Flag makers in the United States are cutting and sewing blue and yellow fabric as quickly as possible to keep up with the surge in demand for the Ukrainian flag following Russia’s invasion of the country last week.
Artie Schaller III, president of the National Flag Company, which manufactures flags and installs flagpoles, said he woke up Thursday morning to a new order for 100 Ukrainian flags.
Mr. Schaller said his family’s 153-year-old Cincinnati-based company has sold 450 Ukrainian flags to retailers and private buyers in the United States since the war began last Thursday. According to him, last year the company sold only seven Ukrainian flags.
“This will be the largest increase in the volume of another country’s flag that I have ever seen,” Mr. Schaller said. “I can only compare it to – at one time – 9/11, how quickly people are ready to show support and use the flag to do so.”
Flag makers and sellers in Arizona, Utah, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas and Florida reported similar demand for Ukrainian flags this week. For a while on Thursday morning, the 3-by-5-foot polyester Ukrainian flag was a bestseller in the Patio, Lawn & Garden section of Amazon.
Mr. Schaller said his company has been able to keep up with demand so far, in part because the bright yellow fabric used for the bottom half of the design is common in many types of flags and the company had a lot of it in stock. However, light blue fabric is less common. Mr. Schaller said the company had placed an order for additional shipments on Monday.
The current Ukrainian flag was adopted in January 1992, after Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union a year earlier. According to the National Technical University, the yellow and blue stripes on the flag, which today symbolize clear skies and a wheat field, were present in several versions of the flag before Ukraine adopted a modified version of the Soviet Union’s flag in 1949. Ukraine.
Last week, critics of the war waved Ukrainian flags at anti-war rallies in the US, in shop windows and at home.
In an address to Congress on Tuesday, people on the floor of the House of Representatives carried and waved Ukrainian flags. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox ordered the flag to fly over the State Capitol on Monday, saying in a statement that it is intended “as a symbol that Utah stands in solidarity with Ukraine.” As another show of support, some states have lit up government buildings and landmarks in yellow and blue.