which is based on Emma saying at the start of her instagram post, "Since my fueling company dropped me after telling them I was pregnant" https://www.instagram.com/p/DW...
UCAN told Front Office Sports, "The partnership decisions for 2026 were made in September 2025 as a part of regular business planning and before any knowledge of her pregnancy. We made an effort to continue working with Emma under a new agreement, but she ultimately chose not to move forward with that option."
LetsRun.com changed the tile from "UCAN drops Emma Bates due to pregnancy"
I hope they sue her for defamation. You shouldn’t be able to lie and smear a small company like that and walk away with it.
she likely ended this brand, this isn’t a big company and I don’t see how they survive. The damage is done, and even if she comes out and apologize nobody will care. They’ll just remember her lie.
people get way too worked up over stuff like this. Even if her claim was true, there’s no reason a brand should be forced to keep an athlete who isn’t going to compete for the next two years. There’s nothing in it for them, especially a small company.
I hope they sue her for defamation. You shouldn’t be able to lie and smear a small company like that and walk away with it.
she likely ended this brand, this isn’t a big company and I don’t see how they survive. The damage is done, and even if she comes out and apologize nobody will care. They’ll just remember her lie.
people get way too worked up over stuff like this. Even if her claim was true, there’s no reason a brand should be forced to keep an athlete who isn’t going to compete for the next two years. There’s nothing in it for them, especially a small company.
Hopefully there is a silent majority of people who don't give a d*mn about Emma's sponsorship who will support UCAN. It's likely a loud minority who are raising a fuss over it.
I'm a woman and I don't understand why Emma feels entitled to have a sponsor continue to fund her non-racing lifestyle. She comes across as ungrateful to a brand that was under no obligation to throw money at her in the first place.
I’ll continue to purchase UCAN. The gels work for me . Ive lost respect for Emma over the years anyway, so this just adds to my worsening opinion of her. The ppl supporting her on IG are some pro athletes and fan-girl hobby joggers. Posters here seem to get it and have a less than stellar opinion of her . im sure UCAN will be fine . Emma will be fine . All her sponsorship was , was probably free gels not substantial
The amount of damage she has done to the brand is insane. This morning scrolling IG I saw at least 5 posts with dozens of comments about how UCAN is more immoral than IDF
and I love a witch-hunt as much the next person
Do they realize that Ucan is a female owned/founded company?
Giving her the benefit of the doubt, Emma made a mistake, she was probably upset because of the low offer she received and used poor judgement in her comments. She should apologize. And yes, a small female brand suing a pregnant female athlete that defamed them is not nearly as bad as if it were Nike.
Do they realize that Ucan is a female owned/founded company?
Giving her the benefit of the doubt, Emma made a mistake, she was probably upset because of the low offer she received and used poor judgement in her comments. She should apologize. And yes, a small female brand suing a pregnant female athlete that defamed them is not nearly as bad as if it were Nike.
Speculation presented solely for entertainment purposes...
UCAN decides to drop or get a lower value contract with Emma in September 2025 after a couple of stagnant performance years. No agreement is reached and the partnership expires.
Emma seizes the chance to do a little self-promotion during her year off and air some dirty laundry in a gentle way. Working in the pregnancy adds controversy that translates into press, views, clicks, links, and engagement. This keeps the stans engaged and clicking that IG link everyday!
UCAN defends itself with some facts. Ultimately, this gets forgotten in about 24 hours because it's a small brand with a niche following. This isn't Alyson Felix vs. Nike by a longshot.
Life rolls along...
Probably a lot of truth in here.
Words matter. There's a distinction between getting dropped & being fired because of pregnancy, with the former mainly being non-renewal. I don't think Bates was insinuating that UCAN learned of the pregnancy & terminated her contract, but I also don't think the masses 100% understand what getting dropped means. The contract came up. Who knows if the company was going to renew, regardless of pregnancy status. That said, taking Bates at face value, it sounds like telling them she was pregnant was a part of the renewal conversation & it's hard to not act on that information or appear to act on that information when the athlete then isn't resigned. & it's ok to judge UCAN for that choice. You can think Bates didn't provide value pregnant or if she was running. You can think she has value as a pregnant runner. I tend to go with the latter & think she has value & that this kind of non-renewal is common for female runners who get pregnant. The industry could be more creative with promotion because it's relatable & a lot of pregnant runners do come back & do continue to have solid race results. I don't think this has to be a super sharp opinion conversation, where Bates gets a ton of criticism from a largely male audience. UCAN didn't want to sponsor a pregnant runner. Defending that choice is fine, but we've seen a pattern like this for women in the sport. Maybe you didn't like the way it came out, or just don't like Bates, or whatever, but pregnant runners deal with stuff like this all the time. Don't think it's the easy dunk on Bates situation some see it as, even if you want to say UCAN has every right to decide who to give money to -- which they do.
