"Furious" Pete Czerwinski appeared on Dragons' Den (the Canadian equivalent of ABC's Shark Tank) with a team seeking investment for New Age Performance's line of performance enhancing mouthpieces. Brian Shaw "The World's Strongest Man" was another member of the team. (video)
CBS has an article about the economics of competitive eating with quotes from Ed "Cookie" Jarvis and Gideon Oji.
The Onion has an article about Nike's new line of competitive eating apparel described as “specially designed to boost performance by absorbing barbecue sauce, blue cheese, ranch, and all manner of drippings to completely eliminate condiment-related discomfort during competitive eating eventsâ€
Inapub.co.uk has list of tips for restaurants about holding eating challenges.
Eater.com produced a video examining the issue of liability for competitive eating injuries and fatalities. The video has a clip of Brian Dudzinski training with water, but does not mention his 2014 hospitalization from that activity.
Times.co.uk has an article about the rivalry between Nathan's Famous and Feltman's hot dogs newly opened Coney Island Location.
In Dos Equis' new commercial for Cinco de Mayo, the "World's Most Interesting Man" competes in a spicy pepper eating contest. (Watch embedded video in adweek.com article to bypass login for age restriction).
Nathan's Famous has been named the official hot dog of Major League Baseball, the first ever frankfurter brand to receive that title.
A chicken dinner will take place tonight in Elk Horn, IA to raise money for the aebleskiver eating contest in May. Several events are planned to obtain funding for the Major League Eating event.
Loot Ink has an interview with Kate Ovens titled "Is it Actually Possible to Turn Your Hobby into a Career?"
Flashback 2008: IFOCE produces Obama / Chestnut shirt
Flashback: In the summer of 2008, IFOCE produced a T-shirt with a Obama/Chestnut 2008 logo. Joey Chestnut wore the shirt briefly in 2008 on the Today Show after defending his Nathan’s title, but was forced to cover it up during his interview.
Howard Lorber, Nathan's Famous chairman and economic policy adviser for Donald Trump, appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box Monday morning and predicted that the president-elect would be "more thoughtful" than his campaign rhetoric after inauguration. Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King has called for a boycott of corporations with owners or executives that publicly backed the Republican candidate; Nathan's Famous does not appear on his list of 12 companies.
Donald Trump & competitive eating chronology
A timeline listing the intersection of the worlds of competitive eating and the 2016 Republican presidential candidate follows:
- 1966 Fred Trump, father of Donald, has the Steeplechase demolished. The Coney Island amusement park had earlier rejected a purchase offer from the Handwerker family, founders of Nathan’s Famous.
- 2005 Sports Illustrated has a blurb
about filmmaker Michael Tollin’s plans for a fictional movie based on
Bill “El Wingador” Simmon that did not come to fruition. Tollin would
later make a documentary about the USFL spring football league in which Donald Trump was cast as the villain. - 2005-2007 The Trump Marina in Atlantic City holds a wing eating contest for females only during Super Bowl weekend.
2005 Feb 3 Wing Fling 1 Trump Marina Atlantic City, NJ 2006 Feb 4 Wing Fling 2 Trump Marina Atlantic City, NJ 2007 Feb 3 Wing Fling 3 Trump Marina Atlantic City, NJ 2007 contest video
- 2009-2012 The Trump Plaza Beach Bar in Atlantic City, NJ hosts a Nathan’s qualifier. The winners of those contests:
2009 May 23 1st 30.5 10 min “The Lovely” Juliet Lee Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest qualifier Atlantic City, NJ 2010 May 29 1st 40 10 min Bob “The Notorious B.O.B.” Shoudt Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest qualifier Atlantic City, NJ 2011 May 28 1st 27 10 min Pat “from Moonachie” Philbin Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest qualifier – men Atlantic City, NJ 2011 May 28 1st 34 10 min Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest qualifier – women Atlantic City, NJ 2012 May 19 1st 45 10 min Tim “Eater X” Janus Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest Qualifier – men Atlantic City, NJ 2012 May 19 1st 18.5 10 min Larell Marie “The Real Deal” Mele Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest Qualifier – women Atlantic City, NJ - 2013 The Trump Plaza was sold to Meruelo Group for $20 million. No Nathan’s qualifiers would take place at that site after the sale.
- Dec 2015 Everybody Loves Raymond’s in San Antonio starts a “Shut Your Mouth Trump” spicy burger challenge in response to negative feelings about the candidate by the restaurant’s clientele.
- Feb 2016 Donald Trump visits Chez Vachon in Machester, NH for a campaign stop. A picture of him in front of the “Wall of Fame” for the restaurant’s poutine challenge would receive a lot of publicity. Hillary and Bill Clinton would also visit the location.
- May 2016 Burger Urge in Queensland, Australia holds a “Trump Burger” contest awarding a trip to Trump Tower in New York City won by Col “The Conqueror” MacLaurin.
- Aug 2016 Howard Lorber, chairman of Nathan’s Famous, is announced as a member of Donald Trump’s economic policy team. Lorber received a $25 million payment in 2015 after a special dividend was issued to Nathan’s stockholders.
Capewood's Collections has a post about the Joey Chestnut, Matt Stonie and Sonya Thomas trading cards produced by Allen and Ginter.
The Guardian reports that Howard Lorber, chairman of Nathan's Famous, has been announced as a member of Donald Trump's economic policy team.
Brian Seiken is offering stakes in his potential poker winnings at the Borgata Summer Poker Open this weekend.
Money magazine has an article about competitive eater earnings which includes unsourced statistics that seem strangely familiar: $88K career contest winnings for Miki Sudo, , $220K for Sonya Thomas.
Sports Illustrated on post-MLE Kobayashi
Sports Illustrated has a long article on the state of Kobayashi’s post-MLE career and the devolution of his relationship with that organizaion. He is unwilling to go near Nathan’s Coney Island store despite living in Brooklyn. The article mentions plans for a big Chicago eating contest this year that fell through. Pat Bertoletti makes a cameo:
Read the rest of this entry »
Business Insider has a video of Yasir Salem showing how he eats five hot dogs in less than 60 seconds.
Over five years into his competitive eating career, a "Rookie Card" for Matt Stonie can be found in boxes of 2016 Leaf Sports Heroes.
Newsday has an article about Nathan's Famous centennial which reports that net income declined 81% after making interest payments to finance a bond to pay investors a $25 per share dividend.
Core Media Group filed for bankruptcy due to the decline of its most visible property, American Idol. The company also owns Sharp Entertainment, the producer of Man v. Food
Marketwatch.com has a graph of Nathan's Famous stock price since 1999, which has increased 1936% in that time period. (At its overall peak in 2015, the price was up 26-fold.) The purse for the Nathan's finals has been $20,000 since 2007. $40,000 has been payed out annually since the addition of the women's division in 2011.
Darren Rovell of ESPN has posted a complaint about Burger King's use of the "Polish Punisher" in the ad promoting its hot dogs instead of an actual competitive eater. The "Polish Punisher" is played by actor Dave Maulbeck, and the ad has ran nationally at least 1,233 times according to ispot.tv.
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