FORTISVEX Arkansas State Flag 8x12 Feet Nylon - Made in USA with Rope and Thimbles

This is an institutional size. Ninety six square feet of flag, flown on a forty to fifty foot flagpole outside a civic building, a campus, a large commercial site — nobody buys this size without meaning to.

This is the Arkansas state flag at 8x12 Feet (96 square feet) in nylon, made in the United States and finished with a sewn rope and plated steel thimbles.

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.

This flag reproduces the design faithfully, built to the standard outdoor sizes used across the industry and bought by the states themselves. The colors, the seal and the emblems are the part that has to be right on an outdoor flag, and they are right here.

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 the flag we make. Not an approximation of 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.

Have it on hand before the date arrives and it is on the flagpole in time. The full state-by-state list 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.

Ninety six square feet genuinely loads a flagpole. On an exposed site from the list above, polyester stops being a preference and becomes the only sensible choice, with the flagpole and truck rated to match.

You are looking at the nylon here, the right pick for the sheltered and moderate wind sites named above, for any house bracket, and for anywhere the flag gets brought in during storms. Two things make that case. It is light enough to move on the breeze most yards actually get rather than hang limp, and it dries fast, which keeps mildew away in a humid climate. What it trades away is ultraviolet durability — nylon’s amide bonds break down under ultraviolet light, losing strength and color faster than polyester, and it loses roughly a tenth of its strength while wet. For one of the exposed sites named above, the polyester version is the better fit.

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 8x12 Feet is built

This size gets six rows of lock stitching on the fly end and zig zag stitched corners, since a straight-sewn corner is exactly what a season of wind will work open.

Work the numbers and you get 96 square feet of nylon at roughly two ounces a square yard. At thirty miles an hour, the fly end actually outpaces the wind, because the wave running to the tip accelerates along the way — the reason the tip fails first, and the reason fly-end stitching count is the number that matters.

This is a two person flag on the ground and a two person job at the flagpole. Ninety six square feet will take you off balance in a gust while you are clipping it on.

Lock stitching means each stitch is knotted into the next, so a broken thread stops where it broke rather than unzipping the seam. 6 rows does not mean 6 times the strength; it means 5 backups. A full-length nylon rope sewn through the heading, finished with two plated steel thimbles, carries most of the load rather than letting it tear at two points.

Nylon, commercial grade, is what this flag is made from. It is light enough to move in a gentle breeze, sheds rather than soaks up water, and dries quickly — a wet flag is a heavier flag, harder on its own seams. The ink is UV resistant and field tested, because sun exposure is what actually fades a flag.

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?

Forty to fifty feet of in-ground flagpole, on a truck and halyard rather than a bracket, is the right fit.

Questions about the 8x12 Feet

What size flagpole for an 8x12 foot flag? Forty to fifty feet, on a truck and halyard rated for the load. This is an institutional flag.

What are the thimbles for? The rope sewn through the heading ends in two plated steel thimbles. The halyard snaps clip to the thimbles, so the pull runs through the rope along the whole hoist rather than tearing at two grommets.

Can an 8x12 foot flag fly around the clock? It can, on a lit flagpole, but a flag flown twenty four hours lasts roughly a quarter as long as one flown sunrise to sunset. Budget for that.

Why rope and thimbles carry most of the load

Two grommets concentrating ninety six square feet of pull onto two small brass rings does not hold, which is why a single reinforced grommet at the center of the heading now serves only as a secondary attachment point. A rope sewn the length of the heading spreads that load across the entire hoist and lets the thimbles take the attachment. It is more expensive to build and it is the only way a flag this size survives.

Specifications

• Size: 8x12 Feet
• Area: 96 square feet
• Material: 100 percent nylon
• Fly end: 6 rows of lock stitching
• Heading: heavy duty white, reinforced, 2 inch
• Finish: Rope, Thimbles and Center Grommet
• Ink: UV resistant, field tested
• Made in the United States by FORTISVEX

Which size do I need?

Both tables come down to one ratio: the flag’s length wants to be a quarter to a third of the flagpole’s height. When a size sits on the border between two rows, the smaller flag will fly on more days and outlast the bigger one, while the bigger flag is the one people notice from further off.

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 rule keeps holding above a hundred feet of flagpole, but the buying decision does not stay simple: the flag, the truck, the halyard, the foundation and the wind load now have to be specified as one engineered system, and a flag chosen without checking the flagpole rating puts the pole at risk before the flag. Some of the most recognizable flags in the country deliberately run larger than the rule, always with an engineer behind that call.

If a size in either table is missing from the website, it does not mean we do not carry it. The full range is available to order regardless of what is currently listed.

About the back of the flag

Every printed flag looks right from one side and mirrored from the other, and that is simply how the overwhelming majority of American flags are built. Making both sides read correctly means building what is really two flags stitched together over a liner, at roughly twice the price and twice the weight. Single sided is the standard, and it is the right choice unless a state’s statute specifically requires otherwise.

Flying it with the United States flag

Governing this is Title 4, Section 7 of the United States Flag Code, which keeps the United States flag in the position of honor: never below another flag, never to the right of one at the same level, meaning never right of the viewer’s left. Two flagpoles at equal height put the United States flag at the viewer’s left with equal-sized flags; unequal heights put it on the taller pole; a single flagpole with two flags carries it at the top. No penalty attaches for private citizens under the Code, but it is what institutions follow as standard practice.

Buy two and they both last longer

Two flags, alternated month to month, beat three flags flown until they fall apart, because the material recovers on its days off and the fly end is not worked in the same place every day. Severe weather is the one time to take it down; a real windstorm can cost more in one night than six ordinary months of flying. Fraying starts at the fly end, not the middle, and a few minutes with a needle there adds a 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, American-based company that stocks what it lists. Every flag is made in the United States, uses UV resistant ink, and is finished to the standard described above rather than cut down to hit a price. One flag that lasts is worth more to us than three that do not. Free shipping applies over twenty five dollars.