# Where are American flags made? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 1, 2006, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971 "2006-01-01T18:16:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gitfiddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@gitfiddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gitfiddle)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971/1 "2006-01-01T18:16:46Z")
I was thinking recently about the Bill Hicks routine where he mocks people worried about flag burning in which he says something along the lines of: > [@](#): > > I personally do not believe in burning the flag. It’s a personal belief, but I’ll tell you something, I think people are overreacting, oh, just a little bit. “Hey buddy, my daddy died for that flag.” Well, I bought mine. Sorry. You know they sell them at K-Mart for three bucks, you’re in, you’re out, brand new flag, no violence was necessary. “Hey buddy, my daddy died in the Korean war for that flag.” What a coincidence - my flag was made in Korea! I’m just curious if he has a point. Where are American flags made? Is there any law that American flags have to be made in the US? Does anyone see any significance in their flags not being made in their country? (I realize that introduces a IMHO into a GQ, so ignore it if it bothers you) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971/2 "2006-01-01T18:23:38Z")
The smaller ones tend to be made overseas. The bigger ones are generally made in the US. I know all the flags at my school are domestically-produced. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971/3 "2006-01-01T19:46:14Z")
> [@gitfiddle](#): > > Does anyone see any significance in their flags not being made in their country? The symbol isn’t the flag itself, it’s the pattern woven into the flag. ---
**Author:** ![gitfiddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/898d66/32.png) [@gitfiddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gitfiddle)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971/4 "2006-01-01T19:49:06Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > The symbol isn’t the flag itself, it’s the pattern woven into the flag. That doesn’t really change the question though. Would it bother people to know the pattern is woven in Bangladesh and not Bangor? ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971/5 "2006-01-01T20:05:14Z")
Slight hijack but I have recently wondered this. Does it matter to the ‘burning flags should be made a crime’ people whether or not the flag is a true stars-and-stripes? You often see on news reports from e.g. Iran the burning of vaguely stars-and-stripes like cloths, obviously intended to represent the real thing (unless I am missing some very subtle joke here, and these guys tend to be anything but subtle) but which rarely have the requisite number of either stars or stripes. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971/6 "2006-01-01T20:09:36Z")
I once saw a US flag which was clearly labeled as being made in Taiwan. It had five staggered rows of ten stars each. :smack: (Well at least they got the total number right.) ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971/7 "2006-01-01T20:49:50Z")
Whenever I see [pictures of Iraqi’s burning an American flag](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.theodora.com/flags/burning_2/91/karbala_040303_ap.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.theodora.com/flags/burning_2/91/flag_burning_91.html&h=140&w=200&sz=17&tbnid=3p6ooOuWD_IJ:&tbnh=69&tbnw=99&hl=nl&start=23&prev=/images%3Fq%3Damerican%2Bflag%2Bburning%2Biraq%26start%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Dnl%26lr%3D%26client%3Dopera%26rls%3Dnl%26sa%3DN), I notice more often then not that they couldn’t (afford to?) buy a flag. So they took a sheet, and assigned their kid sisters to help them color the sheet with felt-tipped pens or little pots of watercolor. It must have taken them all day. And then they go out, find a guy with a camera and burn the flag. And I can’t help it, but I every time I see the flag-burner looking all angry and dangerous all I keep seeing is those guys painstakingly busy with their kid sisters and their felt-tipped pens, and I can only go “awww”. In most such pictures, there are four of five men at most looking angry and shouting. But if you look to their right and left, you see they are surrounded by men and boys who mainly seem to think : " Cool! Some guys are doing some interesting stuff: let’s go look, before mom calls us in again for dinner!" ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971/8 "2006-01-01T21:42:10Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > I once saw a US flag which was clearly labeled as being made in Taiwan. It had five staggered rows of ten stars each. :smack: > > (Well at least they got the total number right.) All your star are belong to us? ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971/9 "2006-01-01T21:42:11Z")
There was a _Made in America_ episode on the Travel Channel about Annin Flags. [Here](http://travel.discovery.com/fansites/jrmia/goods/annin.html) is more info. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971/10 "2006-01-01T23:16:17Z")
I was at a State Convention where a candidate seeking endorsement for a state office distributed small american flags to all the tables where the voting delegates were sitting. The flags had small stickers on them saying “Made in China”. One of the labor union delegates promptly went to a microphone and pointed this out to the Convention. That candidate did _not_ get endorsed. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971/11 "2006-01-01T23:25:47Z")
It’s not hard to buy US flags that are made in the US. I have a 50-star model, and I have a “Betsy Ross model,” which I fly on Independence Day. Both are legally US flags. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2006, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971/12 "2006-01-02T03:39:08Z")
Where are American flags made? > [@gitfiddle](#): > > Does anyone see any significance in their flags not being made in their country? (I realize that introduces a IMHO into a GQ, so ignore it if it bothers you) Most likely China, where almost every manufactured item comes from. Clever people those Chinese. 75 to 80 years ago it was Japan. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2006, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-american-flags-made/337971/13 "2006-01-02T07:23:55Z")
That would be a good answer if this were the Most Likely forum, but this is General Questions. Here is a citation from a government website with actual figures, which I found on the [The US Census Bureau](http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/004772.html). > [@](#): > > **$5.2 million** > The dollar value of U.S. imports of American flags in 2004; the vast majority of this amount ($4.8 million) was for U.S. flags made in China. > > **$851,000** > Dollar value of U.S. flag exports in 2004. Mexico was the leading customer, purchasing $312,000 worth. > > **$349 million** > Annual dollar value of shipments of fabricated flags, banners and similar emblems by the nation’s manufacturers, according to the latest published Economic Census (2002) data [PDF]. Since the figures on that page are by dollar value, and not by units sold, it’s hard to say whether any given “flag, banner, or similar emblem” is made overseas.