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
This was just stupid on UCan's part. Who really knows what the truth is, but the fact is they missed a big chance to sell a ton of their crappy gels to pregnant women wanting snacks and eating for two. It shows a lack of understanding from their executives. I won't be surprised if the brand fails.
This post was edited 8 minutes after it was posted.
Anyway, Emma Bates is hugely popular among hobby joggers. People running 4-hour marathons don't care if Bates ran 2:18 or 2:25. UCAN shot themselves in the foot by losing her at the same time she was announcing pregnancy.
- She will be 34 this summer. Can't imagine her return the roads will happen prior to turning 36. Hard to believe she will be competitive at that point. From a sponsorship standpoint, you'd have to think that there are more competitive runners you can work with. At the very least, they can find runfluencers who would give them far larger reach for less money.
- Emma has been known make some odd or societally unconventional decisions(remember when she lived in a remote, off the grid cabin for years?). Perhaps this instagram reel is a continuation of historical unhinged behavior from Emma.
- Hasn't finished Top 10 in a marathon in 3 years. Career has been declining.
- The majority of people running 4-hour marathons barely have any idea who Eliud Kipchoge or Kelvin Kiptum is, nevermind Emma Bates. They also likely have no idea what UCAN is.
- Emma's instagram follow count vs comment engagement is suspiciously low. One might assume that a large number of follows might have been bought in order to "boost" their value for potential sponsorships..... Social Media platforms do this all the time by adding lots of bot accounts, mimicking real users, to artificially inflate their shareholder values and then get sued for fraud.
- The truth of the UCAN vs Emma Bates might not be as she is framing it to be. Emma has routinely made public statements time and time again over the years that are not actually rooted in reality. ie. "I'm in 2:18 shape" and then proceeds to run 2:25/2:27 in ideal conditions.
- There are lots of pubmed studies published about observed neuroanatomical changes made in the brain during pregnancy - Emma's public statements about UCAN may have been influenced by said changes. Odd that the contract expired De.31 but she waits until March 24 to go public and throw them under the bus
It's not really about the performance. It's about the storyline that sells things like gels. UCan, if it wants to grow its business, would be smart to lean into sponsorship of pregnant women. It would open up new markets.
Shoba is no longer the CEO. But the current one is a female.
What Emma did is embarrassing. So bad and immature
This is just the deal in basing your income, in part, around chasing engagement on SM. It's a deal with the devil, you have to max out your narcissism to excel at it. People actually at the top of their game, like Kipchoge or even Rupp or Mantz, don't really have to have much to do with it because their performances pretty much max the attention they're going to get in the entertainment realm. Others, like Ms. Bates, have to basically be mistrels prancing around in the side-show to keep the dream going. Dream of what? Living the athlete lifestyle with no realistic hope of leveling-up, apparently.
What Emma did is embarrassing. So bad and immature
This is just the deal in basing your income, in part, around chasing engagement on SM. It's a deal with the devil, you have to max out your narcissism to excel at it. People actually at the top of their game, like Kipchoge or even Rupp or Mantz, don't really have to have much to do with it because their performances pretty much max the attention they're going to get in the entertainment realm. Others, like Ms. Bates, have to basically be mistrels prancing around in the side-show to keep the dream going. Dream of what? Living the athlete lifestyle with no realistic hope of leveling-up, apparently.
She's only proven what a mistake it was to sponsor her in the first place. Her strategy seems to be to send a threatening message to her CURRENT sponsors, ("I will do damage to your brand if you drop me") and she doesn't plan to ever get new ones.
Sadly a lot of companies are immediately rushing in to be the "savior" of this situation. She has a lot of brands in the comment section saying they will be reaching out to her. So she is profiting off this drama. I know UCAN won't but i wish they would sue the snot out of her. With the amount of comments saying "Boycott UCAN" I would assume it would be pretty easy to prove she caused harm to the company.
