But Nathan’s demands loyalty from its competitors — at least when it comes to hot dog brands, said George Shea, chair and co-founder of Major League Eating, the governing body for numerous competitive eating contests, including Nathan’s. A key agreement for all competitors at the Nathan’s contest — where people ompete for the “Mustard Belt” and prize money in front of ESPN’s cameras — is to “not represent a rival hot dog brand,” Shea told The Washington Post.
The latest contract between Chestnut and Nathan’s had expired, Shea said, and the two sides were negotiating a new one when Chestnut announced he had signed a deal with a “plant-based firm.” Nathan’s didn’t know then that it was with Impossible.
Shea said Nathan’s had asked Chestnut for a potential carve-out: Could he represent all other products in the company’s line, except for its plant-based hot dogs?
“And they said no, and that was where we got to an impasse,” Shea said. “We just got surprised by this.”
It wouldn’t be the only surprise for Shea and Nathan’s. Chestnut also has a mano-a-mano eating contest with Takeru “Kobi” Kobayashi scheduled for Labor Day on Netflix, the streaming service announced Wednesday.
Impossible Foods wouldn’t comment on its deal with Chestnut. But in signing with Impossible, Chestnut apparently walked away from a lucrative deal with Nathan’s, which was prepared to offer the 16-time winner an annual $300,000 appearance fee over four years, said one source who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations.
“I was very disappointed to learn from the media today that after nearly 20 years I am banned from the Nathan’s 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest,” Chestnut said in an Instagram post. “I love competing in that event, I love celebrating America with my fans all over this great country on the 4th and I have been training to defend my title.”
Chestnut could not immediately be reached for comment.
Chestnut’s absence will mean that a new champion will be crowned on July 4, when 35,000 people are expected to gather at the corner of Surf and Stillwell avenues in Coney Island to watch the most advanced eaters in the world try to pound down more than 60 dogs in 10 minutes. Chestnut has not lost since 2015 when Matthew Stonie took home the trophy. Chestnut still holds the Nathan’s record: In 2021, he wolfed down 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes.
As part of its new brand campaign to attract more meat eaters into its fold, Impossible Foods may have landed the world’s most famous carnivore.
“Listen up, America, meat has problems,” says one meathead in Impossible’s lead campaign commercial. “And it’s going to take us meat-eaters to solve them.” The solution, the ad suggests with tongue firmly planted against cheek, is to eat more meat — plant-based meat. One study suggests that plant-based meats have, on average, 50 percent lower environmental impacts than proteins raised with traditional animal agriculture.
At age 40, Chestnut may be the ideal person to lead carnivores to a plant-based diet, at least some of the time. He’s ranked No. 1 in the world among competitive eaters. He holds 55 world records. Chestnut, along with his former rival Kobayashi, who had retired, has transformed a competition widely seen as a form of gluttony into a sport demanding discipline and training. (Chestnut has also probably shaved many months off his life.)
But that mission — if it is indeed his mission — has cost Chestnut the chance to compete in the world’s most famous eating contest — at least for now. Major League Eating had agreed to let Chestnut compete in a rival hot-dog eating contest on Labor Day — one with “unbranded” dogs, Shea said. It was a sign the governing body wasn’t trying to restrict Chestnut’s opportunities, he added.
That Sept. 2 contest, it turns out, is a live-steaming event on Netflix featuring just Chestnut and Kobayashi. Dubbed “Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef,” Netflix is pitching the contest as a “showdown [that] will settle a 15-year rivalry between the two competitive eaters.”
And despite the new deal with Impossible Foods, Chestnut isn’t officially banned from ever appearing at the Nathan’s contest again, Shea said.
“It might be a semantic issue, but to me, banning means, he’s out. We’re done. We’re done with Joey. That’s not the case. We love Joey. If he could resolve this issue of representing a rival brand, we’d love to have him on the Fourth. We’d love to have him next year,” Shea said.
This wouldn’t be the first time that Major League Eating has had a contract dispute with one of its prized competitors. Kobayashi stopped appearing at the annual Nathan’s contest after he refused to sign a contract with MLE. Kobayashi felt the terms of the contract were too restrictive, preventing him from competing in contests not under the MLE banner.
With Chestnut out, the leading candidate to win at Nathan’s this year is Geoffrey Esper, currently ranked No. 2 in the world among competitive eaters. Esper finished second last year, devouring 49 dogs in 10 minutes, 13 less than Chestnut.