Allegiance Flag Supply's banners are made in the U.S.A.
Allegiance’s flags feature reinfored grommets.
New business owners often run their idea up the flagpole before launching, but for Katie Lyon, the flagpole was literal. Katie, her husband, Wes, and friend Max Berry founded Allegiance Flag Supply in West Ashley almost two years ago after The Star-Spangled Banner the couple received as a wedding gift deteriorated after a few months. “We went to a hardware store and bought another one, but that one didn’t last either,” Katie says. “We did some research and couldn’t find a higher-quality flag.” The solution was to create one themselves, and the first prototype was sewn.
The company sells double-stitched, mold-resistant American flags with reinforced grommets and a spinner technology that prevents them from wrapping around the flagpole. Katie is proud that, with most textile manufacturing gone overseas, their banners are American-made. In fact, the stars and stripes are sewn in South Carolina. “It’s a promise we make our customers,” she says. “It is manufactured and all materials come from the United States. It’s part of our mission. Let’s bring this back to America.”
Recently, Allegiance has been using its manufacturing facilities to make masks during the coronavirus pandemic. “In three weeks, we did about 6,000 masks,” Katie says. “About 2,000 of those were donated, and the rest were contracted for by medical facilities. The masks went all over the country.”
The company is wrapping up its busy season, which began in April and includes Flag Day, Father’s Day, and, of course, Independence Day. Allegiance has expanded to offer boat flags and accessories and plans to add more sizes. And that prototype they made a few years ago? It’s still flying above their house.
Photograph by Cameron Wilder Photography
