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

The 5x8 foot flag belongs on a thirty foot commercial flagpole — a dealership, a bank, a fire station, a church, a school. It also suits a homeowner whose flagpole is too tall for a 4x6 foot flag to fill properly.

This is the New York state flag at 5x8 Feet (40 square feet) in nylon, made in the United States and finished with brass grommets.

Built to the New York flag specification

The New York flag is set out in New York State Law, Article 6, with the arms at Section 70. It is a dark blue field with the state coat of arms.

The field has been blue since 1901, having previously been buff.

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.

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

New York State Law Section 70 reads:

State flag. The state flag is hereby declared to be blue, charged with the arms of the state in the colors as described in the blazon of this section.

The arms precede this clause in the same section, by reference.

You do not have to take our word for any of that. Read New York State Law Section 70 in full at the New York State Senate, 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

Liberty and Justice support a shield carrying a Hudson River sunrise. The crest is an eagle on a globe. The motto is Excelsior, Ever Upward, joined in 2020 by the words E Pluribus Unum.

Worth knowing about this flag

Pending bills propose removing E Pluribus Unum to restore the original arms. Nothing has been enacted, so the 2020 version is the current flag.

Where the New York flag flies

The Flag Room at the New York State Capitol holds the largest publicly held battle flag collection in the United States, over two thousand flags, the oldest from the War of 1812 and about sixty percent from the Civil War. The collection was established in 1863.

The George Washington Bridge flies one of the largest free flying United States flags, about sixty by ninety feet, from the New Jersey tower arch on national holidays.

Fly it on New York’s birthday

New York became the 11th state on July 26, 1788. 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 New York 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 New York

Nylon in most inland metros at Albany and the Buffalo interior. Polyester on Long Island and New York harbor for salt, and on the Great Lakes shore at Buffalo for lake effect wind.

For scale, the National Weather Service ultraviolet index forecast for New York on July 23, 2026 was 8 at solar noon, in the very high band. That is the sun this flag has to survive.

Forty square feet puts real load on the heading in any gust, and an exposed site from the list above will show the difference between materials inside a single season.

This is the nylon listing, suited to the sheltered and moderate wind sites named above, to any house bracket, and to anywhere you bring the flag in during storms. Two factors drive that choice. Nylon is light, catching the breeze most yards actually get instead of hanging still, and it dries quickly, which is what keeps mildew at bay in humid air. The cost is ultraviolet life: nylon’s amide bonds absorb and break under ultraviolet exposure, fading faster than polyester, and it loses about a tenth of its strength wet. On one of the exposed sites named above, look instead at the polyester version.

The part most buyers learn only the second time around: nylon flies in wind too light to move polyester. When it matters that the flag is actually moving — a still morning, a holiday, a funeral, a ceremony — that favors nylon even somewhere polyester would last longer. A flag that hangs motionless is not doing its job either, however durable it is.

The benchmark institutions generally lean on comes from the American Legion: the federal government's own expectation is about ninety days for a daily sunrise-to-sunset flag, and roughly a quarter of that flying around the clock. Retailers report three to six months for nylon flown daily, four to eight months for polyester, and one to three years for occasional flying. Treat those as working estimates rather than a warranty, since exposure can shift them a great deal.

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.

Two people handle this more easily than one, especially on a windy site, since forty square feet of unsecured fabric catches wind during folding.

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 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.

The flag material is commercial grade nylon. It is light enough to fly in a gentle breeze, it sheds water rather than holding it, and it dries fast, which matters because a flag that stays wet stays heavy and works its seams harder. The ink is UV resistant and field tested; sun is what takes a flag’s color, and the ink decides how long it holds.

Why this flag is harder to make than most

Two human figures, an eagle, a globe, a landscape shield and two mottoes. One of the most detailed arms on any state flag.

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 New York flag placed 53, at 3.93 out of 10.

Will it fit my flagpole?

An in-ground flagpole of twenty five to thirty five feet is the pairing most commercial sites use 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

People see the flag before they see the building it stands in front of. A worn, faded flag on a business flagpole sends a message, and that message costs something different from the price of a replacement.

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?

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.

We supply the whole range shown above, whether or not a given size currently has its own listing on the site. Ask if you do not see it.

About the back of the flag

The back of a printed flag shows the design reversed, not missing. That is true of almost every flag in the country, and it is normal rather than a flaw. Getting both sides to read correctly means sewing two flags together with a liner between them, which roughly doubles the cost and the weight. Single sided is standard practice, and the right choice unless a particular state’s law says otherwise.

Flying it with the United States flag

Title 4, Section 7 of the United States Flag Code sets the rule: no flag flies above the United States flag, and none takes its place to the right at the same level, meaning the viewer’s left. Two equal-height flagpoles put the United States flag on the viewer’s left, with both flags matched in size. Unequal flagpoles put the United States flag on the taller one, and a single flagpole with two flags carries the United States flag at the top. Civilians are not bound by penalty under the Flag Code, but it remains the standard institutions follow.

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

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

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.