FORTISVEX Arkansas State Flag 3x5 Feet Nylon - Made in USA with Brass Grommets

The 3x5 foot flag is the one most people mean when they say flag. It is the default house size, it fits the bracket that came with the house, and it is the size replaced most often in America.

This is the Arkansas state flag at 3x5 Feet (15 square feet) in nylon, made in the United States and finished with brass grommets.

Built to the Arkansas flag specification

The Arkansas flag is set out in Arkansas Code Section 1-4-101. It is a red field with a large white diamond bordered by a blue band carrying 25 white stars, and inside the diamond the word Arkansas with four blue stars.

Designed by Willie K. Hocker for a Daughters of the American Revolution contest in 1913, adopted February 26, 1913, modified in 1923, modified again in 1924 when the fourth star was added, and the colors modified April 4, 2011.

The law governing this flag addresses design, colors and the seal or emblem, but leaves overall size unspecified for a modern outdoor flag. That is typical across most states, which is why the industry has converged on the same standard sizes.

We hold to a faithful reproduction of that design, at the standard outdoor sizes the industry uses and the states themselves buy. What matters on a flag that flies outdoors is accurate colors, seal and emblems, and that is exactly what this one has.

The law that defines it, in its own words

Arkansas Code Section 1-4-101 reads:

(a)(1)(A) The official state flag shall be a rectangle of red on which is placed a large white diamond, bordered by a wide band of blue on which are twenty-five (25) white stars. (B) Across the diamond shall be the word "ARKANSAS" and four (4) blue stars, with one (1) star above and three (3) stars below the word "ARKANSAS". (C) The star above the word "ARKANSAS" shall be below the upper corner of the diamond. (D) The three (3) stars below the word "ARKANSAS" shall be placed so that one (1) star shall be above the lower corner of the diamond and two (2) stars shall be placed symmetrically, parallel above and to the right and left of the star in the lower corner of the diamond. (2) The colors used for the official state flag shall be the same as those used on the United States flag, specifically to include: (A) Old Glory Red or its equivalent; and (B) Old Glory Blue or its equivalent.

You do not have to take our word for any of that. Read Arkansas Code Section 1-4-101 in full at Justia, and check what we sell against it.

This is what we actually make, not a stand-in for it.

What is on it and what it means

The diamond marks Arkansas as the only diamond producing state. The 25 stars in the border mark it as the 25th state. The three central stars stand for Spanish, French and American sovereignty and for Arkansas as the third state of the Louisiana Purchase. The fourth star, added in 1924, honors the Confederacy.

What most listings get wrong

The word Arkansas was not in Hocker’s original design. The adopting committee added it.

Where the Arkansas flag flies

State law directs the Secretary of State to keep a supply of United States and Arkansas flags that have been flown over the State Capitol and make them available through legislators and the Governor for distribution to civic groups, schools and youth groups. So a capitol flown flag comes through a legislator rather than a public storefront. The Secretary of State publishes a formal Protocol for the Arkansas State Flag, compiled by the 1997 Committee on Protocol: the flag is raised briskly and lowered slowly, displayed on state holidays and special occasions, sunrise to sunset unless illuminated. The flag itself was born from a 1913 need to present a stand of colors to the battleship Arkansas. The Pine Bluff chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution discovered the state had no flag, which prompted the design contest won by Willie Hocker.

Fly it on Arkansas’s birthday

Arkansas became the 25th state on June 15, 1836. Under the United States Flag Code as amended July 7, 1976, a state flag flown on the state’s birthday takes its place beneath the United States flag, and that day is the one date every year the Arkansas flag has an official reason to go up.

Order ahead and this flag is ready for the day. The complete list of state birthdays lives on our state birthdays page.

Nylon or polyester in Arkansas

Nylon in most of the state at Little Rock, Fayetteville and Fort Smith. Polyester where tornado alley wind and severe storm frequency are highest.

Take flags down for ice storms.

For scale, the National Weather Service ultraviolet index forecast for Little Rock on July 23, 2026 was 10 at solar noon, in the very high band. That is the sun this flag has to survive.

Fifteen square feet, a house flag: here the material decides two things — whether it moves on a light-wind day, and how quickly it dries out after rain.

