FORTISVEX California State Flag 6x10 Feet Nylon - Made in USA Bear Flag with Brass Grommets

A 6x10 foot flag is where a state flag stops being residential. Sixty square feet is a commercial flag on a commercial flagpole, and it is the last size finished with grommets rather than rope.

This is the California state flag at 6x10 Feet (60 square feet) in nylon, made in the United States and finished with brass grommets.

Built to the California flag specification

The California flag is set out in California Government Code Section 420, one of the most precise flag statutes in the country. It is two thirds as tall as it is long, with a red stripe along the bottom exactly one sixth of the height, a grizzly bear walking left across a green grass plot of twelve tufts and measuring two thirds of the flag’s height from nose to hind paw, one red five-pointed star in the upper hoist corner, and the words California Republic in condensed gothic capitals between the grass and the stripe.

Adopted in 1911 and standardized to its current form in 1953; it derives from the original Bear Flag raised at Sonoma during the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846, when a short-lived republic declared independence from Mexico and lasted twenty five days; the design is credited to William Todd, a nephew of Mary Todd Lincoln, who painted the original at Sonoma.

California is precise about proportion. Government Code Section 420 makes the flag two thirds as tall as it is long, which is two to three, and a 4x6 foot flag, an 8x12 foot flag, a 10x15 foot flag and a 12x18 foot flag all match it exactly. A 3x5 foot flag is a three to five ratio and is therefore slightly deeper than the statute describes, which is true of almost every 3x5 foot state flag sold in the country.

The design here is reproduced faithfully, at the standard outdoor sizes the whole industry works in and that states buy for themselves. What actually matters on a flag flown outdoors is that the colors, the seal and the emblems are correct, and they are.

The law that defines it, in its own words

California Government Code Section 420 reads:

The Bear Flag is the State Flag of California. As viewed with the hoist end of the flag to the left of the observer there appears in the upper left-hand corner of a white field a five-pointed red star with one point vertically upward and in the middle of the white field a brown grizzly bear walking toward the left with all four paws on a green grass plot, with head and eye turned slightly toward the observer; a red stripe forms the length of the flag at the bottom, and between the grass plot and the red stripe appear the words CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC. Dimensions, excluding heading and unfinished flag ends: The hoist or flag width is two-thirds of the fly or flag length; the red stripe width is one-sixth of the hoist width. The state official flag hoist widths shall be two, three, four, five, six and eight feet.

The section continues with the proportions of the star, bear, grass plot and lettering, then the Textile Color Card Association references: White cable 70001, Old Glory red 70180, Irish Green 70168, Maple Sugar brown 70129, Seal dark brown 70108. The bear illustration itself appears only in the printed Statutes of 1953, chapter 1140.

You do not have to take our word for any of that. Read California Government Code Section 420 in full at Justia, and check what we sell against it.

That is the flag we build, not a rough version of it.

What is on it and what it means

The bear is a California grizzly, a subspecies now extinct. The last one held in captivity, a bear named Monarch, was the model used when the flag was standardized. The star recalls the lone star of the 1836 California revolt. The original 1846 flag was destroyed in the San Francisco fire of 1906.

What most listings get wrong

Three errors are repeated constantly by other retailers and by general reference sites. The bear walks on all fours; it does not stand upright. The words California Republic sit below the bear, not above it. And the word Eureka belongs to the state seal, not to the flag, so any California flag carrying it is wrong.

Where the California flag flies

The Superflag, five hundred and five by two hundred and twenty five feet and about three thousand pounds, was made for Thomas Demski of Long Beach and was recognized by Guinness as the world's largest flag in the 1994 and 1995 editions. Its 1996 unfurling at Hoover Dam made it the largest flag flown. It no longer holds the world title but is still cited as the largest American flag. Calipatria in Imperial County has a one hundred and eighty four foot municipal flagpole so the flag flies at sea level in a town one hundred and eighty four feet below it. Dorris is documented as having one of the tallest United States flagpoles.

Fly it on California’s birthday

California became the 31st state on September 9, 1850. 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 California flag has an official reason to go up.

California Admission Day is September 9, a legal observance, and some cities close offices for it.

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 California

Nylon in the mild sheltered coastal valley metros, the Los Angeles basin, San Diego, San Jose and Sacramento. Polyester on the immediate coast for salt, in the high wind passes at San Gorgonio and Altamont, and in the high ultraviolet desert at Palm Springs and the Bakersfield edge.

For scale, the National Weather Service ultraviolet index forecast for Los Angeles on July 23, 2026 was 11 at solar noon, in the extreme band. That is the sun this flag has to survive.

This is a commercial flag at sixty square feet, and on the exposed sites named above, material choice separates a one-season flag from a three-season one.

What you have here is the nylon, appropriate for the sheltered and moderate wind sites listed above, for any house bracket, and for anywhere the flag is brought down during storms. Two things decide it: it is light, flying on an ordinary breeze rather than going limp, and it dries fast, which is the defense against mildew in humidity. The trade is ultraviolet durability — nylon’s amide bonds break under sun, fading and weakening faster than polyester, and it loses about a tenth of its strength wet. For an exposed site on the list above, the polyester version is worth a look 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.

