Michigan 8x12 Feet Nylon State Flag Made in USA

An 8x12 foot flag is institutional. Ninety six square feet goes on a forty to fifty foot flagpole outside a civic building, a campus, a large commercial site. It is not a flag anybody buys by accident.

This is the Michigan 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 Michigan flag specification

The Michigan flag is set out in Michigan Compiled Laws Section 2.23, with the arms at Section 2.22 from Act 209 of 1911. It is the state coat of arms on dark blue.

Adopted August 1, 1911, making it Michigan’s third flag.

What is fixed by law here is the design, the colors and the seal or emblem — not a size requirement for an outdoor flag. Most states leave it the same way, which is why the whole industry has settled on the same standard sizes.

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

Michigan Compiled Laws Section 2.23, Act 209 of 1911 reads:

The state flag shall be blue charged with the arms of the state.

The arms are defined in words at Section 2.22, by reference.

You do not have to take our word for any of that. Read Michigan Compiled Laws Section 2.23 in full at Justia, 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 arms carry elk and moose supporters, a bald eagle crest, the motto Tuebor meaning I Will Defend, the words E Pluribus Unum, and the state motto Si Quaeris Peninsulam Amoenam Circumspice, If You Seek a Pleasant Peninsula, Look About You.

Worth knowing about this flag

Three separate Latin mottoes appear on this flag. Most listings mention one.

Where the Michigan flag flies

Each holds a significant Civil War battle flag collection. Connecticut's is at the Museum of Connecticut History in Hartford. Illinois has the State Military Museum in Springfield. Massachusetts has the State House Hall of Flags. Michigan runs a Save the Flags program with rotating display at the Capitol. Minnesota's Historical Society holds the First Minnesota's colors associated with Gettysburg.

Walter and Mary Burke Park in New Baltimore, a hundred and sixty feet, completed October 2016, flying a thirty by sixty foot flag. Funded by the New Baltimore Lions Club at about a hundred and seven thousand dollars with no tax money.. A competing dealership claim at George Matick Chevrolet in Redford Township, a hundred and fifty four feet in June 2023, is shorter.

Fly it on Michigan’s birthday

Michigan became the 26th state on January 26, 1837. 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 Michigan flag has an official reason to go up.

Order ahead and this flag is ready for the day. The complete list of state birthdays lives on our state birthdays page.

Nylon or polyester in Michigan

Nylon inland. Polyester on the Great Lakes shorelines for lake effect wind and moisture.

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.

There is one more factor, and most people only discover it after buying the wrong material once: a nylon flag moves on days a polyester flag stays limp. If it matters to you that the flag is actually flying on a still morning, a holiday, at a funeral, at a ceremony, that favors nylon even where polyester would outlast it. A flag hanging motionless has failed at its job too.

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

The fly end carries six rows of lock stitching, and the corners use zig zag stitching rather than a straight seam, because a straight corner seam works loose under 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.

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. There are no grommets at this size — a nylon rope sewn the full heading length, finished with two plated steel thimbles, carries the load rather than letting it tear at two points.

This is commercial grade nylon: light enough to fly in a light wind, quick to shed water instead of holding it, and fast to dry, which matters because a waterlogged flag is a heavier flag putting more strain on its seams. UV resistant, field tested ink is what fights the sun, which is the real driver of color loss over time.

Why this flag is harder to make than most

Two large animal supporters, an eagle, a shield and three mottoes. In terms of sheer element count it is one of the busiest flags in the country.

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 Michigan flag placed 59, at 3.46 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 the grommets disappear

Two grommets cannot carry ninety six square feet of pull — it concentrates too much force on two small rings. A full-length sewn rope spreads that load across the entire hoist instead, with thimbles taking the attachment. More expensive to build, but the only way this size holds up.

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 and Thimbles
• Ink: UV resistant, field tested
• Made in the United States by FORTISVEX

Which size do I need?

The rule behind both tables below is that a flag’s length should run about a quarter to a third of the flagpole’s height. Where two sizes both fit, the smaller one flies more often and lasts longer, and the larger one reads from further away.

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

Push the flagpole past a hundred feet and the same ratio still applies, but it stops being a simple lookup: the flag, the truck, the halyard, the foundation and the wind load need to be engineered as a unit, and skipping that step damages the flagpole before it damages the flag. A number of famous large flags deliberately break the rule of thumb, on an engineer’s word rather than a table’s.

What is on the website is not the limit of what we carry. Any size in the tables above can be ordered, listed or not.

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

Title 4, Section 7 of the Flag Code is the source for this. The United States flag is never subordinate in position — nothing flies above it, and nothing takes its place at the viewer’s left when flags are level with each other. On matched flagpoles, the United States flag takes the viewer’s left and the flags should be sized the same; on unequal flagpoles, it goes on the taller one; and on a single pole flying two flags, it goes at the top. There is no penalty for civilians who do not follow the Code, but institutions treat it as the standard regardless.

Buy two and they both last longer

Rotate two flags on a monthly cycle and they will outlast three flags flown until they fail, because the fabric gets a rest and the fly end is not taking the same beating in the same spot every day. Bring it down before severe weather; one real windstorm can do more damage overnight than six ordinary months. Check the fly end, not the middle — a few minutes of stitching at the first sign of fraying 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.