I've tried UCAN and it was not a good product. It is among the worst option available. Sorry but that's my opinion.
Sadly a lot of companies are immediately rushing in to be the "savior" of this situation. She has a lot of brands in the comment section saying they will be reaching out to her. So she is profiting off this drama. I know UCAN won't but i wish they would sue the snot out of her. With the amount of comments saying "Boycott UCAN" I would assume it would be pretty easy to prove she caused harm to the company.
I think a lot of UCAN employees are posting here.
By "a lot", which of the 4 employees do you think it would be. The one UCAN employee that was actually negotiating the contract is busy considering options, organizing the receipts.
Someone asked him about the UCAN situation and he said "Who said anything about Emma?"
I think the point is that if you're gonna passively post something without naming names then be open to some replies saying as much. Plus his comment, as a dude, sort of assumes pregnant women don't have value when maybe they do. It's not a bad comment, but we all know why he said this & there's an argument that pregnant women get dropped all the time + maybe companies can get more creative there. They can also choose to drop athletes.
Someone asked him about the UCAN situation and he said "Who said anything about Emma?"
I think the point is that if you're gonna passively post something without naming names then be open to some replies saying as much. Plus his comment, as a dude, sort of assumes pregnant women don't have value when maybe they do. It's not a bad comment, but we all know why he said this & there's an argument that pregnant women get dropped all the time + maybe companies can get more creative there. They can also choose to drop athletes.
It's up to the brand whether a pregnant woman is valuable to them or not. They should have the option of deciding 'not', and choosing not to renew a brand deal with that athlete.
If brands are raked over the coals for doing that, then we're in a situation where an athlete with a one year deal, which wasn't going to be renewed anyway, can say "but I'm pregnant, therefore you NEED to sponsor me another year, as I will blackmail you with the threat of bad press if you don't".
It's up to the brand whether a pregnant woman is valuable to them or not. They should have the option of deciding 'not', and choosing not to renew a brand deal with that athlete.
If brands are raked over the coals for doing that, then we're in a situation where an athlete with a one year deal, which wasn't going to be renewed anyway, can say "but I'm pregnant, therefore you NEED to sponsor me another year, as I will blackmail you with the threat of bad press if you don't".
EXACTLY. This is the crux of the entire situation. Unfortunately, the pitchfork-wielding public doesn't understand this nuance (and seemingly doesn't care to). They are content thinking that sponsorship contracts are in perpetuity, and that opting not to renew an expiring one is the same as voiding an active one.
This was just stupid on UCan's part. Who really knows what the truth is, but the fact is they missed a big chance to sell a ton of their crappy gels to pregnant women wanting snacks and eating for two. It shows a lack of understanding from their executives. I won't be surprised if the brand fails.
I guarantee a majority of her own followers had no idea she was sponsored by UCAN until now, so no lol.
The amount of damage she has done to the brand is insane. This morning scrolling IG I saw at least 5 posts with dozens of comments about how UCAN is more immoral than IDF
and I love a witch-hunt as much the next person
She's only proven what a mistake it was to sponsor her in the first place. Her strategy seems to be to send a threatening message to her CURRENT sponsors, ("I will do damage to your brand if you drop me") and she doesn't plan to ever get new ones.
Exactly!! Why would any company sponsor her after this is beyond me.
I hope they sue her for defamation. You shouldn’t be able to lie and smear a small company like that and walk away with it.
she likely ended this brand, this isn’t a big company and I don’t see how they survive. The damage is done, and even if she comes out and apologize nobody will care. They’ll just remember her lie.
people get way too worked up over stuff like this. Even if her claim was true, there’s no reason a brand should be forced to keep an athlete who isn’t going to compete for the next two years. There’s nothing in it for them, especially a small company.
Hopefully there is a silent majority of people who don't give a d*mn about Emma's sponsorship who will support UCAN. It's likely a loud minority who are raising a fuss over it.
I'm a woman and I don't understand why Emma feels entitled to have a sponsor continue to fund her non-racing lifestyle. She comes across as ungrateful to a brand that was under no obligation to throw money at her in the first place.
+1 I think that shoe sponsors should be able to support a female athlete through pregnancy, especially a successful one but this reeks of entitlement and is ridiculous.
The running world is full of vapid self centered people who treat slights against them like massive social justice issues. This is embarrassing for Emma.