The production line is set up so tours can get a behind-the-scenes look. Due to COVID-19, visitors are required to wear a mask inside the space and workers use every other station.
Credit: Jake Hill Photography
On a good day, Foamation Inc.’s Original Cheesehead Factory can produce about 150 of its iconic cheesehead hats. But with only three production stations operating at one time and a catalog of nearly 90 foam…
On a good day, Foamation Inc.’s Original Cheesehead Factory can produce about 150 of its iconic cheesehead hats.
But with only three production stations operating at one time and a catalog of nearly 90 foam products, production of its best-selling item all depends on what’s going on that day at the company’s facility in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood.
Summer’s peak tour season has brought as many as 100 people through the factory in the span of two hours. One tour allows visitors to take over the production line and make their own cheesehead creation.
“We know that during tour season, we’re not going to get a lot of production done so what (workers do in advance) is stockpiling,” said co-owner Mei-Lynn Nelson.
Foamation saw sales drop 99% for two months because of the COVID-19 outbreak, temporarily shutting down production, tours and its retail store. The factory reopened to the public in late May, with new health and safety protocols.
Monitors have been installed outside the production area so tours can get an overhead view while keeping a safe distance.
Production worker Mark Rentmaster pours a proprietary polyurethane mixture into a miniature cheesehead mold complete with spots for holes.
Once poured, it takes about five minutes for the mini cheesehead to harden inside its mold, after a car jack is used to apply 1,500 pounds of pressure to the outside.
Production worker Sam Hildebrandt trims around the finished product to remove excess foam.
Foamation in 2016 moved from St. Francis to its current 15,920-square-foot, 116-year-old factory building at 1120 S. Barclay St. in Milwaukee. It recently completed work on a new 7,800-square-foot event space inside the facility.
Foamation’s scraps are recycled and used by a Madison-based manufacturer to make floor mats.
Ralph Bruno, owner of Foamation and mastermind behind the foam cheesehead hat, created the first of its kind in 1987 from a piece of couch foam.
