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

Businesses fly this size on thirty foot flagpoles: dealerships, banks, fire stations, churches, schools. A homeowner with a tall flagpole reaches for it too, once a 4x6 foot flag starts looking small up there.

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

Built to the Ohio flag specification

The Ohio flag is set out in Ohio Revised Code Section 5.01, at a proportion of eight to thirteen. It is a burgee, a swallowtail shape, with three red and two white stripes and a blue triangle carrying seventeen white stars around a red disc on a white letter O.

Designed by the architect John Eisenmann in 1901 for the Pan-American Exposition and adopted May 9, 1902.

Ohio Revised Code Section 5.01 contains no numbers at all on size. It says the proportional dimensions shall be according to the official design on file in the office of the Secretary of State. The eight to thirteen figure everyone quotes comes from measuring that filed design, not from the statute.

We hold to a faithful reproduction of that design, at the standard outdoor sizes the industry uses and the states themselves buy. What matters on a flag that flies outdoors is accurate colors, seal and emblems, and that is exactly what this one has.

The law that defines it, in its own words

Ohio Revised Code Section 5.01 reads:

The flag of the state shall be burgee-shaped. It shall have three red and two white horizontal stripes that represent the roads and waterways of the state. The union of the flag shall be seventeen five-pointed stars, white in a blue triangular field that represents the state's hills and valleys, the base of which shall be the staff end or vertical edge of the flag, and the apex of which shall be the center of the middle red stripe. The stars shall be grouped around a red disc superimposed upon a white circular "O." The thirteen stars grouped around the "O" represent the original states of the United States and the four stars added to the peak of the triangle symbolize that Ohio was the seventeenth state admitted to the union. The "O" represents the "O" in "Ohio" and suggests the state's nickname, the buckeye state. The proportional dimensions of the flag and of its various parts shall be according to the official design on file in the office of the secretary of state.

The emblem itself is defined by reference to the official design on file with the Secretary of State, so these words are the frame and not the whole picture.

You do not have to take our word for any of that. Read Ohio Revised Code Section 5.01 in full at the Ohio Revised Code, 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 stripes are roads and waterways. The triangle is the hills and valleys. Thirteen stars around the O are the original states, with four added marking Ohio as the seventeenth. The O and the red disc suggest both Ohio and the buckeye.

What most listings get wrong

Many manufacturers print the burgee onto a rectangular field because it is cheaper. That is not the Ohio flag. The swallowtail is the design.

It is the only non-rectangular state flag in the United States.

Where the Ohio flag flies

Dave Arbogast Buick GMC in Troy on Interstate 75 flies a thirty by fifty foot flag on a hundred and fifty eight foot pole, which the dealership calls the largest flag in Ohio. A historic pole worth noting is the Ravenna Flagpole in downtown Ravenna, a hundred and fifty feet, built in 1893 by the Van Dorn Company, a rare surviving iron lattice flagpole documented by the city and the Portage County Historical Society.

Fly it on Ohio’s birthday

Ohio became the 17th state on March 1, 1803. 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 Ohio flag has an official reason to go up.

Ohio Statehood Day is March 1, set by Ohio Revised Code Section 5.224, and the Ohio History Connection holds an annual Statehood Day event at the Statehouse.

Order it ahead of the date and it is ready to fly that day. Every state’s birthday is listed on our state birthdays page.

Nylon or polyester in Ohio

Nylon statewide at Columbus, the Cleveland interior and Cincinnati. Polyester on the Lake Erie shore.

Note that Ohio's swallowtail flag concentrates wind wear at the split fly end, so reinforced stitching there matters more than on any other state flag.

At forty square feet the load on the heading is real in any gust, and the exposed sites above will show the difference between the two cloths inside a 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.

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.

Institutions commonly cite the American Legion’s figure: the federal government expects about ninety days from a flag flown daily sunrise to sunset, and roughly a quarter of that flown around the clock. On the ground, retailers report three to six months for nylon flown daily, four to eight for polyester, and one to three years for occasional flying. Take these as working estimates, not warranties — exposure can move them a long way in either direction.

How the 5x8 Feet is built

Forty square feet of flag on a business flagpole fails visibly, from the road, the same vantage point it was put up to be seen from in the first place.

Work the numbers and you get 40 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 size is easier with two people, particularly when it is windy — forty square feet of loose material will catch the wind while one person tries to fold it.

With lock stitching, every stitch knots into its neighbor, so damage stays contained at the break instead of running down the seam. Read 4 rows not as 4 times the strength but as 3 backups. This size steps the heading up to two inches, heavy duty white and reinforced, with brass grommets and tooth washers. Forty square feet in a gust pulls hard, and that extra half inch of heading earns its place.

The material here is commercial grade nylon. Its lightness lets it fly on a gentle breeze, it sheds rather than absorbs water, and it dries quickly, sparing the seams the extra weight and strain of staying wet. Field tested UV resistant ink handles the part that actually determines fade life: sun exposure.

Why this flag is harder to make than most

The swallowtail has to be cut and the two tails hemmed and stitched, which no rectangular flag requires. It is the most expensive shape in the trade and the reason a real Ohio flag costs more than its neighbors.

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 Ohio flag placed 15, at 6.87 out of 10.

Will it fit my flagpole?

Twenty five to thirty five feet of in-ground flagpole is the standard commercial pairing 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

Before the building registers, the flag does — that is what anyone driving past a business sees first. A frayed, faded flag communicates something, and the cost of that is separate from what replacing it would run.

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?

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

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.

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

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

The rule comes from Title 4, Section 7 of the United States Flag Code: no flag is displayed above the United States flag, and none is placed to its right at the same level, which from the viewer’s position means the left. Equal-height flagpoles carry the United States flag on the viewer’s left with matching flag sizes; unequal flagpoles put it on the taller one; a single flagpole with two flags carries it at the top. Civilians face no penalty for departing from the Flag Code, but it is the standard institutions hold to.

Buy two and they both last longer

Buy two flags and swap them every month. That habit alone outlasts three flags flown into the ground, since the material recovers while resting and the fly end is not repeatedly stressed in the same place. Take the flag down for real storms; overnight wind damage can exceed six months of ordinary wear. Inspect the fly end rather than the middle, and a few minutes of repair stitching when fraying starts buys another season.

For cities, counties, schools and agencies

This is a flag we sell to municipalities, school districts, fire and police departments, courthouses and state agencies as standard business. Use the tax exempt page for a tax exempt account, and the contact page for quantity orders, a replacement schedule, or a size not shown on this listing.

Why buy it from us

A small American company runs this store, and everything listed here is something we actually stock. Every flag is made in the United States, printed in UV resistant ink, and built to the construction described above rather than built down to a price. We would rather one flag last than sell three that fail early. Free shipping kicks in over twenty five dollars.