FORTISVEX Kansas 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 Kansas 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 Kansas flag specification

The Kansas flag is set out in Kansas Statutes Section 73-702. It is the state seal on dark blue with a sunflower crest above and the word Kansas below, at a three to five ratio, which a 3x5 foot flag matches exactly.

First adopted in 1927, with the word Kansas added and the flag re-adopted September 24, 1961.

Kansas is one of the few states where the standard size and the statute agree. Section 73-702 specifies three feet on the staff by five feet fly and adds that larger or smaller flags will be of the same proportional dimensions. A 3x5 foot flag is exactly on specification, though the absolute measurements inside it, a seventeen inch seal and five inch letters, only hold at that one size.

We build a faithful reproduction of that design at the standard outdoor sizes the industry uses, the same sizes states order for themselves. Correct colors, seal and emblems are what an outdoor flag has to get right, and that is what this one gets right.

The law that defines it, in its own words

Kansas Statutes Section 73-702 reads:

The official state flag of the state of Kansas shall be a rectangle of dark-blue silk or bunting, three (3) feet on the staff by five (5) feet fly. The great seal of the state of Kansas, without its surrounding band of lettering, shall be located equidistant from the staff and the fly side of the flag, with the lower edge of the seal located eleven (11) inches above the base side of the flag. The great seal shall be surmounted by a crest and the word KANSAS shall be located underneath the seal. The seal shall be seventeen (17) inches in diameter. The crest shall be on a wreath or an azure, a sunflower slipped proper, which divested of its heraldic language is a sunflower as torn from its stalk in its natural colors on a bar of twisted gold and blue. The crest shall be six (6) inches in diameter; the wreath shall be nine (9) inches in length. The top of the crest shall be located two (2) inches beneath the top side of the flag. Larger or smaller flags will be of the same proportional dimensions. The colors in the seal shall be as follows: Stars, silver; hills, purple; sun, deep yellow; glory, light yellow; sky, yellow and orange from hills half way to motto, upper half, azure; grass, green; river, light blue; boat, white; house, dark brown; ground, brown; wagons, white; near horse, white; off horse, bay; buffalo, dark, almost black; motto, white; scroll, light brown.

The emblem itself is defined by reference to the great seal, so these words are the frame and not the whole picture.

You do not have to take our word for any of that. Read Kansas Statutes Section 73-702 in full at the Kansas Revisor of Statutes, and check what we sell against it.

This is the actual flag we manufacture, not an approximation.

What is on it and what it means

The seal carries a farmer, a wagon train, a buffalo and 34 stars, marking Kansas as the 34th state. The sunflower above is the state flower.

What most listings get wrong

Kansas also has a separate state banner, a single sunflower on blue adopted in 1953. It is a different object from the flag and the two are often confused.

Where the Kansas flag flies

A real state program through the Secretary of State's Elections Division. You can order a State of Kansas flag and request that it be flown over the State Capitol to commemorate an occasion, using the official order form. The form captures the fly date, the requester, the honoree and the special occasion, and charges sales tax plus shipping. Legislators also facilitate requests.

Fly it on Kansas’s birthday

Kansas became the 34th state on January 29, 1861. 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 Kansas 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 Kansas

Polyester is the default. Among the windiest states, with Dodge City at 13.9 miles per hour topping the national wind table, plus Wichita and tornado frequency.

At ninety six square feet the flag loads its flagpole in earnest. On the exposed sites above, polyester is not a preference but the only sensible choice, and the flagpole and truck need to be rated for it.

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.

This is the detail people usually only figure out after buying twice: nylon will fly on a day too calm for polyester to move at all. If flying on a still morning, a holiday, at a funeral, or at a ceremony matters to you, that is reason enough to choose nylon even where polyester would survive longer. A motionless flag fails at its purpose regardless of how durable it is.

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 8x12 Feet is built

Six rows at the fly end, with zig zag stitched corners rather than straight seams — a straight seam at a corner opens up under sustained wind within a season.

Here is the arithmetic: 96 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.

Handling this size, on the ground or at the flagpole, is a two person job. A gust can take one person off balance while clipping ninety six square feet onto the halyard.

Each lock stitch knots into the one beside it, so a broken thread stays broken right where it snapped instead of unraveling the whole seam. 6 rows is not 6 times the strength — it is 5 backups. At this size, a single reinforced grommet remains at the center of the heading as a secondary attachment point, but it is no longer the primary one. A nylon rope runs the full length of the heading, ending in two plated steel thimbles, spreading the load instead of concentrating it at two fixed points.

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.

Why this flag is harder to make than most

A busy seal plus a sunflower crest plus lettering. Three detailed elements stacked vertically, which is why it rates near the bottom for design and near the top for cost.

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 Kansas flag placed 69, at 3.01 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

Ninety six square feet of pull, concentrated onto two small brass rings, is more than grommets alone can take, 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 full heading length spreads that load across the entire hoist, with thimbles carrying the attachment instead. It costs more to build, and it is the only way this size lasts.

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?

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 quarter to a third rule holds all the way up, but above about a hundred feet the flag and the flagpole stop being two purchases and become one engineered system: the truck, the halyard, the foundation and the wind load all have to be specified together, and a flag bought without checking the flagpole rating damages the flagpole first. Several famous installations deliberately fly longer than the rule, which is a choice made with an engineer rather than from a chart.

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's reverse face is a mirror image of the front, and that is standard, not a fault — it describes most of the flags flown across the country. Double sided construction, which reads correctly from either face, sews two flags together with a liner and roughly doubles both weight and price. Single sided remains standard, and correct, unless a state's statute specifically calls for double sided.

Flying it with the United States flag

The United States Flag Code, Title 4, Section 7, governs this. No other flag goes above the United States flag, or to its right when on the same level, which is the viewer’s left. On two flagpoles of the same height the United States flag takes the viewer’s left and both flags should be the same size. If the flagpoles differ in height, the United States flag goes on the taller one. On a single flagpole carrying two flags the United States flag goes at the top. The Flag Code is advisory for civilians and carries no penalty, but it is the standard every institution follows.

Buy two and they both last longer

Alternate two flags on a monthly schedule and you will get more life from both than from three flags flown until they wear out, because resting fabric recovers and the fly end stops absorbing the same repeated stress. A severe storm is the one condition worth taking the flag down for; it can do more damage in a night than six calm months. The fly end frays first, not the center, and stitching it early adds a season.

For cities, counties, schools and agencies

State flags go out to municipalities, school districts, fire and police departments, courthouses and state agencies as a matter of course. Tax exempt purchasing runs through the tax exempt page, and anything involving quantity, a replacement schedule or a size we do not list goes through the contact page.

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.