New England Flag & Banner | Trivia

More often than not, New England Flag & Banner flies under the radar, but this Watertown, Massachusetts, company, the country’s largest producer of custom, hand-sewn appliqué banners and flags, is responsible for some of New England’s most iconic sports imagery. Appliqué, a technique in which colored fabrics are layered, with sections cut away to reveal the colors beneath, dates back to at least 980 b.c., when it was used to make a canopy for the funeral of Egyptian Queen Esi-mem-kev. When NEF&B opened in Boston’s garment district in 1892, its primary products were signage flags and gonfalons for retail stores. NEF&B has made flags for Ritz-Carlton since the hotel chain opened in 1920. And in 1960, when John F. Kennedy returned to Massa­chusetts to vote in the presidential election, NEF&B made the banners and bunt­ing for the rally at Boston Garden. When legendary Boston Celtics coach and club executive Red Auerbach and his team began their run of 16 NBA championships in a 30-year span starting in 1957, NEF&B began crafting the team’s championship banners. In 2008, two years after Auerbach’s passing, the company produced the Celtics’ 17th and latest banner. Sewn behind the label of every championship banner is a good-luck penny. The company’s largest custom project? After winning the 2013 World Series, the Red Sox commissioned a 196×37-foot banner to be draped over the Green Monster at Fenway Park. In 2006, new owner Ned Flynn sent potential clients postcards of the Celtics raising their 1984 championship banner. The response was incredible: “Out of 2,200 intercollegiate athletic programs in the country, we now do work for about 2,000.” In a typical year, the company’s 28 employees produce more than 10,000 flags and banners.