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

Ninety six square feet, on a forty to fifty foot flagpole outside a civic building, a campus, a large commercial site: that is the 8x12 foot flag, and it is bought on purpose, never by accident.

This is the North Dakota 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 North Dakota flag specification

The North Dakota flag is set out in North Dakota Century Code Section 54-02-02, which fixes exact dimensions and yellow fringe. It is a blue field with a bald eagle carrying an olive branch and arrows, a shield on its breast, a sunburst, a fan of thirteen stars and a red scroll reading North Dakota.

Adopted in 1911, nearly identical to the regimental flag of the First North Dakota Infantry of 1898.

This state's statute covers the design, the colors and the seal or emblem, and stops there — it sets no overall size for a modern outdoor flag to match. Most states take the same approach, which is exactly why every manufacturer builds state flags in the same standard sizes.

The reproduction here is faithful to the design, in the standard outdoor sizes used industry wide and bought by the states themselves. On an outdoor flag, correct colors, seal and emblems are what counts, and that is what you get.

The law that defines it, in its own words

North Dakota Century Code Section 54-02-02 reads:

The flag of North Dakota must consist of a field of blue silk or material which will withstand the elements four feet four inches on the pike and five feet six inches on the fly, with a border of knotted yellow fringe two and one-half inches wide. On each side of said flag in the center thereof, must be embroidered or stamped an eagle with outspread wings and with opened beak. The eagle must be three feet four inches from tip to tip of wing, and one foot ten inches from top of head to bottom of olive branch hereinafter described. The left foot of the eagle shall grasp a sheaf of arrows, the right foot shall grasp an olive branch showing three red berries. On the breast of the eagle must be displayed a shield, the lower part showing seven red and six white stripes placed alternately. Through the open beak of the eagle must pass a scroll bearing the words "E Pluribus Unum". Beneath the eagle there must be a scroll on which must be borne the words "North Dakota". Over the scroll carried through the eagle's beak must be shown thirteen five-pointed stars, the whole device being surmounted by a sunburst. The flag must conform in all respects as to color, form, size, and device with the regimental flag carried by the First North Dakota Infantry in the Spanish American War and Philippine Insurrection, except in the words shown on the scroll below the eagle.

The statute prints each measurement with its metric equivalent in brackets, omitted here for readability. A 2011 amendment added color chart and historical accuracy requirements for reproductions.

You do not have to take our word for any of that. Read North Dakota Century Code Section 54-02-02 in full at the North Dakota Legislative Branch, 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 eagle carries an olive branch and arrows with a shield on its breast, above a sunburst and a fan of thirteen stars. The scroll names the state.

What most listings get wrong

The flag is not the North Dakota coat of arms, which was adopted separately in 1957 and looks nothing like it. The two get confused regularly.

Where the North Dakota flag flies

No citizen state capitol program was confirmed. since January 3, 2019 the flags of North Dakota's five tribal nations, the Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, the Spirit Lake Nation, the Standing Rock Sioux and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, are displayed in the Capitol's Memorial Hall outside the Governor's office, later made a permanent display by the legislature. The state flag is a near exact copy of the regimental flag carried by the First North Dakota Infantry in the Spanish American War and Philippine campaign of 1898 and 1899. The State Historical Society is the statutory custodian of the official design standards. The Capitol is a nineteen story Art Deco tower.

Fly it on North Dakota’s birthday

North Dakota became the 39th state on November 2, 1889. 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 North Dakota 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 North Dakota

Polyester statewide at Fargo and Bismarck. Open plains wind, blizzards and freeze cycling.

For scale, the National Weather Service ultraviolet index forecast for Bismarck on July 23, 2026 was 8 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.

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.

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 8x12 Feet is built

Six rows of lock stitching on the fly end, and the corners are zig zag stitched rather than run straight, because a straight seam at a corner can be worked open by the wind over a season.

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.

Whether folding on the ground or clipping onto the flagpole, this is two person work. Ninety six square feet in a gust can knock a lone worker off balance.

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. The grommets are gone at this size. A nylon rope is sewn the full length of the heading with two plated steel thimbles, so the load runs through the rope rather than tearing 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 detailed eagle with a shield, a sunburst and thirteen stars. Feather detail at flag scale is expensive and it is where the cost sits.

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 North Dakota flag placed 56, at 3.69 out of 10.

Will it fit my flagpole?

A forty to fifty foot in-ground flagpole with proper truck and halyard hardware suits this size, not a house bracket.

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

Nothing about the ratio breaks above a hundred feet, but the purchase does: the flag, the flagpole, the truck, the halyard and the foundation become one system that has to be specified together, and skipping that check risks the flagpole before it risks the flag. Some of the largest flags flown in the country are deliberately oversized for their rule-of-thumb flagpole, always on an engineer’s sign-off.

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

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

Fly one for a month, then swap. Two flags rotated monthly will outlast three flags flown to destruction, because the fabric recovers when it rests and the fly end stops taking the same abuse in the same place. Take it down in severe weather; a flag left up through a real windstorm can take more damage in one night than in six normal months. And watch the fly end rather than the middle, because a few minutes with a needle when the fraying starts buys another season.

For cities, counties, schools and agencies

Fire and police departments, school districts, courthouses, municipalities and state agencies are all regular buyers of our state flags. Tax exempt purchasing is set up through the tax exempt page, and quantities, replacement schedules or an unlisted size are handled 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.