Family Business Carries on Tradition of Flag-Making

It certainly is a Grand Old Flag.

As we celebrate Flag Day today, June 14, we share the story of a four-generation Pennsylvania flag manufacturer, which produces hundreds of thousands of the United States’ American flags.

The Liberman family business began in 1882 as burlap-bag makers. The family business eventually evolved into a flourishing surplus and flag manufacturing business during World War I and the Great Depression, when the first sewing factory opened in Spring City. It was the Spring City factory, which opened to met the increasing demand for American flags after the war, that gave formal beginnings to the Valley Forge Flag brand.

In the intervening years, Valley Forge Flag Company flags have enjoyed a long and illustrious history.

As a longtime government contractor, their flags have draped the caskets of American presidents over the last 40 years, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, and they honor U.S. veterans as they are laid to rest.

Valley Forge Flag Company flags have flown on Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day, and they have been to space aboard the Apollo missions to the moon.

They are the stars of such iconic images as the flag-raising on Iwo Jima and Buzz Aldrin saluting the American flag on the surface of the moon.

Valley Forge flags have also appeared in the movies Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.

Today, under the direction of  company president Scott Liberman, Valley Forge Flag Company is headquartered in Wyomissing, near Reading, with manufacturing and distribution facilities in South Carolina. They employ between 300 and 400 people depending on the season, some of whom are disabled Americans, as part of the Welfare-to-Work program.

Jeff Shaaber, vice president of commercial sales at Valley Forge, said the company manufactures hundreds of thousands of American flags, each year in many different types and sizes, from 4 by 6 inches to 30 by 60 feet.

“This has been a decent demand year (for American flags.) But our business is much more than the red, white and blue,” Shaaber said. “Custom flags are where we’re growing the fastest. Customers love the U.S.A., but appreciate a two-week turnaround on the custom process.”

Since Valley Forge is a manufacturer and wholesaler, they don’t sell American flags directly to the general public. Instead, their flags are sold to commercial resellers, flag dealers and big-box stores, as well as on the Valley Forge website.

Locally, in the Lehigh Valley, Valley Forge flags are available at Kaplan's Enterprises, located at 100 Northampton St. in Easton.

Because of Valley Forge’s commitment to this country, their flags are made entirely out of domestic materials and labor, right down to the threads. As such, they are a founding member of the Flag Manufacturers’ Association of America, which educates consumers, the press and flag retailers about the U.S. flag-making industry.

“Most of our customers appreciate that (our flags) are made in the U.S.A. Most people would pick an American-made flag over an imported one,” Shaaber said. “I think it’s something people care about.”