Key Takeaways
• The Packers’ cease and desist pushed Foam Party Hats away from the cheesehead hat, leading to the cheese grater instead, which became an even bigger cultural moment.
• A few locker-room appearances by Bears players turned a novelty item into a sold-out product with thousands of orders almost overnight.
• Foam Party Hats didn’t engineer the moment, but being ready with a clever, timely product allowed it to capitalize when attention exploded.
It’s iconic at this point. It’s probably the most famous fan accessory in sports. Its legend outshines any Terrible Towel in Pittsburgh or crushed folding table in Buffalo.
The cheesehead is synonymous with Green Bay Packers fandom.
And that’s precisely why the Packers sent Foam Party Hats, a company that specializes in exactly what its name suggests – oversized themed novelty headwear for any occasion – a cease-and-desist letter for a foam hat that the franchise felt was too close to its precious cheese block.
Foam Party Hats CEO Manuel Rojas, along with the rest of his team, knew better than to take on an NFL team in a legal battle like this, and simply took the product out of circulation and focused on other ideas like, say, a cheese grater.
And this is where Foam Party Hats suddenly found itself going against the Packers, though perhaps not directly.
The Rivalry Moment
According to ESPN, Rojas received a flurry of emails and texts from people sending him clips of the locker room after the Bears-Packers game this year, where Bears Wide Receiver D.J. Moore was dancing in the locker room wearing their cheese grater hat.
What can you use to beat the cheeseheads? A cheese grater, of course.
“I saw D.J. wearing that in the locker room and I couldn’t tell what it was,” Bears Tight End Cole Kmet told ESPN at the time. “But good for the guy, whoever made that. I’m sure he’s doing pretty well right now.”
The guy, whoever made that (Rojas), called it an “oh s—” moment.
“I knew it was going to be something really, really big,” he told ESPN.
Right after the locker-room video and postgame celebration, Bears Quarterback Caleb Williams wore the hat as he gave out boxes of food for his foundation’s holiday giveaway event, adding even more demand, and he was joined by other teammates during postgame interviews after beating the Packers in Chicago.
At this point, with the NFL postseason looming, Foam Party Hats received more than 7,000 orders from fans and retailers alike. The demand inundated the staff of 23 who are used to working things like parties and weddings, not supporting one of the biggest fan bases in the country’s premier sports league.
It should come as no shock that Foam Party Hats has completely sold out and is on back order until at least March – well after any title the Bears might win this season.
Rojas, though, is grateful for the attention the Bears gave him and his company.
“After this, I’m a huge Bears fan,” he told ESPN. “I got my D.J. Moore shirt already.”
Riding the Viral Wave
Social media allows even more people and things to have their 15 minutes in the spotlight. In sports and pop culture, moments become main characters and lend themselves nicely to marketing initiatives.
While these were fleeting moments in the locker room that some players didn’t think much of, the foam hat could now be on its way to becoming a staple at Soldier Field in Chicago just like the cheesehead is at Lambeau in Green Bay.
For Rojas and Foam Party Hats, the lesson is that you never know when something might take off or when a product might suddenly become a must-have. Though Rojas didn’t need to do too much, having a fun alternative to the cheese hat created a whole new outlet for business that he might not have predicted.
One viral moment can make a huge difference, as companies like Koozie Group (asi/40480) found recently.
Distributors who pay attention to little moments and look for opportunities for clever product campaigns might just find themselves at the center of a major play.
