Our Flag in Afghanistan

Every once in a while, we get the honour of producing a flag for the Canadian Military. These brave soldiers are serving us in a way that most of us couldn't imagine. This photo is of Major Lawrence Hatfield (on left) and Captain Carlo Tittarelli on Guar mountain just outside of Kabul, Afghanistan. These brave young men are members of the Argyll/Sutherland HighlandersInfantry.

The Argyll/Sutherland Highlanders is a specific group of Infantry Reservists from the Hamilton, Ontario region. Infantry Soldiers are part of a trade unique in the profession of arms and have no equivalent within civilian occupations. Infantry are also referred to as "foot soldiers". They comprise the basis of the combat power of the army. Infantry soldiers must be proficient with weapons such as rifles, light machine guns, grenades and anti tank rocket launchers and must be well trained in tactics and fieldcraft.>

We remember those who have lost their lives keeping the peace and think of those who are currently in harm's way. Thank you from all of us at Flags Unlimited.

Flags Unlimited Wins Award

It was a great celebration two weeks ago when Flags Unlimited was named the winner of the Green Project Award at the Bell Canada Business Awards Gala.

“This award recognizes the efforts our entire Team has undertaken in 2008 to develop environmentally friendly processes. Specifically, the separation, baling, and recycling of our waste fabric means that on an annual basis an equivalent of almost 115,000 27” x 54” flags NO LONGER go to the local landfill. This recycled fabric is reclaimed and currently is used in making selected pieces of furniture by a regional manufacturer.

Thank you to all Team Members for making this project viable and sustainable. Special thanks to Andrew Sorlie who spent considerable time researching recycling options for this project. Everyone should take pride in this achievement. I certainly take pride in everyone at Flags Unlimited,” Dennis said.

Winning the award is a great affirmation of all the hard work and effort put into our green program and now we have been recognized publicly for our changes.

The award is currently on display in Dennis’ office.

Flags Unlimited Staff BBQ & Dunk Tank

Richard & Charlie Getting Ready To Throw!

Charlie Winds Up!




Stephanie Gets Ready


Connie Before


Connie After


Some More Throwers!


Dennis Was Dunked 15 Times!

All in all - we raised $500 for Children's Aid during the Dunk Tank Event!

Some Crazy Weather Pictures - Just taken this morning!

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day to Everyone!

Canada Day is a big time of year for us here at Flags Unlimited. We have a whole new set of banners out along the highway in celebration of our nations' 141st birthday.


Flags Unlimited makes over 1 million Canadian Flags each and every year - but some people don't know that more than 50% of what we do here is custom banners. The photo above is just one example of a typical custom job that we are able to do.

We have all of the hardware requirements that you may need as well!

Brand New Personalized Flags Available!

Order your very own Personalized Flag from Flags Unlimited.  Call our office at 800.565.4100 and someone will be glad to put your order together!

The Flags Seen 'Round the World

Flags Unlimited is the largest manufacturer of Flags and Banners in Canada. With that being said, we have seen our product in places such as London, England. The Canadian High Commission (Embassy) in London featured our Provincial Presentation Set prominently displayed along the front of the building.














If you are interested in ordering our Provincial Flag Presentation Set - there are a few options for you - you can phone us at Flags Unlimited in Barrie, Ontario at 800.565.4100 or visit our online store and order yours from your computer.

One of our best customers is the Fairmont Hotel Chain. We make 'Applique' flags for their resorts all around the world. Applique is the oldest form of flag manufacturing that we know of. The term refers to a French needlework technique in which pieces of fabric, embroidery, or other materials are sewn onto a bottom piece of fabric to create designs. Our Fairmont flags can be seen in places such as Cairo; Hamburg; Nairobi; Monte Carlo; Singapore; Dubai, and more. We have been making both stock and custom Applique flags since our inception, over 41 years ago.

We even have flags in the North Pole! Have a look at this photo sent in to us from one of our customers!












For more information on who we are and what we can offer you - click through our website at www.flagsunlimited.com

Earth Week @ Flags Unlimited

This week is Earth Week across North America and Flags Unlimited is taking part.  Since we last updated you in March, our recycling program is in full effect.  As a company, in just a few short weeks, we have reduced our garbage output by nearly a tonne.  We're just one company - but every bit of change counts.

