FORTISVEX Texas State Flag 8x12 Feet Nylon - Made in USA Lone Star Flag 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 Texas 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 Texas flag specification

The Texas flag is set out in Texas Government Code Chapter 3100, at a two to three proportion, with the statute giving precise star geometry. It is a blue vertical hoist stripe one third the length carrying a white five-pointed star, with white over red horizontal stripes.

This was the 1839 national flag of the Republic of Texas, drawn by Peter Krag and approved by President Lamar January 25, 1839; it became the state flag at annexation in 1845 and was re-adopted August 31, 1933 after a period with no active flag statute.

Texas is precise about proportion rather than size. Government Code Chapter 3100 requires a width to length ratio of two to three, which a 4x6 foot flag, an 8x12 foot flag and a 10x15 foot flag all match exactly. A 3x5 foot flag is a three to five ratio and is therefore slightly deeper than the statute describes.

We reproduce that design faithfully, in the standard outdoor flag sizes the whole industry uses and that the states themselves buy. What matters on an outdoor flag is that the colors, the seal and the emblems are right, and they are.

The law that defines it, in its own words

Texas Government Code Section 3100.002, Description: In General reads:

(a) The state flag is a rectangle that: (1) has a width to length ratio of two to three; and (2) contains: (A) one blue vertical stripe that has a width equal to one-third the length of the flag; (B) two equal horizontal stripes, the upper stripe white, the lower stripe red, each having a length equal to two-thirds the length of the flag; and (C) one white, regular five-pointed star: (i) located in the center of the blue stripe; (ii) oriented so that one point faces upward; and (iii) sized so that the diameter of a circle passing through the five points of the star is equal to three-fourths the width of the blue stripe. (b) The red and blue of the state flag are: (1) the same colors used in the United States flag; and (2) defined as numbers 193 (red) and 281 (dark blue) of the Pantone Matching System. (c) The red, white, and blue of the state flag represent, respectively, bravery, purity, and loyalty.

Section 3100.001 separately states that the state flag is the 1839 national flag of the Republic of Texas.

You do not have to take our word for any of that. Read Texas Government Code Section 3100.002 in full at the Texas Legislature, and check what we sell against it.

This is the flag we make. Not an approximation of it.

What is on it and what it means

The lone star stands for Texas unity, one for God, State and Country. Chapter 3100 assigns the colors directly: blue is loyalty, white is purity, red is bravery.

Worth knowing about this flag

For most of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Texas had no flag statute in force. The 1933 act put the Lone Star Flag back into law.

With Hawaii, it is one of only two state flags that previously served as the flag of a sovereign nation.

Where the Texas flag flies

The original Battle Flag of San Jacinto has hung in the Texas House of Representatives at the State Capitol in Austin since 1933, with a reproduction displayed when the House is not in session to protect the fragile original. The World's Largest Texas Flag, one hundred by one hundred and fifty feet, was made by Dixie Flag and Banner of San Antonio and is unfurled at Longhorns football games.

Fly it on Texas’s birthday

Texas became the 28th state on December 29, 1845. 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 Texas 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 Texas

Polyester across the wind and ultraviolet Panhandle and West. Amarillo at 13.5 and Lubbock at 12.4 miles per hour are among the very windiest American stations, and El Paso for ultraviolet. Polyester also on the Gulf Coast at Houston and Corpus Christi. Nylon acceptable in the sheltered central metros at Austin, San Antonio and the Dallas interior.

At ninety six square feet the flagpole feels the load in earnest, and on an exposed site above, polyester is the only sensible material, with the flagpole and truck rated accordingly.

This listing is the nylon. It is the right choice for the sheltered and moderate wind sites named above, on any house bracket, and anywhere the flag comes down in storms. Two things decide that. Nylon is light, so it flies on the breeze most yards actually get instead of hanging limp, and it dries fast, which is what fights mildew in a humid climate. What it gives up is ultraviolet life: nylon’s amide bonds absorb ultraviolet and break, so under hard sun it loses strength and color faster than polyester, and it loses roughly a tenth of its strength while it is wet. If your site is one of the exposed ones above, look at the polyester version of this flag instead.

Here is the part usually learned the hard way, after a second purchase: nylon catches wind on days polyester simply will not move. When the flag needs to be visibly flying — a quiet morning, a holiday, a funeral, a ceremony — that argues for nylon even on a site where polyester would technically last longer. A flag that just hangs there is not doing its job either.

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.

Two people on the ground, two people at the flagpole: this size demands it. Ninety six square feet can knock you off balance in a gust while clipping it on alone.

Lock stitching means each stitch is knotted into the next, so a broken thread stops where it broke rather than unzipping the seam. 6 rows does not mean 6 times the strength; it means 5 backups. This size drops grommets entirely. The heading carries a nylon rope its full length, ending in plated steel thimbles, so the load runs through the rope instead of two vulnerable points.

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.

A design that reproduces cleanly

Three colors and one star. It is among the cheapest state flags to build properly and among the longest lived, because there is no fine detail to fail.

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 Texas flag placed 2, at 8.13 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

A single reinforced grommet sits at the center of the heading as a secondary attachment point, but concentrating ninety six square feet of pull onto grommets alone does not hold, which is why a rope runs the full length of the heading, spreading the load across the whole hoist and letting thimbles carry the attachment point. It costs more to build, but it is the only construction that survives at this size.

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?

One rule sits under both tables: the flag should run about a quarter to a third the height of the flagpole. On the border between two rows, the smaller flag flies more and lasts longer; the larger one is the one you can see from the road.

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.

Every size in both tables can be ordered, listed here or not. If the size you want does not appear on the website, contact us and we can still supply it.

About the back of the flag

A printed flag reads correctly from the front and reversed from the back. That is normal and it is true of almost every flag flown in the country. A flag that reads correctly from both sides is a double sided flag, built as two flags sewn together with a liner between them, and it costs roughly twice as much and weighs roughly twice as much. Unless the statute for a particular state requires it, single sided is the standard and the right choice.

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

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

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.