The Family Behind The State Fair Of Texas’ Iconic Corny Dogs Is Engaged In A Lawsuit Over The Rights To Branch Out And Sell Their Treats Outside Of The Fair.

Unlike seemingly every other media outlet in Dallas and, to a degree, the whole goddamn state, we here at Central Track aren’t exactly enamored with the State Fair of Texas. Why? Because, for starters, we’re not kids any more, and we’re no longer oblivious to the ways of the world. But also for a litany of other reasons, which we’ll happily run down for you here, one per day, over the entire course of the fair’s 2019 run, adding to the list we ran throughout the fair’s 2017 run.

Lest we haven’t yet convinced you that the State Fair of Texas is mostly just a thinly veiled cash grab for pretty much all parties involved, consider the turmoil that it’s currently brewing in the Fletcher family.

The Fletcher clan, as any good Texan knows, is the family behind the State Fair of Texas’ most iconic food item, the Fletcher’s Original Corny Dog. Beyond this treat’s obviously delicious qualities — for the record, we’re pro corn dog here at Central Track — this brand’s success is a simple economic lesson in supply and demand. For one thing, it’s important to note that every food vendor at the State Fair of Texas makes serious bank — to the point where it’s all some of these companies do throughout the year. But no brand epitomizes this success more than Fletcher’s, which famously only sells its wares during the state fair’s 24-day run and at a handful of extra North Texas events each calendar year, where its dogs are often hyped up as a major draw.

Historically, that exclusivity has been a big part of the State Fair’s draw, especially for adults who feel obligated to at least “check it out and eat a corny dog” every year. But part of the family is trying to branch out and make corn dogs more of a year-round treat — and the rest of the Fletcher’s are pissed.

In May, we detailed the story of Fletch, a new corn dog brand launched by one of the family patriarch’s offspring. Beyond plans for wider-scale availability — its upcoming event calendar is way busier than the one on the Fletcher’s website — Fletch’s offerings are slightly tweaked from the family recipe, featuring unbleached flour and grass-fed beef in an effort to be healthier and seemingly more modern than their inspiration.

The rest of the family, however, believes the Fletch model to be too close to the Fletcher’s one. Earlier this month, Fletcher’s hit Fletch with a lawsuit, which points to various social media posts as evidence that people are too easily confusing the brands for the same entity. The lawsuit was also delivered with a cease-and-desist demand.

With corny dogs and the State Fair of Texas so intrinsically tied — beyond Big Tex and the Texas Star Ferris wheel, they’re among the top three icons associated with the brand — it’s impossible to separate the fair from this lawsuit, especially when one side wants to keep its offerings mostly confined to Fair Park’s grounds and the other does not.

In other words: The State Fair of Texas is tearing families apart!

Cover photo courtesy of Fletch.

More Reasons Why The State Fair Of Texas Sucks:

  1. Its history is super racist!
  2. It’s a major drain on Dallas police!
  3. It’s bad for your health!
  4. It’s so damn expensive!
  5. It’s not the economic driver it says it is!
  6. It’s a super shitty neighbor!
  7. It’s an altar to false idols!
  8. It makes Fair Park useless!
  9. It wastes city funds on out-of-towners!
  10. It exploits cute animals!
  11. Its executives take home too much money!
  12. Everything on the midway is a ripoff.
  13. It has willfully ignored its obligations and allowed Fair Park to fall into disrepair!
  14. It refuses to be transparent about the way it spends public funds.
  15. It can’t handle Fair Park’s long-term needs.
  16. Its lauded scholarship program is a joke compared to those of other, similar events.
  17. It uses fear tactics in its negotiations with the city.
  18. It goes out of its way to shield its crowds from the poor black neighborhood that surrounds Fair Park.
  19. Its low-level employees get burned by its executives’ bad business decisions.
  20. Its ticket-based economy is designed to squeeze even more cash out of attendees.
  21. It cares way too much about parking lots that go unused most of the year.
  22. It’s petty as fuck.
  23. It celebrates humanity’s fucked up relationship with livestock.
  24. It refuses to change.
  25. It can be easily debated.
  26. Its concert bookings could be heated up a few degrees.
  27. It’s tearing the Fletcher family apart!
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