Stars & Stripes Stretches Length of Football Field: How They Did That
SANDY, UTAH – May 22, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) – American flags are everywhere at this time of year- but did you ever wonder how they make those huge ones the size of a football field that weigh hundreds of pounds? We went behind the scenes at Colonial Flag, and let us warn you, it is quite involved!
Colonial Flag president Paul Swenson said they are the go-to place in the country for oversize flags. Supervisor Shauna Crane and her team have been doing the job for 16 years, and she said every customer order is a new challenge. But team members say they love their jobs. This crew has made huge flags for orders the world over, says Swenson, and some of the flags amazingly weigh 1,200 lbs.
Swenson has a great deal of confidence in his employees: “They are the best sewers in the country, absolutely,” he said. “Anybody that tries to make a bigger flag, I’ve never seen anybody do as good a job as this crew here. They’re excellent.
“We have people who have been here for a while and really know their craft. We couldn’t do what we do without the people we have who work here.”
After the preliminary sewing is done, Colonial Flag often needs to borrow a stadium sized field for the layout. Or sometimes, they travel to a wide-open warehouse just to be able to see and then finalize the work that goes into one of these giants.
Colonial Flag has clients are in every state in the union, as well as many foreign countries. They have done thousands of custom flag projects both large and small, all across the nation; as well as shipping flags to China, Guam, Saipan, Germany, Sweden and Canada. Their flags have flown aboard the U.S. space shuttle, in F117A’s during Desert Storm, and they are flying over state buildings, memorials, and homes in your own home town.
Colonial Flag supported the great Olympic effort here in our Salt Lake valley during the 2002 Winter Olympics. Their flagpoles and flags adorned many of the venues, and hung behind the athletes. Locally, they participate with the Exchange Clubs of Salt Lake City, Bountiful, Ogden, Taylorsville, and Sandy by supplying over 56,000 flags annually to July 4th, and July 24th, parades. They also support Boy Scout Eagle projects, and Boy Scout fund raisers.
So if you see a giant American flag or just about any other sort of flag this weekend, or during a college or NFL game, and it’s gigantic, now you know how how it’s made and you know it probably came from Colonial Flag right here in Sandy, Utah.
