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Francois Lenoir / Reuters
A worker adjusts pieces of a U.S. national flag at the Waelkens flag company in Oostrozebeke, Belgium, on Feb. 4.
Francois Lenoir / Reuters
A worker sews stars on a U.S. national flag at the Waelkens flag company in Oostrozebeke, Belgium, on Feb. 4.
By Teddy Nykiel, Reuters
Published at 3:00 p.m. ET: When President Barack Obama was sworn in for his second term on January 21, it's a decent bet that one of the flags fluttering behind him on the U.S. Capitol was made in Belgium.
The Waelkens flag company, based in the small town of Oostrozebeke in Flanders, supplies around 2,000 flags a year to the United States, with clients including the Pentagon and other U.S. government departments as well as the United Nations.
But it's not just the far side of the Atlantic where the company is gaining ground - it also makes flags for NATO, national militaries, the European Union and just about every country in the world, from China to Nigeria.
"We have a lot of know-how about how we have to make flags and a big tradition of embroidery," said Benedikt Waelkens, who runs the company with his brother, David. "There aren't a lot of people in the world who can and are making handmade flags."
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Francois Lenoir / Reuters
A worker rolls out blue fabric at the Waelkens flag company in Oostrozebeke, Belgium, on Feb. 4.
Leave a Comment:
Hey, the Belgians own Budweiser, so what's wrong with them making a few American flags?
Well I think it's disgusting that our own government is buying flags, symbols of our nation, out of country instead of investing in jobs here.
totally disgusting! shameful!
I'd rather see our flags made in the U.S.A. but made in Belgium is better than one from China or Vietnam or Pakistan...
I don't mind US flags being made in Belgium. It looks like they're making well made, high quality flags. But I do have to wonder why our government is buying flags from outside of the country. There's a flag company with a factory in my town that makes handmade, well crafted flags.
What a slap in the face for the American public & especially the American companys and workers producing the quality flags in the US? What is wrong with our brain-dead goverment!
Why is the US goverment turning thier backs on own people?
Minimal U.S. jobs in the market and the U.S. Government still outsources starving American jobs!!! WTF!!!