Allegiance Flag Supply's journey from wedding gift frustration to the White House
A moldy wedding gift inspired three friends to start the company.
Katie and Wes Lyon proudly hung the American flag that they received as a wedding gift outside their newly purchased home in South Carolina, marking the beginning of their newlywed life together.
Within months, Old Glory began to fall apart. Mold quickly crept across the fabric. Tears formed along the stitching, Katie Lyon said.
Just down the street, Max Berry, Katie's friend since middle school, was dealing with the same problem. His flag had also become weathered and tattered, she told ABC News.
When she went looking for a replacement, she ran into a problem she had not expected: Finding a high-quality American-made flag that proved to be harder than it seemed.
"We really couldn't find it," she told ABC News. "Max, who I grew up with, bought a house just down the street from us, and said that he was having the same issues too. So, we're like, well, maybe we're not the only people with this problem."
That search became the beginning of Allegiance Flag Supply, a North Charleston, South Carolina, company now sewing roughly 5,000 flags a week ahead of Flag Day and America's 250th anniversary, including flags headed to one of the most recognizable addresses in the country -- 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., the White House.
The trio pooled roughly $5,000 and launched a line of high-quality, American-made flags. The company remains owned by its three founders and has no outside investors.
"We set out to make an American flag, supporting American jobs supporting American manufacturing," Lyon said.
Before launching their website in August 2018, the founders shared that they spent years testing materials and trying to create a flag that was durable enough to withstand the elements but still light enough to fly.
"We thought, you turn a website on and build it and they will come and that's not what happened," Lyon told ABC News.
"How do we run ads? How do we learn about Meta? How do we communicate to our customer? Who is our customer? It wasn't really until 2020 where we really saw some serious sales come in, and really, since 2020, the last six years, we've just really experienced like a 'hockey stick' growth."
Originally, Allegiance worked with various sewing shops across the country.
As demand grew, so did inventory limits and quality-control concerns, pushing the founders to bring production in-house.
In October 2021, the company opened its own manufacturing facility in North Charleston.
"When you're not sewing it yourself and you're relying on different sources around the country, that's not how we wanted to operate and grow," Lyon said.
Today, Allegiance says it employs more than 120 people and operates out of a 75,000-square-foot office and warehouse in North Charleston.
Materials move through multiple states before the flags are finally sewn in South Carolina.
Because many applicants did not know how to sew, Allegiance created its own sewing-training program. The company says it also partners with a local organization that helps people reenter society after incarceration. Lyon said roughly 75 people have gone through the program, with some learning sewing while others have been trained in fulfillment and other trade skills.
"Education is the one thing people can't take away from you," Lyon said.
As America prepares for its 250th birthday, Allegiance is continuing to grow. In May, the company sponsored the Allegiance 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway and is launching #RaiseTheFlag250, a campaign encouraging Americans and companies to raise American-made flags from Flag Day through Independence Day.
Allegiance's made-in-America national television commercials have caught the eyes of many Americans, including President Donald Trump.
During a White House Small Business Summit on May 4, Lyon said Allegiance was selected as one of six companies to meet directly with Trump.
During the meeting, Trump asked whether the company could supply the large American flags flown at the White House, along with additional flags displayed throughout the complex.This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The visit marked Lyon's first time inside the White House and her first time meeting a president.
Lyon said the company views itself as nonpartisan and serves anyone who wants to fly an American flag.
"We are bipartisan," she said. "We sell to anyone who's interested in flying an American flag on their house, no matter what that means to them."
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