💥American Schottenstein Inc.💥
Glam Slam Track, Food52 Inc. and American Signature Inc.
The flurry of docket activity that closed ‘25 — much to the chagrin of many a RX professional (and Johnny) — seems to have ground to a halt thus far in ‘26. Yes, yes, we know some sh*t shows from ‘25 have a tail (👀 First Brands) and yes, yes, Saks Global was obviously a big name, annnnnd yes, yes, we know things are percolating. Unlike you masochists, however, we know what to do with “down time” when we have it. In this case, we’re going to catch up on one of those aforementioned late-’25 filings and update two others. Let’s dig in 👇.
⚡Update: American Signature Inc.⚡
Holy hell, do you recall how incestuous the cases of American Signature Inc. and its eight affiliates (collectively, the “debtors”) are? In December ‘25, we dove into the Schottenstein family, which has its fingers in every pie …
We mean eveeerrrrryyyyy last one of ‘em:
📍Equity owner? ✅
📍Prepetition and DIP lender? ✅
📍Stalking horse bidder? ✅
📍Store liquidator? ✅
📍Landlord? ✅
As a result (and as Judge Stickles fully expected at the first-day hearing), the official committee of unsecured creditors (the “UCC”), represented by Kelley Drye and Warren LLP (Eric Wilson, Jason Adams, Maeghan McLoughlin, Richard Gage), Cole Schotz PC (Justin Alberto, Stacy Newman, Carol Thompson, Sarah Carnes, Seth Van Aalten), and Province LLC (Boris Steffen), and the US trustee (the “UST”) beefed with the debtors’ decision to pursue a quickie sale of all assets, including claims and cases of action against the fam, from the Schottensteins as equity to the Schottensteins as stalking horse bidder to pay off the Schottensteins as lender, while the Schottensteins as liquidator burned down the biz.
Both objected, here and here.* From the UCC’s objection:
“Constrained by a Schottenstein backed DIP that provides only $8 million in liquidity and strict milestones, the Debtors seek approval of bid procedures that will provide just 4 weeks for bidders to engage, conduct diligence and submit a bid. Given these incredible limitations over the holiday season, and in the absence of any prepetition marketing, the proposed timeline is unlikely to yield competitive bidding or generate value for unsecured creditors.”
Unsurprisingly, the court agreed:
“The debtors haven’t met their burden to show that the proposed timeline is appropriate under the facts and circumstances of this case, and therefore, the court will deny the proposed timeline as set forth.”
Sounds like a UCC/UST victory, right?
It was. A … um … Pyrrhic one.
Let us explain. After the court ruled, the debtors and the UCC chatted and agreed on a new timeline, extending the bid deadline a whopping …
… days.
Six. Days??
So, sure, the UCC got its wish: bids were now due after the holidays. But bidders would need to spend the holidays digging into the biz to put one together. Guess who was doing that.
Nobody, that’s who.
On January 7, 2026, the debtors made it official …
… and canceled the auction. And while the sale hearing still won’t take place for couple of weeks — February 4, 2026, at 10:00 a.m ET — the outcome is set in stone. The debtors’ website already reflects their Schottenstein’d, liquidating fate.
Which brings us to the worst part. The debtor’s kick-a$$ social media account. It is … 😔 … already gone.
That sh*t was amazing, RIP.
Hopefully the beauties behind it, as well as the rest of the debtors’ ~3k employees, land on their feet.
GUCs sure as sh*t won’t. As of the petition date, the debtors estimated they owed “… approximately $210 million …” to those suckers, and while the sale will technically bring in $83.2mm in cash, it’s all roundtrippin’ from the fam, to the fam.
Heck, administrative creditors like (unaffiliated) landlords and 503(b)(9) claimants may be left holding the bag too. The final DIP order didn’t guarantee them payment in full either … which is another way of saying the cases be teetering on the edge of administrative insolvency.
