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Taylor Sonnenfeilt waits for Nebraska to arrive before the Georgia Southern game on on Sept. 10 at Memorial Stadium in one of the traditional Cornhead hats, which are getting harder and harder to buy.
Hang on to your Cornhead hats, Nebraska.
They’re becoming a rarer piece of headwear.
The 20-inch iconic ears of foam disappeared from the market more than two years ago, after their only producer — Foamation Inc. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin — stopped making them, and then stopped answering emails from its Nebraska buyer.
“We’ve had so many people asking about them this year,” said Hannah Nelson, manager of the Alumni Hall store near 11th and P. “We’ve put in requests for corn hats, but we haven’t got them.”
Before the pandemic, the University Bookstore sold hundreds of Cornhead hats annually. And not just during football season, said store director Jeni Fuchs.
“We had people buying them as souvenirs, taking them home from visits. There isn’t a kid who comes in here that doesn’t want a corn cob hat.”
She got her last shipment in 2019. When nothing came in 2020, she blamed COVID-19, and the shortened, no-fans-in-the-stands football season. But then nothing came in 2021, and nothing this season.
Still, customers ask for them daily, she said. “I can’t sell them Cornheads, but I can sell them some red-and-white overalls.”
Fuchs heard the Wisconsin company — best known for its wedge-shaped Cheesehead hats — was struggling with supply chain problems.
And it might be, but it’s not clear.
All Things Big Red has traditionally bought Cornhead hats from Foamation, supplying the University Bookstore and its own online and retail stores.
The Lincoln company’s Liz England last heard from Foamation in July 2021. In an email, the Milwaukee manufacturer said it was having a difficult time receiving the raw material it needed to keep making the hats, and that it would have to raise the price, and that it would get back to her with details.
And then it ghosted her. England emailed three more times in 2021 and received no response. She tried again in January to gauge the possibility of getting stock for the 2022 season, and again received no response.
A message on the company’s phone said it’s closed its retail store, and provided a number to call for wholesale questions. That number led to voicemail, and a message left by the Journal Star on Wednesday morning wasn’t returned.
Its Facebook page is all but dormant — the last new content was posted in July 2021 — and it hasn’t tweeted since 2020. Its website is still up, but only to direct users to the Packers Pro Shop for Cheesehead-related products.
Best of Big Red general manager Joey Rupp poses for a photo with the new foam Cornhead hat Wednesday.
England found an alternative — the New Cornhead Hat, according to its catalog — but it lacks the heft and the detailed kernels of the Old Cornhead Hat, she said.
It’s floppy, with just a single layer of foam, compared to the original’s solid core. But so far, it’s not a flop.
“They seem to be buying this new one. It’s just not the same old awesome Cornhead.”
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Reach the writer at 402-473-7254 or psalter@journalstar.com.
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Peter Salter is a general assignment reporter. The University of North Dakota graduate joined the Journal Star in 1998.
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Taylor Sonnenfeilt waits for Nebraska to arrive before the Georgia Southern game on on Sept. 10 at Memorial Stadium in one of the traditional Cornhead hats, which are getting harder and harder to buy.
Best of Big Red general manager Joey Rupp poses for a photo with the new foam Cornhead hat Wednesday.
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