This listing is the nylon. It is the right choice for the sheltered and moderate wind sites named above, on any house bracket, and anywhere the flag comes down in storms. Two things decide that. Nylon is light, so it flies on the breeze most yards actually get instead of hanging limp, and it dries fast, which is what fights mildew in a humid climate. What it gives up is ultraviolet life: nylon’s amide bonds absorb ultraviolet and break, so under hard sun it loses strength and color faster than polyester, and it loses roughly a tenth of its strength while it is wet. If your site is one of the exposed ones above, look at the polyester version of this flag instead.

One more consideration, learned by most people only after a repeat purchase: a nylon flag moves in conditions where polyester hangs still. If the flag needs to actually be flying — a calm morning, a holiday, a funeral, a ceremony — that is an argument for nylon even on a site where polyester would technically outlast it. A flag that just hangs there has failed just as much as one that frays.

The figure most institutions use is from the American Legion, citing the United States government's expectation of about ninety days for a flag flown daily from sunrise to sunset, and roughly a quarter of that around the clock. Retailers see three to six months in practice for nylon flown daily, four to eight for polyester, and one to three years when flown occasionally. These are practical figures, not a guarantee, and real-world exposure shifts them considerably.

How the 3x5 Feet is built

Because the 3x5 foot flag is the size bought most often on price alone, it is also the size that fails first at the fly end. Four rows of lock stitching there is what buys the extra two seasons.

The math comes to 15 square feet of nylon at roughly two ounces a square yard. In a thirty mile an hour wind, the fly end moves faster than the wind that is driving it, since the wave headed for the tip speeds up as it travels — which explains why the tip wears out first and why fly-end stitching count is worth checking on any listing.

This is a one person job to raise or lower, folding down to drawer size. Rotating two flags monthly costs you a minute at this size, nothing more.

A lock stitch ties into the stitch next to it, so one broken thread does not unzip the whole seam — it just stops. 4 rows is not 4 times the strength; it is 3 backups. The heading is heavy duty white and reinforced, an inch and a half wide, with two solid brass grommets. Fifteen square feet is enough sail area to work the grommets hard on a windy site.

Commercial grade nylon is the material in this flag. Light enough to catch a gentle breeze, it sheds water rather than holding onto it and dries fast, which keeps a flag from staying heavy and stressing its seams. The ink is UV resistant and field tested, since sun exposure is what determines how long the color lasts.

A design that reproduces cleanly

A diamond, 29 stars and lettering. No seal, so it holds up better than the seal flags, but the star spacing is easy to get wrong.

For what it is worth, the North American Vexillological Association surveyed 72 state, provincial and territorial flags in 2001 and rated them from zero to ten. The Arkansas flag placed 45, at 4.59 out of 10.

Will it fit my flagpole?

This is the size for a five or six foot house bracket or a fifteen to twenty foot flagpole, the most common residential setup nationwide.

Questions about the 3x5 Feet

What size flagpole does a 3x5 foot flag need? A six foot house bracket, or an in-ground flagpole of fifteen to twenty feet. It is the most common residential pairing in the country.

How long does a 3x5 foot nylon flag last outside? The federal working figure is about ninety days for a flag flown daily from sunrise to sunset, and about a quarter of that flown around the clock. Retailers commonly see three to six months in daily use and one to three years flown on occasions only.

Is this flag printed or sewn? The design is printed in UV resistant ink on one side and reads through in reverse on the back, which is how nearly every state flag sold in the country is made. The construction, the heading, the stitching and the grommets are sewn.

Why this size gets replaced most

There is nothing weaker about the 3x5 foot flag itself — it is just the size most often bought on price, and built to match. A cheap one with one or two rows of stitching on the fly end frays inside a season and is six inches shorter within two. The construction is what separates the two.

Specifications

• Size: 3x5 Feet
• Area: 15 square feet
• Material: 100 percent nylon
• Fly end: 4 rows of lock stitching
• Heading: heavy duty white, reinforced, 1-1/2 inch
• Finish: Brass Grommets
• Ink: UV resistant, field tested
• Made in the United States by FORTISVEX

Which size do I need?

Underneath both tables is a single ratio: a flag a quarter to a third the flagpole’s height. When you land between two rows, that is a real choice, not a rounding error — smaller flies more often, bigger reads further.

If you know your flagpole height, start here.