Which is why, even though the UCC has until January 28, 2026 to cut a deal or object, we’re not expecting anything meaningful to come from it. It already bought (a meaningless amount of) time, the debtors have zero alternatives on the table, and therefore, the UCC has an equal amount of leverage.
⚡️Update 1: Food52 Inc.⚡️
This will be quick.
Back on December 29, 2025, Brooklyn-based and The Chernin Group-owned Food52 Inc. (the “debtor” or the “company”) filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy case in the District of Delaware (Judge Silverstein) after pre-petition secured lender Avidbank Holdings Inc. ($AVBH)(“Avid”) (i) suddenly and unexpectedly swept the debtor’s cash in the midst of a seemingly-consensual pre-petition sale process and (ii) sent the company into a frenetic spiral that (a) sadly, led to a number of people getting sh*tcanned just before the holidays and (b) ruined Xmas for the fine folks at Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP (“YCST”), Meru LLC, and Core Advisors LLC (“Core”)(not to mention CEO Erika Badan and independent director Jill Frizzley). Luckily, Core had been marketing these assets for weeks prior to Avid’s surprise holiday gift and had familiarity with the universe of potentially interested buyers out there; ultimately, it was able to drum up a stalking horse bid from a company dubbed F52 LLC (“F52”), an affiliate of America’s Test Kitchen, LP (itself owned by Marquee Brands LLC). You can refresh your recollection — or in the case of YCST and Ms. Badan, give yourself PTSD — by reviewing our initial coverage here (which includes a roster of specific pros involved):
We left off by writing, “A motion to shorten notice in connection with bid procedures is already on the docket (to be heard on January 12, 2026). We’re going to assume that the debtor’s proposed timeline will hold because it literally cannot afford it not to.”
Spoiler alert: it basically did. At a brief and consensual 15-minute hearing,* Judge Silverstein approved the debtor’s proposed bidding procedures and the proposed $6.5mm stalking horse bid ($3.42mm credit bid + $3.08 cash) for substantially all of the debtor’s assets (read: the three implicated brands, Food52, Schoolhouse and Dansk Designs).** In doing so, Judge Silverstein approved a $200k breakup fee and “up to” $200k as an expense reimbursement. Notably, F52 agreed not to be greedy to waive its originally approved 6% exit fee on the DIP upon entry of the bidding procedures order.
The DIP requires sh*t to get done by February 13, 2026 so while dates pushed a wee bit (mostly due to the court’s calendar), the timeline remains within that parameter: the bid deadline is February 3, 2026 at 4:00 pm (ET), any auction will occur on February 5, 2026 at 10:00 am (ET), and a sale hearing will be conducted on February 10, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. (ET).
Will any other bidders emerge? We’ll know soon enough.
*A seven-party official committee of unsecured creditors is now in the mix, represented by Robinson & Cole LLP (Jamie Edmonson, Evan Lazerowitz, Rachel Jaffe Mauceri).
**One party, an entity named Form Portfolios LLC (“Form”), submitted a reservation of rights related to the bid procedures that was not an obstacle to approval. Form is the licensor of intellectual property related to Dansk Brand and there is some beef over the rights thereto, which, as you might imagine, could be highly relevant to any proposed sale. There was, pre-petition, a breach of contract lawsuit – now stayed, of course. Form is represented by Hinckley & Heisenberg LLP (George Hinckley Jr., Christoph Heisenberg) and Richards Layton & Finger LLP (Brendan Schlauch).
🏃New Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing - GST, Inc.🏃
This shoulda been quick.
Back on December 11, 2025, GST, Inc. aka Grand Slam Track™ (the “debtor” or the “company”) filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy case in the District of Delaware (Judge Owens). Then, the debtor did nothing. For nearly two weeks.
Which is ironic because the debtor’s CEO ain’t known for slow starts.
He’s, um, Michael Johnson.
The eight-time world champion.