Most institutions work from the same benchmark, reported by the American Legion: the United States government's expectation is roughly ninety days for a flag flown daily sunrise to sunset, and about a quarter of that for one flown around the clock. In practice, retailers report three to six months for nylon flown daily, four to eight for polyester, and one to three years for a flag flown only on occasions. These are working numbers, not a guarantee, and exposure can move them substantially either way.

How the 6x10 Feet is built

This is the size where the stitching goes to six rows on the fly end rather than four. Sixty square feet generates far more force at the tip than a house flag ever will, and four rows is no longer enough.

Work the numbers and you get 60 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.

Folding this properly takes two people and clear ground or a clean surface — sixty square feet will not fold neatly on a tailgate.

With lock stitching, every stitch knots into its neighbor, so damage stays contained at the break instead of running down the seam. Read 6 rows not as 6 times the strength but as 5 backups. This size puts the most sustained strain on the heading of anything on the flag, so it is built two inches wide, heavy duty white and reinforced, with brass grommets and tooth washers.

This flag is commercial grade nylon, light enough to move in a gentle breeze, and it sheds water instead of soaking it up, drying fast — which matters, since a wet flag is a heavy flag that works its own seams harder. UV resistant, field tested ink is what stands between the flag and the sun, since sun is what fades a flag over time.

Why this flag is harder to make than most

A detailed bear silhouette, a twelve-tuft grass plot, lettering and a star, and a statute that fixes proportions precisely enough that a sloppy reproduction is visibly 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 California flag placed 13, at 7.00 out of 10.

Will it fit my flagpole?

It suits an in-ground flagpole of thirty to forty feet.

Questions about the 6x10 Feet

What size flagpole for a 6x10 foot flag? Thirty to forty feet. At this size the flag is commercial and the flagpole has to be an in-ground pole with a truck and halyard.

Why does the 6x10 foot flag have grommets when the 8x12 foot flag has a rope? Sixty square feet is the most two brass grommets can be asked to carry. Above this the load is spread along a rope sewn the length of the heading.

Does a 6x10 foot flag need a heavier flagpole? A sixty square foot flag in a gust loads a flagpole hard. If the pole was sold for a 4x6 foot or 5x8 foot flag, check its rating before stepping up.

The last size on grommets

Everything above this is finished with a rope sewn the full length of the heading rather than two grommets, because two points can no longer carry the load. The 6x10 foot flag sits right at that boundary, which is why it runs six rows of stitching and a two inch heading while still using grommets.

Specifications

• Size: 6x10 Feet
• Area: 60 square feet
• Material: 100 percent nylon
• Fly end: 6 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?

There is one number behind both tables. A flag reads right when its length is somewhere between a quarter and a third of the flagpole it is on. If your flagpole puts you between two sizes, go smaller for a flag that flies more and lasts longer, or bigger for one that carries 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 ratio does not fail at a hundred feet, but the transaction does change: past that height the flag, the flagpole, the truck, the halyard and the foundation have to be engineered together, and a flag ordered without checking the flagpole rating tends to cost the flagpole first. A few of the country’s best known flags deliberately exceed the rule, on the strength of an engineer’s calculation rather than a chart.

We carry the full range whether or not every size appears on this website. If the size you need is not listed, we can still supply it.

About the back of the flag

The reverse of a printed flag mirrors the front, which is ordinary and true of nearly every flag in the country. To have both faces read correctly requires a double sided construction: two flags joined with a liner in between, at about twice the material and twice the price. Single sided is the industry standard, and the sensible pick unless a state’s statute says otherwise.

Flying it with the United States flag

The United States Flag Code, at Title 4, Section 7, sets this out: the United States flag holds the position of honor, never below another flag and never displaced from the viewer’s left when flags fly level. With two flagpoles of matching height, the United States flag takes the viewer’s left and the flags match in size; with unequal heights, it goes on the taller pole; on a single pole carrying two flags, it is at the top. The Code has no penalty attached for civilians, but it remains the standard every institution follows.

Buy two and they both last longer

Keep two flags and swap them monthly. That single habit will outlast three flags run to destruction, since resting fabric recovers and the fly end is spared the repeated wear of constant flying. Take the flag down ahead of severe weather, since one bad storm night can outdo six calm months. Watch the fly end rather than the center; a little stitching early saves a whole season.

For cities, counties, schools and agencies

Our state flags go to municipalities, school districts, fire and police departments, courthouses and state agencies regularly. Tax exempt purchasing is handled on the tax exempt page. For quantity, a replacement schedule, or a size outside this listing, use the contact page.

Why buy it from us

This company is small and American, and what is on the site is in stock. Every flag here is made in the United States, uses UV resistant ink, and is built to the construction described above rather than priced down to a cheaper build. We would rather you buy one flag that lasts than replace three that do not. Orders over twenty five dollars get free shipping.