A KC flag shop prepares to welcome the world
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The team at All Nations Flag Company plans to stock flags for every country competing in the 2026 World Cup in Kansas City.
Why it matters: This century-old family-owned shop wants every visitor, no matter their homeland, to find their colors ready to fly in a city about to host the world's game.
Zoom in: The Wald family views the tournament as a rare chance to do what they have done since 1924 on a global stage.
- They plan to keep all national flags from the World Cup's 48 highlighted countries in multiple sizes so fans can walk in, name a country and walk out holding its emblem.
- "Everyone has their own flag, and everyone is usually proud of it," All Nations vice president Sean Wald tells Axios. "If you come to KC for the World Cup, you should be able to fly yours."
Zoom out: The tournament lands as All Nations enters its 102nd year, still run by descendants of founder George T. Wald, who started selling flags and fireworks after World War I.
- All Nations sits behind some of Kansas City's most familiar organizations. The shop supplies flags for City Hall and other local governments and has long worked with the Chiefs and Royals.
- "Seeing our flags on the field and then our fireworks going off is really cool," Sean says. "It is kind of a little thing no one knows, but we know."
How it works: Designer Randy Carney starts each flag by pulling vector artwork and running patterns through his computer, then printing them.
- He traces shapes onto nylon at a light table upstairs so the shop's seamstress, Thu "Faye" Nguyen, can use the outlines to cut cloth.
- Faye has been here for more than four decades and handles intricate appliqué work that few seamstresses still do. "She has a steady hand that is exceptional," Sean says.
- A single 3-by-5 international flag can take most of a day to finish, depending on the design.
What they're saying: "You can buy a flag on Amazon, but it is not the same," Carney says. "We have been in business for 101 years for a reason, and people trust that we will give them handmade quality."
The bottom line: When visitors flood into Kansas City in June, the Walds plan to meet them at the counter with whatever flag they ask for and send those colors into the air above the city that invited them in.