• 6 Feet house bracket: 2x3 Feet or 3x5 Feet
• 15 to 20 Feet flagpole: 3x5 Feet or 4x6 Feet
• 20 to 25 Feet flagpole: 4x6 Feet or 5x8 Feet
• 25 to 35 Feet flagpole: 5x8 Feet or 6x10 Feet
• 35 to 45 Feet flagpole: 6x10 Feet or 8x12 Feet
• 45 to 60 Feet flagpole: 8x12 Feet or 10x15 Feet
• 60 to 80 Feet flagpole: 10x15 Feet or 12x18 Feet
• 80 to 100 Feet flagpole: 12x18 Feet or 15x25 Feet
• 100 to 120 Feet flagpole: 15x25 Feet or 20x30 Feet
• 120 to 150 Feet flagpole: 20x30 Feet or 20x38 Feet
• 150 to 200 Feet flagpole: 20x38 Feet or 30x50 Feet
• 200 to 240 Feet flagpole: 30x50 Feet or 30x60 Feet
• 240 Feet and above: 30x60 Feet or 50x80 Feet, engineered to the flagpole

If you know your flag size, start here.

• 2x3 Feet: 4 to 8 Feet bracket or garden flagpole
• 3x5 Feet: 6 Feet bracket, or 15 to 20 Feet in-ground flagpole
• 4x6 Feet: 18 to 25 Feet in-ground flagpole
• 5x8 Feet: 25 to 35 Feet flagpole
• 6x10 Feet: 30 to 40 Feet flagpole
• 8x12 Feet: 40 to 50 Feet flagpole
• 10x15 Feet: 50 to 60 Feet flagpole
• 12x18 Feet: 60 to 80 Feet flagpole
• 15x25 Feet: 80 to 100 Feet flagpole
• 20x30 Feet: 100 to 120 Feet flagpole
• 20x38 Feet: 120 to 150 Feet flagpole. This is the garrison size under Executive Order 10834, at a one to one point nine ratio rather than the two to three of the commercial sizes, and it is the size flown at the White House and the Capitol
• 30x50 Feet: 150 to 200 Feet flagpole
• 30x60 Feet: 200 to 240 Feet flagpole. This is the largest standard commercial size
• 50x80 Feet: 240 Feet and above, engineered to the flagpole

The proportion still applies past a hundred feet, but the decision changes character: the flagpole, the truck, the halyard, the foundation and the wind load stop being separate line items and become one engineered whole, and ordering a flag without confirming the flagpole rating puts the flagpole at risk first. A few famous flags fly deliberately larger than the rule suggests, and all of them do it with engineering behind the choice.

The full range is available to order even where a size is not shown on the site. If what you need is not listed here, ask and we can still get it made.

About the back of the flag

A printed flag reads correctly from the front and reversed from the back. That is normal and it is true of almost every flag flown in the country. A flag that reads correctly from both sides is a double sided flag, built as two flags sewn together with a liner between them, and it costs roughly twice as much and weighs roughly twice as much. Unless the statute for a particular state requires it, single sided is the standard and the right choice.

Flying it with the United States flag

Title 4, Section 7 of the Flag Code is the source for this. The United States flag is never subordinate in position — nothing flies above it, and nothing takes its place at the viewer’s left when flags are level with each other. On matched flagpoles, the United States flag takes the viewer’s left and the flags should be sized the same; on unequal flagpoles, it goes on the taller one; and on a single pole flying two flags, it goes at the top. There is no penalty for civilians who do not follow the Code, but institutions treat it as the standard regardless.

Buy two and they both last longer

Fly one for a month, then swap. Two flags rotated monthly will outlast three flags flown to destruction, because the fabric recovers when it rests and the fly end stops taking the same abuse in the same place. Take it down in severe weather; a flag left up through a real windstorm can take more damage in one night than in six normal months. And watch the fly end rather than the middle, because a few minutes with a needle when the fraying starts buys another season.

For cities, counties, schools and agencies

Municipalities, school districts, fire and police departments, courthouses and state agencies all buy state flags from us regularly. The tax exempt page handles tax exempt accounts, and the contact page is the route for quantity orders, replacement schedules or a size not shown here.

Why buy it from us

We are a small company based in America, and we keep in stock what we sell. Every flag is made domestically, printed in UV resistant ink, and finished to the construction described above rather than scaled down to a price. Selling a flag that lasts matters more to us than selling three that don’t. Orders over twenty five dollars ship free.