Origins of viral cheese grater hats lighting up Bears-Packers rivalry
The "graterhead hat" — its official name — isn't new, but sales took off after the Bears' DJ Moore wore one in a locker-room celebration
The Athletic has live coverage of Rams vs. Panthers and Packers vs. Bears from the NFL playoffs wild-card round.
Few things are predictable with the 2025 Chicago Bears. And even less so when it comes to Saturday night’s wild-card matchup at Soldier Field against the Green Bay Packers — the third meeting in 33 days between these teams after splitting the regular-season series.
However, if you walk through the tailgating scene beforehand, some things are guaranteed.
Smoking grills and crushed beer cans. A few of those full-length bear coats — ears, paws and all. A lakefront breeze and probably a few snow flurries. Chants of “Green Bay sucks” under every tunnel leading to the stadium.
And this week, maybe some of those trending cheese grater hats. Thanks, DJ Moore.
“We were wondering what the hell was going on,” said Manuel Rojas, CEO and founder of Foam Party Hats, the company that makes the cheese grater hats. “When I went online and saw the video, saw the game … that’s when we were like, ‘Oh s—, this is going to be big.’”
By now, the scene is familiar to Chicago sports fans. After Moore caught the game-winning touchdown in overtime the last time the Packers visited Soldier Field on Dec. 20, 2025, the 28-year-old entered the center of the postgame locker room huddle. “Go DJ” by Lil Wayne blared through the speakers as Moore danced with a giant foam cheese grater on his head, a jab at the rival Packers’ famous cheesehead hats.
This team is special. pic.twitter.com/SGXkTAljwH
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) December 21, 2025
Rojas woke up the next morning bombarded with emails inquiring about his foam cheese grater hat. Since that day, his company has received 7,000 orders and counting for the cheese grater hat. Each hat is handmade by 32 full-time employees in their Houston, Texas, warehouse, which Rojas described as “madness” over the last month.
Quarterback Caleb Williams sported the gear, officially called the “graterhead hat,” while handing out boxes of food at his foundation’s holiday giveaway event the next day. Baltimore Ravens players passed one around on the sideline during their 41-24 win over the Packers the following week. A young Bears fan wore one (1:11 mark) in a recent video posted by the team’s X account, asking fans to describe this season. (His word was “amazing!”)
Foam Party Hats has ties all the way back to 2002, when Rojas’ mother, Grace, wanted to do something creative for her daughter’s wedding. The foam hats were a huge success, and they sold them locally in Caracas, Venezuela, until the family moved to the United States in 2010. Grace continued to sell the hats to friends nearby before Manuel helped launch the official company in 2017.

