Emotions flying high as China, others profit from sending U.S. flags here
01.09.2008 11:01
Shopping
- Source: toledoblade.com
As Sept. 11 approaches, many Americans will remember the day this country was attacked by terrorists by keeping the U.S. flag in their hearts and flying it at their homes. But in a great irony, if you don't check the label carefully, you may find that the symbol of freedom waving in front of your house was made in a communist-run country, China. In a further twist, U.S. flags made in China started arriving in America in the weeks following Sept. 11, 2001. "China made inroads because people wanted to fly the flag," said Janice Christiansen, president of FlagSource, a large flag manufacturer based in Batavia, Ill. "We couldn't supply enough flags, and the Chinese saw it as golden opportunity," said Debbie Russell, vice president of C.F. Flag Co., of Huntsville, Ala., another major U.S.-based flag maker. Once a homespun industry and one of the last textile sectors still on U.S. shores, the domestic flag industry faces a challenge by flag makers based in China, India, Mexico, and other countries. Exactly how many flags are imported into the United States isn't clear, although most are of the cheaper variety. Inexpensive "stick flags" are the bulk of what comes from other countries. But China and others are trying to make inroads into the larger flag market with embroidered products, Ms. Christiansen said. "Over the last 10 years or so, there are a number of companies that have started up on the Web," said Tony Penn, marketing director of FlagZone LLC, a flag manufacturer in Gilbertsville, Pa. "They have a whole different dynamic: They sell at significantly lower prices than the bricks-and-mortar retailers," he said. China exported $487,000 worth of Stars and Stripes to the United States in 1999, but that figure soared to $51 million after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when flags were in big demand. Last year, trade figures showed China made $5 million worth of flags. Mexico and Taiwan also export flags to the United States. "Sixty percent of Americans won't buy a flag unless it's made in the U.S., but there's a lot who will," said Fred Bretzloff, owner of Yankee Doodle Flags, Kites & Fun in Sylvania Township. Warehouses of such imported flags eventually will sell, primarily through big-box stores, he said. A typical 3-foot by 5-foot nylon flag retails for between $15 and $30 if it's made in the United States, a few dollars less if it's foreign-made. The more complicated the sewing process, the higher the price. The issue of allowing imported American flags stirs emotions. Tom Rukavina, a longtime Democratic state legislator from northern Minnesota with a Buy-American philosophy, sponsored a bill enacted into law last year that requires flags sold in the Gopher State to be made domestically. "I guess I believe if anything should be made in this country, it's our flag," he said. His father was a U.S. soldier in Europe during World War II and his uncle was a Marine on Iwo Jima when the flag was raised over Mount Suribachi. "People say it's a question of constitutionality," Mr. Rukavina said about some protests over his foreign-flag restriction. "You know what? I don't give a damn. It wasn't a patriotic thing so to speak. But it is one thing that I care about." How much the domestic industry is affected by imports is unclear. Flag makers in the United States are mainly family-owned companies and are reluctant to provide accurate sales numbers. A U.S. Census Bureau figure from 2002, the latest available year, said shipments of all fabricated flags, banners, and similar emblems by U.S. manufacturers totaled $349 million. Even the Flag Manufacturers Association of America trade group, which comprises the largest domestic companies, said it has no current flag sales estimates and does not know how many are made in the United States. "The U.S. flag manufacturing industry has about four or five majors companies that do the bulk of the flag-making, but then you have thousands of dealers that do custom work. It's a pretty fragmented industry," Ms. Christiansen said. Total revenues each year for U.S.-made flags are $500 million to $600 million, she estimated. However, Dale Coots, marketing manager at Annin & Co., of Roseland, N.J., the country's oldest and largest flag maker, with four U.S. plants, including one in Coshocton, Ohio, said total sales are closer to $100 million. Whatever the figure, most in the industry agree that the domestic flag makers dwarf their foreign competition - for now. But that could change. "It's got the potential to become an issue," Ms. Coots said. Previously, foreign-made flags lacked the quality of their U.S. counterparts, but that is changing. Ms. Coots said she recently stopped into a hardware store on the East Coast and saw an Annin-made flag next to a comparable one from China. The China-made flag was about $4 cheaper. "I asked the owner why he would carry a U.S. flag that was made overseas. He said, 'Well, some people just look at the price, and they don't look at why it's a few dollars cheaper,'•" she said. The flag manufacturers' group sponsors education programs about why consumers should choose U.S.-made flags. However, Ms. Coots and others said that buying a flag isn't like buying tennis shoes. "If you're patriotic enough to buy a flag and put it in front of your house, you're probably going to want to make sure it's made in the U.S." Trade laws require products sold in the United States to state the country of origin, she said. Some states have taken action. Minnesota enacted a law in 2007 requiring that any U.S. flags sold in the state be made in America. New Jersey is considering a law requiring that flags bought with state funds be domestically made. One of the bigger buyers of Stars and Stripes is the U.S. government, which has laws requiring that flags used by federal agencies and departments be made in the United States. Contracts, for entities like the Veterans Administration or General Services Administration, are bid out and nearly all domestic flag makers get a piece of the budgeted pie. Still, no laws govern veterans' organizations or other military groups. "You see it with stick flags that the VFW and others are buying to put on graves. A lot of those stick flags are foreign," Mr. Penn, of Pennsylvania flag maker FlagZone, said. If a flag doesn't have a label saying it was made in America, it likely was made elsewhere, he said. Howard Pinkley, owner of Flags Sales & Repairs in Toledo, said, "You see a lot of these hand-held jobs that are printed. They come from China," he said. "People in this country are buying a ton of stuff from China." Mr. Rukavina, the Minnesota legislator, said that when he proposed his law he got a lot of support from veterans groups, but his most strident criticism came from conservatives who argued his law violated free-market principles and would insult China and other U.S. trade partners. "I've often wondered why we're worried about what China thinks," he said. "There's a country that wouldn't even let people protest at the Olympics, and some people who did are still in jail. "Yet we're allowing them to eat our lunch and sell anything they want in our country." Contact Jon Chavez at:
jchavez@theblade.com
or 419-724-6128.
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