The founders of North Charleston’s Allegiance Flag Supply are living an all-American success story.
Photo by Milton Morris
Katie and Wes Lyon, Max Berry
Home base: North Charleston.
Claim to fame: Founders, Allegiance Flag Supply (showallegiance.com).
Family business: Max Berry’s grandfather once owned a textile plant in Savannah, Georgia.
Previous jobs: Katie Lyon worked as a fashion photographer in Los Angeles and Wes Lyon worked for talent-management giant IMG.
Words to live by: “We love our country, and we’re proud to fly the flag,” Katie Lyon says. “But we had no idea it would take us to where we are today.”
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In business and in life, good timing can make all the difference in the world. That’s certainly the case for the founders of Allegiance Flag Supply.
Katie and Wes Lyon, two-thirds of the team behind the company making waves in the American flag business, married in 2015. But Katie Lyon’s connection with Allegiance’s third founder, Max Berry, dates to when the pair attended Charleston’s Mason Preparatory School together, beginning in middle school.
The trio came together as adults when Berry and Wes Lyon attended the College of Charleston’s MBA program. But it was buying homes that put them on the path to creating Allegiance.
“We were both flying American flags and having the same problems: they were mildewing, ripping and tearing,” Katie Lyon says. “We couldn’t believe there was no one in America making quality American flags. And the thought of buying American flags made overseas was ridiculous. We started thinking this could be an opportunity.”
They launched Allegiance in September 2018, working from their garages at night while continuing their day jobs. It was a slow start, but then sales jumped more than 4,000% (that’s not a typo) in 2020, and they are up another 500% during the first months of 2021, Berry says.
“When COVID hit, I think there was a huge sense of American pride in that we were all in this together,” he says. “It hit around springtime, which is the flag-buying season. And people were at home and looking to upgrade the things in their home.”
The trio quit their day jobs last year to concentrate on Allegiance and have since hired 19 employees. Flags are hand sewn at facilities in North Charleston and Vidalia, Georgia, and all Allegiance’s products, from wooden poles to brass spinners, are 100% American made.
“We could have never forecasted the number of orders we’ve had,” Wes Lyon says. “But what we’re doing is very different in the flag world in terms of the quality.”