FORTISVEX Arkansas State Flag 5x8 Feet Nylon - Made in USA with Brass Grommets

A 5x8 foot flag is a business flag. It goes on a thirty foot flagpole outside a dealership, a bank, a fire station, a church, a school. It is also what a homeowner puts up when the flagpole is tall enough that a 4x6 foot flag looks lost on it.

This is the Arkansas state flag at 5x8 Feet (40 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.

What the statute here fixes is the design, the colors and the seal or emblem; it does not fix a size for an outdoor flag to hit. That is the position in most of the country, and it is the reason every manufacturer settles on the same standard sizes.

What we build is a faithful reproduction of that design, sized to the standard outdoor sizes every manufacturer uses and the states themselves order in. On an outdoor flag, the colors, the seal and the emblems are what has to be right, and here they are.

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.

That is the flag as we build it. Nothing about it is approximate.

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.

Buy it in time and it goes up on the day it matters. Every state’s date is 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.

At this size, forty square feet, gusts load the heading for real, and an exposed site above will make the material difference obvious inside a season.

The nylon is what you are looking at here — the right choice for the sheltered and moderate wind sites named above, for a house bracket, and for anywhere the flag comes down ahead of storms. Two things settle it. It is light enough to fly on an ordinary yard’s breeze rather than sag, and it dries fast, fighting mildew in humid conditions. What it gives up is resistance to ultraviolet — nylon’s amide bonds break under sun, costing strength and color faster than polyester, and it loses roughly a tenth of its strength while wet. If the site is one of the exposed ones above, the polyester version fits better.

Here is the part usually learned the hard way, after a second purchase: nylon catches wind on days polyester simply will not move. When the flag needs to be visibly flying — a quiet morning, a holiday, a funeral, a ceremony — that argues for nylon even on a site where polyester would technically last longer. A flag that just hangs there is not doing its job either.

The working benchmark most institutions use comes from the American Legion, which reports that the United States government expects a flag flown daily from sunrise to sunset to last about ninety days, and one flown around the clock about a quarter of that. Retailer experience runs three to six months for nylon and four to eight for polyester flown daily, and one to three years for a flag flown only on occasions. Those are working figures, not a warranty, and exposure moves them a long way in either direction.

How the 5x8 Feet is built

At this size the flag works hard, and any failure happens in public: a frayed tip on a business flagpole reads from the road, the same place the flag was meant to be seen from.

Here is the arithmetic: 40 square feet of nylon at roughly two ounces a square yard. A thirty mile an hour wind sends the fly end moving faster than the wind itself, since the wave traveling toward the tip picks up speed as it goes — which is why the tip wears out first, and why the fly end's stitching count is the figure to check on any listing.

At this size, two people beat one, especially in wind. Forty square feet of loose fabric catches wind mid-fold if you are working alone.

With lock stitching, every stitch knots into its neighbor, so damage stays contained at the break instead of running down the seam. Read 4 rows not as 4 times the strength but as 3 backups. The heading grows to two inches at this size, reinforced heavy duty white with brass grommets and tooth washers, since forty square feet in a gust pulls hard enough to need it.

This is commercial grade nylon: light enough to fly in a light wind, quick to shed water instead of holding it, and fast to dry, which matters because a waterlogged flag is a heavier flag putting more strain on its seams. UV resistant, field tested ink is what fights the sun, which is the real driver of color loss over time.

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?

Twenty five to thirty five feet of in-ground flagpole is the standard commercial pairing for this size.

Questions about the 5x8 Feet

What size flagpole for a 5x8 foot flag? Twenty five to thirty five feet in the ground, which is the standard commercial flagpole. This is the size on most dealerships, banks and fire stations.

Should a business choose nylon or polyester at 5x8 Feet? Nylon flies more often and looks better on a calm day. Polyester lasts longer on an open, windy or coastal site. The section above names which your state is.

How often does a 5x8 foot commercial flag need replacing? A flag flown daily on an exposed commercial flagpole is typically replaced two to four times a year. A rotation of two flags swapped monthly stretches that.

What the condition of it says

The flag is the first thing anyone driving past a business actually sees, before the building itself. A faded, frayed flag says something about that business — a cost entirely separate from what it takes to replace it.

Specifications

• Size: 5x8 Feet
• Area: 40 square feet
• Material: 100 percent nylon
• Fly end: 4 rows of lock stitching
• Heading: heavy duty white, reinforced, 2 inch
• Finish: Brass Grommets
• Ink: UV resistant, field tested
• Made in the United States by FORTISVEX

Which size do I need?

The rule behind both tables below is that a flag’s length should run about a quarter to a third of the flagpole’s height. Where two sizes both fit, the smaller one flies more often and lasts longer, and the larger one reads from further away.

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

That same ratio keeps working past a hundred feet, but at that point the flag and the flagpole are no longer separate purchases — the truck, the halyard, the foundation and the wind load all have to be sized together, and a flag chosen without checking the flagpole first damages the pole rather than itself. A handful of well known installations deliberately run past the rule of thumb, and every one of them did it with an engineer, not a chart.

The website does not show every size we can supply. If yours is missing from the listing, the full range above is still available to order.

About the back of the flag

It is normal for a printed flag to read backward from behind — almost every flag flown in America works this way. A flag that reads correctly from both sides is double sided: two flags sewn together with a liner, at roughly double the weight and cost. Single sided stays the standard and the right choice except where a state’s own law requires the double sided build.

Flying it with the United States flag

The rule comes from Title 4, Section 7 of the United States Flag Code: no flag is displayed above the United States flag, and none is placed to its right at the same level, which from the viewer’s position means the left. Equal-height flagpoles carry the United States flag on the viewer’s left with matching flag sizes; unequal flagpoles put it on the taller one; a single flagpole with two flags carries it at the top. Civilians face no penalty for departing from the Flag Code, but it is the standard institutions hold to.

Buy two and they both last longer

The simplest way to make a flag last is to own two and rotate them monthly — that alone outlasts three flags flown to failure, because rest lets the fabric recover and the fly end is not hammered day after day. Take it down ahead of real storms, since one bad night of wind can undo six good months. Watch the fly end, where fraying starts, and a quick repair there is worth a whole extra season.

For cities, counties, schools and agencies

We regularly supply state flags to cities, school districts, fire and police departments, courthouses and state agencies. Tax exempt accounts run through the tax exempt page. Quantity pricing, replacement schedules, or a size that is not listed all go through the contact page.

Why buy it from us

We are a small American company and we stock what we sell. Every flag here is made in the United States, printed in UV resistant ink, and finished to the construction described above rather than to a price point. We would rather sell you one flag that lasts than three that do not. Free shipping on orders over twenty five dollars.