--- title: American Flag Sales Are Flying High Because Patriotism description: Flag sellers report that flag sales are on the rise in 2016, likely due to surging patriotism--and perhaps because of Donald Trump. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2016-05-31T15:08:46.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T11:14:57.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - Odd Spending - Patriotism - politics - pubdesk - Shopping word_count: 524 canonical: https://money.com/american-flag-sales-increase-donald-trump/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** Money may earn a commission when you click on the products and services below. Opinions are our own, but compensation and in-depth research determine where and how they appear. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/) about how we make money. ![Rockport, Massachusetts](https://img.money.com/2016/05/160531_em_flags.jpg) Is the 2016 presidential campaign making American flag sales great again? It's hard to pinpoint the exact reason(s) why sales of the stars and stripes have flying high lately, but according the [*Milwaukee Journal Sentinel*](http://www.jsonline.com/business/flag-sales-have-banner-year-rise-in-patriotism-cited-b99731657z1-381262651.html), a general "surge in politics and patriotism" is causing a boom in American flag sales. Typical election years do not give the flag industry a significant bump in sales, a report published earlier this year by the [*Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/22/in-the-flag-industry-campaigns-dont-drive-sales-crises-do/) explained. Yet the 2016 presidential campaign has hardly been typical, and according to flag sellers cited in both stories, sales are up this year--by as much as 15%, according to one seller. While it's impossible to state unequivocally what's driving higher American flag sales, we know that sales are generally much stronger during the first half of every year, as people outfit homes with new flags in the springtime. Patriotic bursts around Memorial Day and Fourth of July fuel sales as well. The other big factor that has historically resulted in soaring flag sales is a national crisis: After 9/11, flag manufacturers couldn't make their products fast enough to keep up with phenomenal demand. So what is causing flag sales to jump lately? For one thing, new construction seems to have helped: When more new homes and buildings go up, the owners need to buy flags if they want to fly the stars and stripes. ***Read Next:* [New Jersey Man Faces $2,000 Fine for Flying Donald Trump Flag](https://money.com/donald-trump-flag-ticket-new-jersey/)** As for the idea that surging patriotism is causing a rise in flag sales, a [Gallup poll](http://www.gallup.com/poll/183911/smaller-majority-extremely-proud-american.aspx) from last summer reported that the number of people who were "extremely proud" to be Americans has actually been declining. In 2003, while 9/11 was still fresh in memory and American troops had recently been deployed to Iraq, 70% of those surveyed said they were "extremely proud" to be American. Only 54% said so last summer. Still, it's not necessary for patriotism to rise nationally for flag sales to increase. All that's needed is for heightened levels of patriotism among those who are most likely to buy flags in the first place. According to the Gallup poll, Republicans are much more likely to say they are "extremely proud" to be American, by a count of 68% versus 47% of Democrats as of last summer. Unsurprisingly, older people and Southerners have much higher levels of extreme American pride as well. It must be noted that Donald Trump has particularly good support in the [South](http://fortune.com/2016/02/24/donald-trump-south-voters/) and among [older Republicans](http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/12/11/wsjnbc-poll-finds-age-gender-gaps-in-views-of-donald-trump/). According to a recent *[Military Times](http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/election/2016/05/09/military-times-survey-donald-trump-beats-hillary-clinton/84132402/)* survey, members of the armed services—who are also more likely to buy and fly American flags—support Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by a wide margin as well. ***Read Next:* 12 Things Americans Are Suddenly Buying More Than Ever** So while there is no data indicating definitively that Trump supporters have been buying more flags, it sure seems like there's a lot of overlap among the people who want him to be president and the people who are most likely giving flag sales a big boost. Normal election years may not increase flag sales, but this clearly is not a normal election year. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/american-flag-sales-increase-donald-trump/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Consumer Goods", "item": "https://money.com/consumer-goods/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "American Flag Sales Are Flying High Because Patriotism" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/american-flag-sales-increase-donald-trump/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/american-flag-sales-increase-donald-trump/", "name": "American Flag Sales Are Flying High Because Patriotism", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-05-31T15:08:46.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/american-flag-sales-increase-donald-trump/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/american-flag-sales-increase-donald-trump/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-16T11:14:57.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "American Flag Sales Are Flying High Because Patriotism", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/05/160531_em_flags.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1400, "caption": "160531_EM_flags" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-05-31T15:08:46.000Z", "description": "Flag sellers report that flag sales are on the rise in 2016, likely due to surging patriotism--and perhaps because of Donald Trump.", "abstract": "Flag sellers report that flag sales are on the rise in 2016, likely due to surging patriotism--and perhaps because of Donald Trump.", "@id": "https://money.com/american-flag-sales-increase-donald-trump/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-05-16T11:14:57.000Z", "wordCount": 524, "keywords": [ "Odd Spending", "Patriotism", "politics", "pubdesk", "Shopping" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Consumer Goods", "sameAs": [ "https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_goods" ] } ] } ] } ```