The documentary The Story of Furious Pete is now available for purchase on furiouspete.com
Craiglist has a hot dog costume signed by Takeru Kobayashi for sale at $80.
Hofmann Hot Dogs has produced a one minute commercial starring Takeru Kobayashi. Awful Advertisments has a blog entry about the ad.
Syracuse.com has an article about Hofmann's Hot Dogs strategy to become a national frankfurter brand which includes signing Takeru Kobayashi on as an endorser and minority investor. The company plans to hold hot dog eating contests on college campuses. (via Teri Weaver)
NBC Sports Off The Bench has a blog entry about the twiter feud between Joey Chestnut and Frank Zaccanelli, CEO of Hofmann Hot Dogs with more background information. Details about the Hofmann competitive eating event at the Texas State Fair that Takeru Kobayashi will compete in have not been finalized.
North Nevada Buisness Weekly has an article about Joey Chestnut defending his title at the Nugget Best in the West Rib Cook-off, in Sparks, NV on Wednesday where he discusses his post-competitive eating career plans which include opening a boutique hot dog restaurant in San Jose. (Presumably it will not serve Hoffman hot dogs.)
A craigslist poster in Florida is selling a T-shirt signed by many 2012 Nathan's finalists including Joey Chestnut, Tim Janus, Sonya Thomas, Bob Shoudt and Juliet Lee for $200.
Kobayashi / Hofmann partnership details
Syracuse.com and DMagazine have articles about Takeru Kobayashi’s press conference this morning where his partnership with Hofmann Hot Dogs was officially announced. Some notes:
- Takeru Kobayashi will own 50% of a new division Hofmann has created to produce a Kobayashi-branded hot dog.
- Hofmann is planning to open a restaurant in Dallas, possibly as soon as September. (Cowboys legend Roger Staubach is another Hofmann part-owner, so that might be the reason for the location.)
- Kobayashi will compete in a hot dog contest against a “ferocious competitor” at the Great New York State Fair on August 25.
Syracuse.com reports that Hofmann Hot Dogs has added Takeru Kobayashi as a business partner / brand ambassador. The partnership will officially announced at a press conference at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino. Kobayashi might compete in a Hoffman hot dog eating contest at the New York State Fair.
SBNation.com: contract offered Kobayashi did not pay out prizes
Amy K. Nelson has an article for SBNation.com to accompany yesterday’s interview of Kobayashi which has more information about the contract Takeru Kobayashi rejected in 2010:
[George] Shay [sic] contends that they offered Kobayashi a contract of over $100,000 that would cover four events in 2010, and that, win or lose at Nathan’s, Kobayashi would walk away with a guaranteed $25,000, in essence a flat appearance fee. Any prize monies awarded by the holder of the event would be recouped by MLE.
Money.CNN.com has an article about the 40% increase in the price of Nathan's stock in 2012. The majority of the revenue increase is not due to restaurant purchases, but sales of branded products sold outside restaurants.
Andrew Lazarchik has posted a picture of the new Nathan's championship belts Wildcat Belts has produced for the 2012 finals. The Pepto-Bismo logo no longer flanks the Nathan's medallion on the women's belt (picture of 2011 belt), apparently confirming rumors that Pepto-Bismol is no longer a Nathan's sponsor.
Tim Brown announces that the Glutton Force Five food truck he is operating with Pat Bertoletti will be at the Chicago Ribfest this weekend.
Total cash winnings since Jan 1, 2012 & May 23, 2011
Listings of people who have won more than $2000 in the past year and/or $1000 in the current calendar year according to values in the eatfeats database are available after the jump. These listings are incomplete; several independent contests (Sylvester’s Burgers, San Antonio tamales, etc.) have not announced results. Please put any unlisted cash awards not entered in the database in the comments.
The sidebar will be updated soon to list both of these tables.
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GameDesignerBen has posted a picture of a board game titled Guts of Glory, described as a "post-apocalyptic competitive eating card game."