For details of the changes we've made - check out our home page.  There you will see a list of things we are doing and changes we have made with an emphasis on being green.

With the warm months now suddenly upon us, Flag and Banner season is just starting to pick up. Our company is proud to make over a million Canadian Flags each and every year.  You can buy your Canadian Flag at major retailers such as Home Hardware, Rona, Canadian Tire, Lowes, Wal-Mart and many more.  We also have a Factory Outlet Store that sells factory seconds and much more!

Canadian Flags aren't all we do, however.  In addition to making flags of the world, we also do custom flags and banners for some of North America's leading customers.  We manufacture banners in all shapes and sizes, from quantities as little as one to well over ten thousand.  Give us a call if you have any questions about custom banners.   

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hello,

It's St. Patrick's Day today! For some people, this is a pretty big deal. There is a lot of green around the office. Chris Howard, our HR superstar has a giant card-board cut-out leprechaun on her door. The thing looks a bit odd. I'm not sure if there will be green beer at lunch, maybe though. Regardless, people are excited and that's a good thing.

We have a bunch of new people here at Flags Unlimited. Jennifer is the newest one. She has joined our Canada Direct Sales team and we are happy to have her.

That's all for now.

Flags Unlimited on Breakfast Television

This Friday is Flag Day! Make sure to tune in to Breakfast Television on Friday, February 15th between 6:00am and 9:00am. Kevin Frankish was with us Tuesday and we gave him a tour of the building and showed him how we make our flags! There's a very cool surprise that will take place as well during the show - so make sure you tune in!

Thanks to Kevin Frankish for being so kind and great to work with! For more information on Flag Day you can visit the Government of Canada website.

Also, take a few moments to head over to the Canadian Heritage website. It has all kinds of useful information about our flag and the history tied to it.

Super - Pancake - Tuesday

It's Tuesday, February the 5th, 2008 and it's Super - Pancake - Tuesday!

Today is a special day for two reasons. There may be more, but the biggest two reasons are:

1) Super Tuesday in the US. American Citizens have to vote on who they want to vote for a year and a half from now. Then, after they vote for who they want to vote for, they tally the votes for the votables and calculate who was voted votable in the next vote.

2) PANCAKES!!!
Since about the 1700s, and beginning in England, people made pancakes 47 days before easter. Who knows why - but the thing is - we get to eat pancakes! We had pancakes here at Flags Unlimited for lunch today. And I'll be having them again for dinner at home. I'd like to say thank you to both England and the 1700s for starting this fantastic tradition. There's rumblings that the British aren't as committed to Pancake Tuesday, and that the celebration may be dying off. I hope that isn't true. Save Pancake Tuesday, England!

Nobody's Perfect...

There are a lot of very happy people in New York City this morning. There are also a lot of happy people who (in my opinion foolishly) gambled on the underdogs to win. At the same time, literally millions of fans who wanted Captain America (Tom Brady) and his army to complete the perfect season are at their desks or workplaces this morning feeling a range of emotions, mostly sad ones.

Last night, in a largely defensive game, the New York Giants pulled off a major upset to stop the New England Patriot's bid at a perfect 19-0 season. The game had a low score, due largely to the fact that the Giant's defense was unbelievable at getting to Tom Brady.

There was one move that I absolutely loved by Osi Umenyiora, one of the defensive ends for the Giants. Right after Brady snapped the ball, Osi turned away from Brady and appeared to give chase to a Patriot receiver. The O-lineman who was paired with Umenyiora then left his assignment and moved out of the way. Instantly, Umenyiora pivoted 180 degrees and charged through an open hole in the pocket and sacked Tom Brady at full steam. Wow. I was impressed to say the least. Incidentally, as was revealed during the 7 hours of pre-game content, when his name is played in a game of Scrabble, Osi Umenyiora can be worth over 100 points!

On a quick side note: I'm considerably disappointed with the behavior of Bill Belichick who walked off the field when the game wasn't officially finished. With one second left on the game clock, the Patriot head coach ran onto the field to shake the hand of New York Skipper Tom Coughlin. Then a hoard of camera men, fans, and team officials stormed the field. The referees wouldn't allow the game to end like this with time still on the clock so they had to shuffle everyone off the field to play the remaining one second. Belichick then turned and left the field for his locker room before the official end of the game. It was in poor taste and showed that he was a poor sport.