Four-time Olympic 🥇 too — would’ve been five had Jerome Young not been a dope(r).*
In ‘23, he conceived the debtor “… as a new professional track and field league,” and in the summer of ‘23, per Force10 Partners LLC’s (“Force 10”) Nicholas Rubin, Mr. Johnson began formalizing the framework for the business, which progressed a couple of months later to working with Winners Alliance (“WA”), “… a global organization involved in the commercialization and representation of athletes,” on fundraising and operational development.
In February ‘24, Mr. Johnson went public with the league, and in April ‘24, the debtor and WA completed a seed financing round. For …
… $7mm in pref equity plus the potential for $6mm more at a future date.
To launch a professional sports league.
You don’t need anything more to know this thing was sure as sh*t going to fail.
But with $7mm in hand, Mr. Johnson “… hired full-time staff, executed athlete contracts to ensure athlete attendance and participation at competitions, and prepared for launch,” executing broadcast agreements covering the US, Europe, and 205 other global territories and aiming to hold its inaugural season in ‘25.
Sound expensive? It was. Enter PJT Partners ($PJT), which between January and March ‘25, contacted 150+ parties, including strategics, family offices, PE sponsors, and venture capital firms, seeing if anyone was willing to make an investment. Here’s Mr. Rubin to tell us about how that played out:
“During this period, members of the Company’s management participated in more than 30 live pitch meetings with prospective investors, addressing topics including the planned structure of the inaugural 2025 season, projected operating results, capital requirements, and potential paths to scalability. Despite this extensive outreach, many prospective investors declined to proceed or deferred investment decisions, frequently citing the early-stage nature of the league, the absence of completed operating results from a full season of competition, uncertainty regarding the ramp-up of media and sponsorship revenues, and the lack of a committed lead investor.”
Again, another clue for Mr. Johnson. But one party got his hopes up. In mid-March ‘25, Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries (“Eldrige”) and the debtor entered into a non-binding term sheet that contemplated $30mm in Series A funding.
Based on that and Eldrige’s “… repeated positive indications regarding its anticipated investment,” the company pushed forward with its first event in Kingston, Jamaica and “… made firm commitments to athletes, broadcasters, and commercial partners …”
So, the starting 🔫 fired off in Kingston on April 4, 2025.
Seven days later, on April 11, 2025, the very-unbound Eldrige be like …
… racing off and leaving the company without a committed, institutional financier.
But the company had already committed itself, and after undisclosed sources dropped “… several million dollars …” into it, the league held its second and third competitions in Miami and Philly in May ‘25.
Those would be the last. By the time that June ‘25 rolled around, the league was an abject failure, and it canceled its fourth scheduled event in Los Angeles. Over the following months, the company attempted to raise outside capital, which didn’t happen, and “negotiate” with athletes, vendors, and other creditors on payment terms …
By December ‘25, creditors crossed the finish line, and a group of them forced the company’s hand by threatening an involuntary liquidation. Hence the voluntary filing the same month.
As of the petition date, the company owed (i) $5.3mm to WA under secured promissory notes issued throughout ‘25 to keep the business afloat and (ii), excluding WA’s GUC claims, ~$20mm in unsecured creditors, including of ~$7mm owing to athletes, against …~$143k in cash.
To fund the obvious DIP need, WA is stepping up with a ~$7.3mm DIP term loan, composed of $2.9mm in fresh kindling ($1.1mm interim) and a ~$4.4mm roll-up of WA’s prepetition debt ($1.1mm on interim, ~$3.3mm on final). The DIP bears interest at a simple 14.5%, features a 2% exit fee on the new money, and contains the following milestones:
It’s not really a sprint … but what’s the value of reorganizing this “business”? The company has no hard assets, and the name is torched. In response to a letter from Mr. Johnson to the track community, Olympic Gold medalist Gabby Thomas, whom the debtor owes ~$249k,** made that last point crystal-clear on TikTok:
For now, we wait. The court held a 32-minute first-day hearing on December 23, 2025, at which the court granted the debtors’ DIP motion (the only substantive relief), and scheduled the second-day hearing for February 2, 2026 at 11am ET.