Jimmy John's has been removed from the likes list on the MLE facebook page which probably implies that the sandwich makers vs. eaters series will not be returning in 2012. (Pepto Bismol remains on the like list despite reports that it has yet to extend its sponsorship deal for 2012.)
Time Out Chicago has an article about Glutton Force Five, the food truck owned by Pat Bertoletti and Tim Brown. To promote the truck, Bertoletti and Brown are planning a "Gluttony Tour" in which they will attempt every Chicago eating challenge in less than 48 hours.
Takeru Kobayashi appears in a new video promoting Eight O'Clock Coffee where he drank 42 cups. Comedian Jim Breuer, formerly of Saturday Night Live, served as co-host.
Joey Chestnut earnings: 2010 vs 2011
ESPN.com has a list of the highest paid competitors by sport which lists Joey Chestnut’s 2011 earnings as $205,000, the same value given in a ninemsn.au.com article earlier this year and represents a $20,000 decline from the $225,000 he reportedly earned in 2010.
It is surprising that Joey Chestnut’s overall earnings decreased from 2010 to 2011 when the sum of the public prizes he was awarded in those years increased from $32,500 to $43,000. $43,000 to $32,250. (A raise in the TooJay’s corned beef contest first prize from $5,000 to $12,500 was responsible for $7,500 of that increase.) The discontinuation of two 2010 exhibition series Joey Chestnut participated in, Jimmy John’s sandwich makers vs. eaters and competitions sponsored by Pepto Bismol in which Joey Chestnut faced a team of amateurs, might have been responsible for some of the decline.
Listings of Joey Chestnut’s results and public prizes in 2010 and 2011 follow after the jump.
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DVDs for Man v. Food: Nation are available for purchase on amazon.com and will be released on April 10. A press release says the set will include the 25 episodes previously televised so the two final episodes that will air on April 11 will not be included.
Joey Chestnut endorses Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs of Denver in a commercial.
Spreadshirt is selling new Will "The Champ" Millender T-shirts (fixed) with Will's new logo on them. (black shirts)
NineMSN.com.au lists Joey Chestnut's 2011 competitive eating income as $205,000, a $20,000 decrease from 2010. The article also claims that Nathan's contract with ESPN has reportedly been extended to 2017. update Hmm noted the article has been pulled, it is still available in the Google cache. update #2 New link for article on msn.com
Spreadshirt has a line of Kobayashi T-shirts with a Philadelphia theme.
TheScore.com interviews Takeru Kobayashi
TheScore.com has an interview with Takeru Kobayashi (via FreeKobayashi twitter), who has the following things to say about his former organization:
He also says that MLE has a tendency to send packages of eaters to particular events, with an eye towards tilting the balance towards favoured competitors.
“If they want one character to win [a particular contest]… They choose which [other] players are going to go there… and they can prevent other players who actually want be at that contest from going,†Kobayashi said through James.
That said, he’s quite emphatic in stating that he’s not accusing the competitive eating circuit of being fixed, just that the deck is occasionally stacked in favour of certain eaters.
“No, it’s not [fixed], but in their organization, on their terms… it’s close to being that way. They control it the way that they want it.â€
The interview also mentions a thwarted deal with Johnsonville Sausages. (Kobayashi competed in an IFOCE Johnsonville bratwurst contest in 2006.)
“Johnsonville Sausages, for example, contacted Kobi and wanted to work with him… and he wanted to work with them, but he couldn’t,†James says. “They were holding him down, like ‘No… unless they go through us, you can’t work with them,’ which was heinous to him, because he had an agency in Japan that he was with… He didn’t belong to [MLE,] but they came up out of the blue and said ‘We own you, and we’re going to make people sign through us if they want anything to do with you.’â€
The article lists Don Povia of HHR Media Group as Kobayashi’s manager. The HHR stands for HuggingHaroldReyndold.com, which Povia co-founded.
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