Tom Petty played for the halftime show. I'm not a huge fan of Tom Petty. I might be a little young, but he's just one of those guys that has three or four songs that everyone knows and that's about it. He sounded good and all. Some people are suggesting he recorded his set earlier in a studio and lip synced his performance. I have to tell you, I have absolutely no problem with doing that. It would be pretty impossible to perform at a high standard with 100,000 people screaming and only 3 minutes to set up your entire stage. Overall, a good job by Mr. Petty.

Catherine Vaugh, our purchasing guru here at Flags Unlimited couldn't be happier with the results of last night's game. She was more than happy to come into work today to an office almost entirely full of Patriots fans. Congratulations to Catherine for sticking to her guns and proving us all wrong!

Lastly, perhaps one of the most exciting parts of the Super Bowl is always the commercials which companies pay as much as three million dollars for thirty seconds of air time during the most watched television program world-wide. Being in Canada, most of the ads were blocked and we saw CTV's promos for boring TV shows like Jericho and the Terminator TV show over and over again. We did manage to see a few funny ones up across the 49th parallel.

My winner was for E-trade.com with a little baby talking about how he regularly trades stocks online. The talking baby thing isn't unique at all, it's been done before, and I bet most critics will complain about just that fact. But this one made me laugh and I remembered it more than any other ad I saw. That's the point of advertising, isn't it? You can see all of the American commercials by searching on Google or simply see them all by clicking here.

Have a great day!

80 Foot Pole Sold - And More!

Hello everyone,

It's a beautiful Thursday morning. Sun is out, so is the snow, but that's okay. For those of you who have been reading our weekly posts, you may have been aware that we had an 80 foot flag pole for sale. Well, thanks to one of our Canadian Direct account executives, Gail Turcotte-Woolrich, that pole has now left the building. And we couldn't be more thankful to Gail. That thing took up so much room in our warehouse- let's just say we're happy to have the room back!

Flag Day is coming up in about two weeks. Make sure you go out and purchase your Canadian Flag. We need to celebrate our country and have some national pride!

Flags Unlimited on Facebook

We are now on Facebook. Click above to find us and join up!

Retail Store at Flags Unlimited

You may not have known, but Flags Unlimited has a retail outlet here at the factory. There are hundreds of different types of flags available for sale. We have flag pole kits that come with Canadian Flags. We also sell provincial flags, as well as stick flags. We have just about every single country represented for sale at our store. The address, for those of you who are looking for us, is 364 St. Vincent Street, Barrie, ON, L4M 4A5. You can also give the store a call at 800.565.4100. You can always shop online too!

Flag Day is coming up in a few weeks. Have you got your Canadian Flag yet? If you do, then that's fantastic. If you don't own one, you can either stop by our retail store, or visit any number of our retail partners including Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Rona, Wal-Mart, and more. The new Lowe's stores will also be stocking our flags. You know that Lowe's will guarantee a new cash line open if your line has more than three people in it. Now that is something. Lowe's is showing they care.

Watch for us on Breakfast Television on February 15th. There will be some excellent prizes!

25 Years of Dedicated Service

Today being Friday, January the 25th, 2008, was the date of our annual company meeting. At this meeting, our president, Dennis Brown, recognized new employees (of which one of those was myself). But he also took time to recognize a few other employees. There were four employees who had been congratulated for five years of being with Flags Unlimited. There were two employees who have been with us for ten years. And then lastly Ann Marie Crackle was praised for her 25 years of being a part of the team here at Flags Unlimited. Ann Marie has been through many phases with the company. She has been a magnificent part of the company's continued success. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table, and I tell you - she knows her stuff.

You don't really see people working at one company for that long these days. I was told when I was in college that I might have 7-10 different careers and perhaps even more as the world continues to change. All the more reason why Ann Marie's accomplishment is so special.

We'd all like to thank Ann Marie for her leadership and friendship and hope she stays another 25 years! Although - we hope she gets to retire and all that sort of thing too some day :)

Quebec is turning 400 this year!

