while many other motorcycle companies were forced out of business. Much of the company’s success during this time came as a result of its decision to temporarily revert to focusing on more affordable single-cylinder motorcycles and adding new offerings, such as the three-wheeled Servi-Car. At the same time, however, the company’s engineers began work on an advanced overhead-valve V-twin engine in anticipation of future competition. The move helped keep Harley-Davidson on the cutting edge of motorcycle design even as the industry was struggling through hard times.
Harley-Davidson’s dominance of the motorcycle industry became complete in 1953, when its only remaining major competitor, the Indian Motorcycle Company, went out of business. With Indian out of the picture, Harley-Davidson became the only American motorcycle company in existence. Around this time, the company’s motorcycles started becoming associated with the biker gang subculture that was quickly emerging across the country. As a result of movies such as Marlon Brando’s The Wild One (1953), the Harley-Davidson motorcycle came to be seen as the preferred ride of biker gangs such as the Hell’s Angels. Although these biker gangs did often choose Harley-Davidsons over other types of motorcycles, the association was a stereotype that lasted for decades. It was not until more conservative bikers began riding Harley-Davidsons in the 1980s that the rough image of the typical Harley rider finally started to change. In the twenty-first century, Harley-Davidson is generally viewed as a company that makes quality motorcycles that anyone can ride.
Impact
Harley-Davidson continues to be an enormously successful company. In 2023, the company sold more than 162,800 motorcycles and recorded approximately $5.836 billion in revenue. These numbers have been trending downward throughout the 2020s. An overwhelming majority of Harley-Davidson’s annual revenue comes from its manufacturing operations, while most of the remainder comes through Harley-Davidson Financial Services. A sizable portion of its annual revenue comes from non-motorcycle merchandise sales. Harley-Davidson nets hundreds of millions of dollars worth of branded leather jackets, boots, T-shirts, and other accessories. Along with the motorcycles themselves, this merchandise plays an important part in the company’s effort to sustain its iconic image and retain its loyal customers. All of this allows Harley-Davidson to have a tremendous economic impact both domestically and globally.
In addition to its economic impact, Harley-Davidson has significant social influence. In large part, this is a direct result of the Harley-Davidson Foundation’s ongoing commitment to community. The Harley-Davidson Foundation strives to meet the basic needs of the communities in which its parent company operates. To do this, the foundation pursues partnerships with other charitable organizations through which it can invest in health, education, and the environment. The Harley-Davidson Foundation provides qualifying charitable organizations with grants that support necessary services for underserved populations. In terms of health, the foundation primarily focuses on providing funding for basic needs, health support services, and public health and wellness education. In terms of education, the foundation works to provide funding for academic enhancers, core curriculum, arts education, and employment enablers. In terms of environment, the foundation seeks to provide funding for economic development, neighborhood revitalization, environmental education, sustainability, and conservation. Through the Harley-Davidson Foundation, Harley-Davidson makes a serious commitment to serving the communities that make its success possible and the general community at large.
In June 2018, Harley-Davidson announced that it was offshoring more of its production in order to avoid European Union (EU) tariffs on its motorcycles, which increased from 6 percent to 31 percent. The EU tariffs on motorcycles and other iconic American products were increased in response to controversial tariffs imposed by the administration of US President Donald Trump on imported steel and aluminum from the EU, Mexico, and Canada. Trump criticized the company’s move in a series of tweets. Despite rising prices and inflation in 2022 and into 2023, Harley-Davidson stock performed well for the year, although sales faltered in the mid-2020s. Into the 2020s, the company continued to operate on a hybrid manufacturing strategy, using both domestic and international resources.
Bibliography
Auto Editors of Consumer Guide. “Harley-Davidson History.” HowStuffWorks, auto.howstuffworks.com/harley-davidson-history.htm. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.
Duprey, Rich. “7 Things You Probably Never Knew about Harley-Davidson.” Motley Fool, 6 June 2017, www.fool.com/investing/2017/06/06/7-things-you-probably-never-knew-about-harley-davi.aspx. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.
“Harley-Davidson.” Crunchbase, www.crunchbase.com/organization/harley-davidson-motor-company. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.
“Harley-Davidson Revenue 2010-2024 - HOG.” Macrotrends, www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/HOG/harley-davidson/revenue. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.
“Harley-Davidson Stock Had A Stellar 2022. What Does 2023 Hold?” Forbes, 19 Jan. 2023, www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2023/01/19/harley-davidson-stock-had-a-stellar-2022-what-does-2023-hold/. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.
“Harley-Davidson's Worldwide Motorcycle Retail Sales between FY 2017 and FY 2023, by Country or Region.” Statista, 23 Sept. 2024, www.statista.com/statistics/252220/worldwide-motorcycle-retail-sales-of-harley-davidson. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.
Holmstrom, Darwin. Harley-Davidson: The Complete History. Quarto Publishing Group, 2016.
Kessler, Carson. “Why Harley-Davidson Is Moving Production Overseas.” Fortune, 26 June 2018, fortune.com/2018/06/26/harley-davidson-moving-production-overseas. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.
“Locations.” Harley-Davidson, www.harley-davidson.com/us/en/about-us/careers/locations.html. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.