The debtor is represented by Levene, Neale, Bender, Yoo & Golubchik L.L.P. (David Golubchik, Krikor Meshefejian) and Reed Smith LLP (Kurt Gwynne, Jason Angelo, Gabrielle Colson) as legal counsel, Force10 Partners LLC (Nicholas Rubin) as financial advisor and CRO, and Kekst CNC as strategic communications advisor. The debtor’s independent director is J. Rudy Freeman. WA is represented by Raines Feldman Littrell LLP (Hamid Rafatjoo, Carollynn Callari, Thomas Francella, Jr., Mark Eckard) as legal counsel. The official committee of unsecured creditors is represented by Thompson Coburn LLP (Mark Power, Joseph Orbach, Aleksandra Abramova) and Chipman Brown Cicero & Cole, LLP (Bryan Hall).
*Jerome didn’t even participate in the finals. He was a heat runner.
**Other athletes were also left holding the bag, including Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (~$356k), Kenny Bednarek ($225k), Josh Kerr (~$219k), Marileidy Paulino (~$212k), Alison Dos Santos (~$191k), and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (~$191k).
📚Resources📚
We have compiled a list of a$$-kicking resources on the topics of restructuring, tech, finance, investing, and disruption. 💥You can find it here💥.
🔥Conference Alert: Wharton Restructuring & Distressed Investing Conference on Feb 20!🔥
PETITION is proud to be a media partner of The Wharton School in connection with this year’s Wharton Restructuring & Distressed Investing Conference taking place at The Plaza Hotel in New York City on Friday, February 20, 2026.
While the agenda and speakers haven’t yet been set, this year’s conference theme is “Restructuring in the Age of Private Credit,” and the Wharton folks are excited to host a distinguished group of keynote speakers and panelists who will explore the rapidly evolving dynamics of private credit and its growing influence on the restructuring landscape. Discussions will highlight innovative restructuring strategies, the shifting balance between traditional and private credit lenders, and forward-looking strategies for distressed investing in today’s changing economic environment. Sponsors include Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Weil, Latham & Watkins LLP, and other top notch shops with massive footprints in RX, so you can just assume that the panelists will come from those firms and kick some serious a$$.
Interested in going? We’ve got great news: PETITION readers can get 10%-off by using the code PETITION10 at checkout, 💪.
📤 Notice📤
Jacob Czarnick (Principal, Business Development & Strategy) joined A&G Real Estate Partners from Raymond James.
Jeff Michalik (Partner) joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP from Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
Marc Hecht (Partner) joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.
Tara Schellhorn (Principal) joined Porzio Bromberg & Newman PC from Riker Danzig LLP.
🍾Congratulations to…🍾
Ankan Dhal on his promotion to Principal and Associate General Counsel at Oak Hill Advisors LP.
Austin Prentice, Brad Weiland, Jeff Liu, Jonah Galaz, Nicholas Haughey, Sean Farrell and Stephen R. Moore on their promotions to Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal LLC.
Josh Clarkson on his promotion to Partner at Prosek Partners.
Lincoln Prentiss on his promotion to Managing Director at Perella Weinberg.
Max Molinsky on his promotion to Director at Baird.
Nathan Mooney on his promotion to Managing Director at Lazard.
IslandDundon LLC (Steven Landgraber) for securing the financial advisor mandate on behalf of the official committee of unsecured creditors in the F-Star Socorro, L.P. chapter 11 bankruptcy cases.
Robinson & Cole LLP (Jamie Edmonson, Evan Lazerowitz, Rachel Jaffe Mauceri) for securing the legal mandate on behalf of the official committee of unsecured creditors in the Food52 Inc. chapter 11 bankruptcy case.