The year 2008 is a pretty big one for the entire province of Quebec. It was 400 years ago that Quebec City was formed and the celebration parties are going to be absolutely huge! Everyone seems to be paying attention to the festivities with news stories in USA Today and ABC News.

The Quebec City locals will have the bonus of a brand new arts and entertainment center being built in time for the July celebration. You can see photos of the new building here.

Flags Unlimited manufactures Quebec flags in five different sizes and they are available from your local Home Hardware or Canadian Tire, as well as other hardware stores such as Rona and Lowes. If you can't find one in your hometown hardware store, visit our online store and orders yours today!

It's A Cold One at Flags Unlimited

Good morning to all you blog readers. It is really cold. I know I've already spoken once about the weather, but I tell you, negative 14! Anyways... Watched some good football last night. Was kind of upset at Brett Favre. This guy is supposed to be the guy who can get it done. I was in his corner. Wouldn't that have been a great Super Bowl, today's hero (Brady) vs. the aging superstar (Favre). Anyways, not going to happen. Patriots will go 19-0. I said it here first. I'm also going to make some tasty nachos for that game. I also said that here first. I need to buy some cheese.

Now, on to this business of flags and what not. After all, it is the Flags Unlimited Banner you are reading. We have an 80 foot flag pole here in stock. Just one. But it could be yours. For you, we could work out a special price. If you wanted this 80 foot pole for your own, and mentioned that you read about it in this blog, I would personally guarantee you a $5 discount (All Funds Canadian). You may say, that's nothing, but I'd say - it's all I've got in my pocket right now and I don't like making empty promises. The pole does retail for well over $12,000, but $5 still goes a long way at Tim Hortons.

Things you could use an 80 foot flag pole for?
1. Be the new Bradford Husky Gas Station (You won't get this if you're not from the general region that our business operates in).

2. Never loose a game of capture the flag (unless your friends have a portable crane at their disposal).

3. Clearly be the coolest person on your street. In fact, with a pole that tall- you could become president of your street. I say this, because this pole is so tall, that you could put whatever you want at the top. Such as battle colours. And everyone would have to either join you, or fall against your mighty army.

I leave you with a gift. This comic is new daily and it is titled Toothpaste For Dinner. Don't ask me about the title, but it is pretty funny stuff.

Hey Canada - Flag Day is February 15th!

Flags Unlimited does Custom

It's Wednesday, January 16th and the it's a fairly nice day out. When I first got to work, my computer told me it was -18 degrees out. That was around 8:30am. Now, it's more like -5. That's crazy because this past weekend, pretty much all the snow melted and it was like 9 degrees in the plus! Weather is so crazy. Which brings me to my next point.

The Maple Leafs won last night. 5-4 over the Hurricanes. Close win, but still a win. If you were lucky enough to be at the season kick-off party for the Maple Leafs back in September, you would have seen this stage. We made those banners of Mats and Darcy. The ladies at the office were begging to keep the samples of Mr. Tucker. I have no clue why... I can tell you it's a good thing we made the banners before this happened....

You may not know this, but Flags Unlimited is a North American leader in making custom banners. We do literally any size you can think of. We've done lots of work for the Leafs, and we can do any type of banner for your business.

Enjoy your day.

Happy New Year

Welcome to the premier edition of the official online Flags Unlimited Banner. This will be the place for regular updates on Flags Unlimited, as well as a learning source for those who want to know more about the history of flags or proper flag etiquette

Happy New Year from everyone at Flags Unlimited. Last year was a great year for Flags Unlimited. We are looking forward to whats in store for 2008.

One of the biggest pieces of news from Flags Unlimited is the addition of 200D Nylon to our already wide range of printable fabrics. Nylon is great because color really penetrates well and the fabric is almost 100% opaque. The end result is vibrant images that look fantastic. Our DuraMax 200D® Nylon is perfect for indoor or outdoor use.

We are really busy at Flags Unlimited, with the new fabric line- we have tonnes of orders heading out the door - but that's how we like it. If you have any flag or banner need, head over to www.flagsunlimited.com and take a look through our online catalog and store. Or give us a call!

This blog is written by Andrew Sorlie, Marketing Co-ordinator at Flags Unlimited. Feel free to leave your comments! You'll be hearing from me.